The Measle is a small sailing boat, popular in Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s.
Design and characteristics
The Measle was an 8ft by 4ft 9" singlehanded one-design wooden sailing pram dinghy for children aged seven to 15.
Measles were sailed, raced, team-raced; and could also be rowed and fitted with an outboard motor or used as a tender, in many places across the island of Ireland and have been described as 'a long-forgotten precursor to the Optimist class'.
The design was drafted and introduced in Skerries, County Dublin, Ireland, by local award-winning naval architect Brian Malone in 1960.
When released, the boat was likened somewhat naïvely to the Olympic Finn dinghy of the time because of the cat-rigged bermuda-style sail on an unstayed wooden mast.
The Measle design below the waterline has a deep rocker, a flat bottom, a skeg attached to the hog, a daggerboard for lateral resistance, and a shallow draft of 4". The boat has two hard chines and slightly flared sides. Its width is about half the boat's length, making it stable. Builder of the Beatle Gerry Owens Jr was paraphrased as saying 'the small area of sail and broad beam make them safe for very young children'.
The class was 'given its unnautical name by the designer who predicted they would spread like a rash all over the place'.
The Measle typically had a softwood frame, with hardwood thwarts and benches and was "built of marine plywood, very simply rigged to carry a single sail of 33 sq feet, cheap to build and maintain, and suitable for teaching youngsters to row and sail".
For buoyancy, Measles typically carried polystyrene foam under a stern bench and in the centre cavity under the fore-and-aft centre thwart surrounding the daggerboard case.
The heel of the mast was stepped in the front of the wide fore-and-aft thwart, which extended aft and up over the daggerboard case to provide a comfortable seat for rowing.
The luff of the loose-footed sail was laced to a round wooden mast. The wooden boom was supported by the luff and was attached to the mast by a simple crutch-style gooseneck. The mainsail was aft-sheeted.
Popularity, growth, and success
The Measle was designed at a time when recreational sailing and boatbuilding rapidly became popular in Ireland, and several years before more efficient junior boats were introduced to the nation.
Outside Skerries, nearby Rush Sailing Club 'had the honour of being the first club to hold a regatta race for the new small racing dinghy', in July 1961.
The Measle won second place in the 1962 London Boat Show boat design competition, sponsored by Stanley Works, to find 'an easy-to-build boat for amateurs'. Mr Malone was presented with a GBP£50 chest of tools and was congratulated by renowned boat designer Uffa Fox. First prize went to the Stanley 10 dinghy.
The Measle Beatle came second in the Esso amateur boatbuilding competition at the 1964 Dublin Boat Show in the Royal Dublin Society, earning IR£45 for builder G Owens of Fitzwilliam Sq. Amateur Fireball dinghy builders were awarded first and third prizes. Several Measles were entered.
By 1964, sailing clubs members at Clontarf, Malahide, and Skerries were 'building strong fleets' of Measles
The Irish Press reported in 1964: "Few sports have developed as rapidly as boating and sailing. All over Ireland there is a flurry of boat building in technical schools, in clubs, and even back gardens. Most Irish sailing clubs now run junior sections".
The class growth was so fast, the 1964 Championship of Ireland was postponed by a month "because of the increased number of boats in the Measle class. The new date will give these new owners additional time to become experienced in the handling of their new boats which should make for better racing. It is also hoped the new date will increase the entry for the championships for new boats, now nearing completion".
While 'Measle Championships of Ireland' were held in 1961, 1962, and 1963; the 1964 edition 'over a long, stiff course' at Skerries was reported as the 'first'.
A 'superb' fully-rigged Measle built by Hugh Devlin of Skerries for the 1966 boat show amateur boatbuilding competition was the centrepiece of the eleventh Boyne Yacht Club annual dinner dance at the White Horse Hotel in Drogheda.
Twelve Measles were delivered across the country to Royal Munster Yacht Club in June 1966 in time for local training courses.
The first female sailor to win the Measle Championships of Ireland was Siobhan Hurding, 14, from Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club, in 1967.