The yachts of the PSSA

Brief notes, dates and sail numbers for each class are shown below; more details of each class by clicking on the class name.

The evolution of the yachts bearing the Seal insignia

The Baker Beginning

The stage for the entry of Seal yachts was set over 30 years ago, when John Baker and his wife Pat moved into an old forge at Kenton, near Exeter, to start the building of a variety of glass fibre dinghies.

Born in India, John went to school in Australia, studied naval architecture at Glasgow University, and subsequently spent some twelve years with the British India Steamship Company, a subsidiary of P & 0, based mainly in Calcutta and Bombay. During this period, John met a boat designer, O'Brien Kennedy, from whom he picked up hints and tips about glass fibre moulding. Following his return to England, his first moulding exercise took shape in the garage of Pat's parents in Halifax. Having got the 'bug' for GRP boat moulding, John and Pat cast around for premises to start up seriously in 1962 and that's when they came upon Kenton Forge.

John initially flirted with GRP dinghy construction by building the 'Yachting World Explorer', the 'Urchin' and an assortment of rowing dinghies. Through the 'Otter' dinghy, John demonstrated his capacity for quantity production and went on to produce the 'Lark', a design by Michael Jackson, having recognised this craft as one ideally suited to fill a gap in the market. The 'Lark' subsequently became a popular club racing dinghy and was adopted by many university racing clubs.

To make the move into yacht construction John teamed up with the late Angus Primrose who designed the lifting-keel Seal 22 and in 1968, he made the plug for it at Kenton. Larger premises were required to produce this bigger boat in quantity, after being first exhibited at the 1970 London Boat Show, so he added the Starcross factory where all the 22s were built. Thus started the whole saga of a long line of lifting-keel, high performance yachts and really was the forerunner of a new concept in cruiser/ racer design. About this time, John also had the idea of starting a Seal Class owners association and encouraged some of the early Seal owners to form one in 1972.
 

The Parker Development

G. W. Parker & Son, established in the late 1880's and originally founded by Bill Parker's grandfather, were general builders and joiners, the family having been for several generations Master Mariner Builders and Woodworkers. It carried on trading as builders until the 1950's, when they again introduced boat building into what was at the time still a small family business.

The company commenced with the then new international '505' racing dinghy. Initially, these were cold moulded though before long they had changed to GRP construction and soon achieved their first international racing successes. Over the years, Parker built '505's have amassed an enviable list of 18 world championships as well as numerous national and European championships. Some of their customers are now household names and the list reads rather like a hall of fame in world yachting -12 metre sailors like Harold Cudmore, Edward Owen, Phil Crebbin, Chris Dickson of New Zealand,- top dinghy sailors such as Steve Benjamin, Dave Ullman of the USA, Larry Markes, Derick Farrant, Peter Colclough, Marcel Buffet, the Pajot brothers and, from the 1986 Whitbread Round the World Race, Pierre Fehlmann of Switzerland, first across the finish line.

For a number of years, the sole Parker boat was the '505', for which they had a very healthy UK and export market. However, in 1972 Parker's were appointed sole UK builders for the new Olympic class, the international '470' racing dinghy. This addition enabled them to expand their production facilities, they moved to their present site at Kirton and increased their staff. Over the years Parker's have also built, albeit in limited numbers, various yachts and dinghies such as the 'Flying Dutchman', 'Tempest' and the 'Sprinter Sports'.

In 1980, Parker's bought the building rights for the 'Lark' from John Baker, when John wanted to concentrate on the Seal range of yachts. Bill Parker having originally met both John and Pat back in 1969, during a trade mission to the USA promoting their respective dinghies, the '505' and the 'Lark'.

It was, perhaps, no surprise that in 1981, when for a complete change John and Pat were thinking of moving out of the boat building business into fruit growing, they sold the building rights of the Super Seal to Parker's. For the next ten years, the Super Seal remained in continuous production before being modified and marketed as the Parker 27. Throughout the time, Bill Parker sailed the boat regularly himself and developed a high respect for this fine, lifting-keel, high performance yacht. So much so, that he became convinced the Iifting- keel concept had an important niche in the market. Parker's therefore followed up the 27 in 1986 with the Parker 21 (derived from the MiniSeal), and in 1987 with the Parker 31 (a design originally based on the Passage Maker, but much modified). In 1990 the entirely new Parker 275 was introduced to replace the 27, and in 1993 the company launched the Parker 325, their in-house design to supersede the Parker 31 and bring their range right up to date.

However in 2009 the recession hit and orders for new boats fell to an unsustainable level so Bill Parker was forced to wind up Parker Lift-Keel Yachts and retire.