Illingworth & Primrose 49 ft Bermudan Cutter 1963/2017

OUTLAW may need no introduction to classic boat lovers. She first hit the water at Cowes in April 1963, and also the yachting headlines. Her innovative, light but strong construction, her chic looks - as much down to ergonomics and racing efficiency as in style - and her famous first owner, Daily Express newspaper proprietor The Honourable (later Sir) Max Aitkin, all assured yachting celebrity status. OUTLAW has lived up to the billing with major victories and podium placings both in her early seasons, and the Mediterranean classic yacht revival - and in mid-life she was a successful blue waters cruiser. Lovingly maintained and upgraded over 40 years by her yachting industry professional owner, OUTLAW is ready to delight her next caretaker.

When launched by Souters of Cowes in the spring of 1963, OUTLAW was certainly the largest cold moulded yacht they'd built, and may have been the largest yacht built this way anywhere up to that date. Apart from leading the British Admiral Cup team to victory in her first season, she was also overall winner of the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Class I Points Series - a major proof of concept badge of honour.

Of course, yacht racing isn't always a bed of roses. At the start of the 1963 Harwich to Hook of Holland race, helmsman and part-designer John Illingworth, with Aitken on board, put her hard aground on the mud soon after the start and there she remained for several hours. The Daily Telegraph sub-editors had a field day at their competitor's expense: their next day headline was "OUTLAW ARRESTED"!

Under the second ownership of Derbyshire cereals merchant Roger Fuller (eventually also the owner of Deacon's Boatyard at Burseledon, Hampshire), OUTLAW enjoyed continued offshore racing success for several seasons in RORC races around the English Channel, North Sea and the Bay Biscay. In 1964 with Illingworth at the helm she was overall winner of the RORC's Cowes-Santander Race; in 1966 she avoided that mudbank to win the Harwich-Copenhagen Race, and she made up for a dismasting in the 1965 Fastnet Race by finishing first British boat in the 1967 edition. It's a remarkable record of consistent victories and podium placings through a period of dramatic change in offshore racing design and a steep rise in the level of competition.

OUTLAW's owner from 1969, major public works architect and retired Royal Engineers Brigadier, Philip O.G. Wakeham, had earlier been a keen supporter of the Royal Thames Yacht Club's 1964 SOVEREIGN Americas Cup Challenge, including on the waters off Newport Rhode Island with his double Atlantic crossing 60 ft GL Watson designed motorsailer FREEWARD.

After a brief period from 1972 with Bernard Bullough and re-registered at the unlikely port of Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire, from 1975 - perhaps prompted by OUTLAW's inclusion in the first edition of Arthur Beiser's seminal work 'The Proper Yacht' - Bob and Ann Fewtrell became the first owners to cruise OUTLAW in blue waters, having completed an Atlantic circuit by their return to Cowes in 1978. Arthur Beiser was a true fan of OUTLAW, and it's worth quoting his perhaps inspirational comments, describing her as, "an almost melodramatically handsome boat... OUTLAW is both pleasing to the eye and exhilarating in the spirit... with only minor modifications she could be made into a shorthanded cruiser of exceptional speed and personality."

After these adventures, including two Atlantic crossings, in 1983 OUTLAW was found at East Cowes by her current custodian in an abandoned state although then only twenty-years-old. After an 18 month refit, OUTLAW then headed south, first to Portugal, then Gibraltar, Spain, the Balearics, finally settling on the Côte d’Azur, France, in 1989.

Currently based in Cannes, OUTLAW has found a new lease of life and renewed fame on the classic Mediterranean regatta circuit. Following on from her first Nioulargue at Saint-Tropez in 1990, she has consistently been on the podium, taking part in regattas from as far south as Naples, through Northern Italy, France, Barcelona and the Balearics. She won the overall Prada Classic Cup in 2000, and the Panerai Overall Classic Trophy in 2005.

©2024 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

"While John Illingworth influenced the early days of the development of offshore racing as a sailor, an owner - with a highly developed eye for design - a navigator, a strategist and a race organiser, his biggest influence was to come when he teamed up with Angus Primrose to put his ideas of what would make an offshore winner into a complete design package. This partnership only lasted some eight years before splitting into two different design organisations. But they were eight very creative years and in 1963 - mid term so to speak - they produced a ‘big-boat’ of historic importance in the form of the 48 ft, light displacement OUTLAW. She was described, at the time of her launch and subsequently in the ‘63 season, as the most radical and successful yacht for her size. And in the early sixties a 48 footer was a big boat and a size that was dominated by the traditional thinking of the time. OUTLAW blew a big hole in those traditions with her short bow overhang, extreme reverse shear, big beam and light, for the time, displacement. With her tall, high aspect ratio cutter rig she was to become the epitome of what Illingworth and Primrose stood for - an ocean racer that was an upwind machine. The machine like quality of OUTLAW was further reflected in the cold moulded construction, the interior and deck layout - hallmarks of the all encompassing Illingworth and Primrose philosophy of yacht design."

Typically of a yacht in forty years of caring, knowledgeable ownership, and in regular use - and for over twenty years raced extensively under the authenticity umbrella of the Mediterranean classic regatta CIM Rating Rule - OUTLAW's maintenance, improvement and refit regime has been impressive. More details and photographs are available by request.

2020
- 90% of standing rigging replaced

2019
- Woodwork carried out forward to stem and bulwarks

2017
- Hull stripped to bare wood and refinished
- Local repairs including part of beam shelf
- Full Jotun epoxy paint system applied below the waterline
- Backstay chainplates renewed in stainless steel
- 10% of standing rigging replaced
- New windlass installed

2008
- New Lombardini 60 hp engine replacing her 2nd (1975) 36 hp Perkins

1995
All spars and rigging replaced by Proctor Masts. It is believed that the gold anodized spars - mast, boom, two spinnaker poles, jockey pole, all made to the original drawings - were the last to come out of the factory. The stainless steel fittings were custom made - all at more than double the cost of a standard grey aluminium rig at the time.

1985
- First major refit, Cowes, UK

Cold moulded mahogany Hull
7 and 8 Skins of 3 mm mahogany, resorcinol glued

- Cockpit winches: traditional chromed bronze non-self tailing Lewmar
- Prince DP3 1500W (2017) anchor windlass (2017)
- 70 m of 10 mm Anchor chain
- Rode with chain.
- 2 x 45 lb / 20.5 kg CQR anchors
- 1 x Danforth lightweight kedge anchor

BERTHS FOR 8 in 1 Cabin + Saloon

FROM AFT

MASTER STATEROOM
Originally had a single bunk to starboard, and a second head which was removed to make space for the double berth.
- Double berth to starboard
- Chart table amidships
- Drawers, electrical panel, stowage
- Single berth to port

GALLEY
- 3 x Burner gas cooker with oven and grill
- Sink with high tap (2021)
- Good stowage
- Waste bin
- To starboard portable 12v Waeco fridge/freezer
- Wet weather gear locker, multiple stowage
- Full sets of crockery; cutlery; saucepans, etc.

WC COMPARTMENT
- To port in companionway
- Baby Blake manual toilet
- Hot & Cold water gas shower
- Folding sink
- Hanging locker
- Stowage
- Hanging locker to starboard; lockers

SALOON
The original berth forward of the saloon to port has been turned into extra storage in the
saloon and the head
- 2 x Settee berths port & starboard with lee cloths
- 3 x Deep pilot berths outboard
- Upholstery new 2019
- Good central drop leaf table; removable fiddles
- Bookshelves
- Stereo player,

CREW/ FO’C’SLE
- Possibility of two extra bunks in fo'c'sle
- Usually used for sail stowage
- Hanging locker to port
- Windlass motor
- Chain locker

RIG
- Cutter rig; Wichard removable Inner forestay system
- Gold anodised aluminium Proctor spars (Proctor 1995 to original plans)
- Custom stainless steel fittings (Proctor 1995 to original plans)
- Manual boom reefing system, 2 internal reefing lines & outhaul
- Ratchet tensioner (2020)
- Anderson stainless steel self-tailing halyard winches
- Baby stay: Dyneema; Wichard ratchet tensioner (2017)
- 2 x Spinnaker poles
- 1 x Jockey pole
- Standing rigging: stainless steel 1 x 19 (90% new 2020, 10% 2017)
- Running rigging: Dyneema Halyards; polyester sheets

SAILS

Measured Sail Area – 992 sq ft / 92.4 sq m

RACING SAILS
Racing sails are only used for the hours of the regattas. They are then
rinsed, folded and stowed.
Main 2007 / 52 m² 8.3 oz / Incidence
Genoa N°1 2016 / 75 m² / Europe sails
Genoa N°2 2005 / 67 m² 8.3 oz / Incidence
Large Staysail 2001 / 37 m² 6.3 oz / Incidence
Light Spinnaker 2019 / 175 m² / Incidence
Med Spinnaker 2016 / 150 m² / Incidence
Asymmetrical Spi 2010 / 137 m² / Incidence

CRUISING SAILS
Genoa N° 1 2005 / 77 m² 7.3 oz / Incidence
Med/Sm Staysail (Reef) 1999 / 22 m² 9.3 oz / Incidence
Yankee N°1 2001 / 41 m² 9.3 oz / Incidence
Yankee N°2 1999 / 32 m² 9.3 oz / Incidence
Reacher large heavy downwind genoa Dacron
Nylon Reacher medium weight Nylon

CANVASWORK
- Winter Awning covers 75% of boat (2019)
- Summer Awning covers cockpit and coachroof
- Canvas covers for all hatches on deck (2019)

MECHANICAL
- Lombardini LDW 2204M 60 hp Diesel
- Engine Hours: 1,914 hrs - June 2021
- Gearbox: Borg Warner
- Propeller: Jaussa 19” 3 x blades bronze feathering (2021)
- Max speed: 7 knots
- Cruising speed: 5.5 knots
- Fuel consumption: 3.5 l/h
- Range: 345 nm

ELECTRICAL
- 12 V System
- LED lighting throughout.
- Shore Power: via Dolphin charger
- Mastervolt battery monitor
Batteries
- 2 x Varta 120 A/h maintenance-free lead acid, 1050 amp (2020)
- Main Engine Start: Varta 120 A/H lead-acid
- Dolphin 12V, 25AH Charger

TANKAGE
Fuel
- 40 L / 37 US Gal in 2 x stainless steel tanks
- 80 L / 21 US Gal in 4 x steel jerry cans
Fresh water
- 360 L / 95 US Gal in 2 x Polyethylene tanks (2019)
- 75 L / 20 US Gal -in 2 x GRP tanks (restored 2021)
Grey water
- 20 L / 5 US Gal

Ritchie steering compass (rebuilt by Ritchie USA 2017)
B&G Triton 2 (2019)
Log, Speed, Depth, Wireless wind
4.1 in Colour display
Bronze thru-hull fittings
B&G Vulcan 9 (2021) 9 in Chart Plotter
Navionics full Med (2021)
Searchlight: Aquasignal SOLAS 12 V (2020)
Running/Masthead Light: Aqua Signal 34 LED (2020)

COMMUNICATIONS
VHF ICOM M421 MMSI fixed.
2 x portable

ENTERTAINMENT
- CD/ Radio
- USB Chargers

MISCELLANEOUS
- Selection of old paper charts
- Italy, S. of France, Corsica, Spain

- 6 x Automatic Argos 4-Water Hammard system (2020)
- 3 x Automatic lifejackets (revised 2020)
- 8-person Arimar liferaft - 24 hrs (2019)
- Full Offshore set of flares (2020)
- Numerous harnesses & bridles
- 2 x Lifelines
- Danbuoy w/ horseshoe buoy
- Bosun's chair & harness
- Emergency boarding ladder
- MOB system w/ 50m floating line + buoy (2021)
- Cable cutter
- 2 x Foghorn
- Numerous fire extinguishers
- Fire blanket in galley (2021)

- Zodiac Cadet 310 Aero inflatable tender white/grey (2018)
- As new; inflatable floor; easily stowed
- Classic Johnson Seahorse 15 hp 2-stroke
- Boat hook
- Swim ladder
- Assorted mooring lines and other cordage
- Assorted snorkels, fins, masks
- 2 x ‘Comfort Seat’ deck chairs
- Numerous wet weather jackets
- Approx 20 x OUTLAW Polo shirts w/ logo (2019)
- Approx 50 OUTLAW T-Shirts w/ logo (2019)