International 12 Metre laid up for winter

"White Crusader" is seen here laid up for the winter at Fox’s Marina & Boatyard in Ipswich, Suffolk. I was there and took a couple of photos for old times sake about 5 years ago now.
WC is an International 12 Metre, which is the class that competed in the America’s Cup between 1957 and 1987. WC was the boat used by the British Challenge for the AC when it was held in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1986-87. I was Technical Director of that challenge (as well as sailing on the boat) and so I was closely involved with the organisation and production of the boat, which in fact was formally named by Princess Diana at the end of 1985, before it was then fully completed and shipped to Australia.
WC was designed by one of the leading British racing yacht designers, Ian Howlett, and for interested yachties, you can see the development of the 12 Metre keels with high-aspect, full-width wings (to the maximum width permitted under the class rules).
Incidentally, 12 Metre class boats are not 12 metres in length - it is a complicated calculation formula of different measurements. They are around 20 metres in length and weigh as much as 20 tons.
In more recent years, Ipswich has been the home base of the boat, even though she was regularly raced for many years on the south coast in events like Cowes Week.
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