COD History
Conway One Designs were built between 1928 and 1989.
Between 1928 and 1946, the boats had been built in local yards, listed below.
Unfortunately, most of these boatyards have now disappeared along with the boatbuilding skills. Because of the resulting high cost of building a wooden COD and the high maintenance cost of them the Conway Yacht Club sponsored a project to build CODs using moulded GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic).
The last boats were built in 1988 and 1989 of moulded GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) in an attempt to keep the design racing whilst reducing the onerous task of maintaining a wooden vessel.
- The first seven boats were built between 1928 and 1929, with Seiriol, the first coming from the yard of Mathew Owen of Menai Bridge.
- She was followed by Minnie, Kandahar, Bluebird, and Gwalch, built in the shed of the designer W H Rowlands, and Cymba and Kathleen which followed from the slip of Dickies in Bangor
- Kingfisher, Margaret II (ex Mary) and Acushla were built between 1935 and 1936 by Rileys of Deganwy in the home village of the Conway Yacht Club. The defining characteristic of these boats is a hollow or curved sheerline and they are known as the ‘banana boats’.
- In 1939 just before war broke out Dickies in Bangor completed Mayfly II and Morris and Leavett of Beaumaris built Mercury and Musetta.
- Maryland was built in 1946, and was followed by the GRP boats, Phoenix and Swn-y-Don in 1998/9 from the yard of Eric Bergqvist of the Ferry Boatyard, Penketh.