COD History

Conwy’s own sailing boat, the Conway One Design or CODs as they are affectionately known, were built specifically to race in the waters of Conwy Bay. 

COD’s were designed to be built in wood, the material of choice in the early 1900’s.

The COD was designed by Mr W H Rowlands, and the first boat was built in 1928, from the Matthew Owen yard in Menai Bridge. The final design came after The Conway Yacht Club first experimented with sailing the ‘Conway River Restricted Class’ in 1910, of which none remain. The club then tried the Fife One Design still sailed in the Menai Strait but their fine lines made them rather too wet and unstable for the local sea conditions. They finally decided on the current design in 1928.

All but the last three COD’s were built on a keel of oak or Canadian rock elm, with the bow stem, stern knee and floors of natural oak. Planking near the keel was of elm with the rest mahogany, all fastened with roved (riveted) copper nails to 38 steamed ribs that crossed the boat.

It was said that the design of the keel was well ahead of its time being placed towards the rear of the boats.

American elm or pitch pine bilge and beam stringers provided fore and aft strength. Nail holes were filled with white lead putty and the hull planks caulked with ‘best cotton wick’ or thread.

In 1988 a mould was built to allow GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) construction and so far this has been used to build three GRP CODs.

The design is well suited to local waters and fortunately good looking too. The boat has a fixed keel which is well suited to the often choppy local waters. This allowed the boats to sail closer to the wind in the narrow mouth of the river.

Sailing ability is further helped by the short bluff bow which is able to punch through the choppy seas thrown up by the mixed forces of the wind, river current and tide.

The boat performed well in local regattas and by 1929 a further six boats had been commissioned.

Fourteen wooden hulled Conway One Designs were built between 1928 and 1946 at local yards to the design of Mr W H Rowlands. Their sail numbers go up to 16, as sail numbers 3 and 13 were not used as they were regarded as unlucky.

All seventeen of the boats are still in existence and all but one are in sailable or near sailable condition.