Bill Dixon boats
Bill Dixon’s stellar career took off thanks to top selling production yachts for Moody, Trident Newbridge and others, reports Peter Poland
Profile of the early career of the prolific designer who made his name drawing Moody yachts
Ifirst met Bill Dixon at his design office in Old Bursledon, perched on a hill above the Hamble. He’d been brought up beside the family-owned shipyard of Dixon & Son near Exmouth docks and there were models of craft designed and built by his father hanging on his office wall. So he’s never been far from boats: his new design office in Premier’s marina in Swanwick is right on the banks of the Hamble.
Dixon’s first break came when he was studying yacht design at the Southampton College of Technology (now called Solent University). He had the good fortune to land a summer work-experience job with Angus Primrose Design in 1977. This was the fortuitous launch pad from which his hugely successful career took off.
Over a period of 40 years Dixon has risen to become one of the best and most versatile designers in the world with a portfolio that spans from production boats to award-winning superyachts, both sail and power. Indeed, in recognition of these many successes, Southampton Solent University recently awarded Dixon an honorary doctorate.
Dixon told me that at an early stage of his work-experience with Primrose, the great man said to him ‘OK Bill, draw me the hull and build plans of a 30-footer that could sail the Atlantic’. Duly dropped in at the deep end, the young Dixon did what he was told and came up with a hard chine design called Bare Bones.
To his astonishment and Primrose’s delight this proved to be a success and
several were subsequently built.
I recently came across an article in leading American magazine Cruising World about this radical and promising design that was written all those decades ago. It said ‘it is for keen sailors with modest bank accounts that Angus Primrose has designed Bare Bones. He says that the original idea came from Blondie Hasler... the 30ft Bare Bones is designed to the upper limit (26 LWL) of the Jester Class for the 1980 OSTAR (Observer Single-handed Transatlantic Race). He chose a chined hull form with the amateur builder in mind, making her suitable for construction in plywood, foam sandwich or moulded fibreglass... The hull panels are curved rather than straight and are sections of conical shapes. The advantage of this conical development is a great increase in panel stiffness in the hull; which also more nearly approaches a rounded form.’
Bare Bones’ clever lines, light displacement of 5,667lb (2,575kg), DLR of 144, and Sail Area/Displacement (SA/Disp) ratio of 22.3 show that the young Dixon drew a bold and sporty new yacht to which his boss Angus Primrose was only too happy to put his design office’s name.
Suitably impressed, Primrose offered Dixon a permanent job when he graduated in 1978. As a result he soon got to know David King (MD of Marine Projects, builders of Moody production yachts) and many members of the Moody family. So he became part of the team working on Primrose’s early and groundbreaking Moody designs. “Angus very much left me to my own devices,” said Dixon. “In many ways, it was a great grounding. I gained a lot of experience very quickly.”
I asked which Moody models he first got involved in and Dixon replied: “I started full time with Angus in 1978. I worked on the Moody 29 and 333 with Angus and others (in his office).”
When Angus was tragically lost at sea in a Gulf Stream storm in 1980, Dixon took over leadership of Angus Primrose Design Ltd in his early 20s, later changing the trading name to Dixon Yacht Design (with the support of Angus’s widow, Murlo).
I asked David Moody what happened next. He told me Angus’s untimely death “left us and Marine Projects with a dilemma. Bill Dixon was very much an apprentice to Angus at this stage and our dilemma was whether to continue with the young and relatively unknown Bill or link our name with an internationally known naval architect. We had a strong sense of loyalty to all our stakeholders but needed to investigate the market and the various options open to us.
“Finally, our conclusion was that the brand name Moody was strong and we could continue to work with Bill, giving him the opportunity to develop his skills as the range and design of yachts increased to meet ever-changing customer requirements.
“The Moody 41/9 (113 built) and 27 (162 built) were among his early solo designs. It was a decision well taken at the time (and to our mutual benefit) as the name Bill Dixon became internationally acclaimed.”
A decision well taken indeed! The 1981 Moody 27 was not only Bill’s first ‘solo design’ for Moody, it was also one of Moody’s first bilge keelers and proved that a twin keel option was essential for a production cruiser up to around 40ft if it was to sell in large numbers on the UK market.
I once asked Dixon how he approached the design of bilge keels. “I like to put flanges on the top of the keels so the loads are well spread where they are bedded against the hull,’ he told me. Like Hunter designer David Thomas, Dixon preferred this method to the ‘integrally moulded stub’ system used by some builders. The resulting flat internal hull surface meant that it was simple to bond substantial keel floors to the skin and add extra laminates to increase the hull thickness in this crucial area.
When I asked Dixon about his preferred angle of bilge keel ‘toe in’ he replied: “Ah; that’s a trade secret. It’s more than 1° and less than 5°.”
So I reckoned that meant around 2°, as used by David Thomas on the successful
Hunter twin keelers that I used to build.
With its sharp modern lines, broad beam and spacious accommodation Dixon’s Moody 27 set the tone for what was to come. In fin keel format it draws 4ft 8in (1.42m) while the bilge keeler comes in at 3ft 5in (1.04m) – compared to the Sadler 26 at 3ft 6in (1.07m) and Westerly Centaur at 3ft 0in (0.92m) – and its ballast ratio is 44%. When the slightly larger (and equally attractive) Moody 28 came along in 1985, the bilge keel draught increased a little (to 3ft 6in/1.07m) and the ballast ratio came down to around 41%.
Dixon’s Moody 41/9 models (1981 and 1984) introduced a sleek, eye-grabbing new look to the bigger boats in the range. When I asked him what was the secret to the longevity of his Moody designs, Dixon replied: “I aimed to make them look sexy and also have great accommodation. The 1981 Moody 41 still looks up to date all these years later.”
The Moody Owners Association (MOA) says: ‘The Moody 41 aim was to produce a genuine cruising yacht which would be elegant, sail exceptionally well, be suitable for serious long distance passage making, offer comfortable and luxurious accommodation, and be able to be handled by a family crew.’
A slinky coachroof, secure centre cockpit, graceful overhangs, sweeping sheer, half skeg-hung rudder and long fin keel give the 41 and 419 a timeless appeal. While its DLR of 235, ballast ratio of 42% and SA/Disp ratio of 15.8 give it seakindliness and good performance. In short, it set the style for subsequent hugely popular Bill Dixondesigned centre cockpit Moody cruisers.
However in those early days there was more to Dixon’s production boat portfolio than just Moodys. British builders were still producing compact and economical little ‘starter cruisers’ for family coastal cruising. At this small end of the market, he drew a winner for Newbridge Boats in 1984.
Stylistically, Dixon’s Venturer 22 followed in the footsteps of Newbridge’s Tuckerdesigned Navigator 19. And like the 19, Dixon’s 22 packed in a prodigious amount of space for its modest size. But thanks to his more modern take on bilge keel design it went up a notch in the performance stakes. With a ballast ratio of 42% and draught of 2ft 3in (0.69m) – about 9in (23cm) less than Westerly’s considerably heavier 23ft ( 7.01m) Pageant – it was a popular budget cruiser and sold well.
Dixon also drew the larger Pioneer 26 and Pilot models for Newbridge, both available as bilge keelers. The 26 has a conventional coachroof while the Pilot version sprouts a pilot house on top that gives the option of inside steering. Its DLR of 304 and SA/Disp ratio of 13.55 put it into the ‘compact motor sailer’ category and I suspect that the Newbridge house style was responsible for the coachroof size and design. Like the smaller 22, this 26 was also available with a junk rig.
Around the same time, Dixon also developed Trident Marine’s Voyager and Trident 40 (1985), Warrior 38 (1985) and Warrior 40 (1988). These tough and successful blue-water cruisers, based on an earlier Primrose hull, have long fin keels, half skeg-hung rudders, ballast ratios in excess of 40% and DLRs over 270.
Meanwhile Dixon’s design work for Moodys continued apace. He enjoyed a close and constructive working relationship with John and David Moody, Simon Limb (Marine Projects Sales Manager – sailboat division) and Marine Projects founder and MD David King. Despite his earlier Naval involvement with motor torpedo boats that led him to build Princess powerboats, King owned a couple of Moodys. He started with a
Moody 33 (that he told me he sailed through a gale in the Swinge when the Torrey Canyon was busy sinking, thereby covering his yacht with oil) and later bought a Moody 36CC. He told me his personal favourite Dixon-designed Moody was the sporty S38.
I asked Simon Limb – now a director at Sunbird International Yacht Sales – what he most admired about Dixon’s Moody designs. He replied: “Bill didn’t go for gimmicks. He had a natural flair for boats that were relatively conservative, stable and predictable at sea but still had a crisp performance. They were great passagemaking cruisers, boats that were superb family cruising yachts yet fun and rewarding to sail. On top of that he was very commercial and easy to work with from a manufacturer’s point of view.”
When I asked Limb how Dixon’s design skills helped Marine Projects to introduce cost efficient building methods, he replied: “The 1994 Moody S31 – still one of my favourite Moody boats – was an interesting development process. We set Bill and our in-house production design team a target build-time as the first design prerequisite. This formed the basis for the target build price we had identified as necessary to achieve the annual sales volume [against growing overseas competition] and a stable drumbeat production.
“The boat had to roll onto the assembly line on Monday as bare hull, deck and liner mouldings, and on Friday afternoon it had to have the deck bonded on with all interior furniture, engineering, plumbing, wiring, bulkheads and structure in place and ready to roll out for the next assembly start on the Monday.
“That meant that the make up of each and every module in the S31 had to be designed to work within the production planning timescale. We achieved this very successfully and the S31 was a smart, modern and up-to-the-minute design that still holds up very well in the brokerage markets today.”
Dixon recalled the S31 design process, telling me: “The Moody S31 was designed to be quicker to build and thus compete with Beneteaus etc. It was designed to have no fibreglass used in the assembly, relying instead on adhesive. We used Scott Bader’s excellent Crestomer, which was the best of its day and is still used now. Lloyds passed this method after it was proved to meet all its requirements. This assembly technique was a big saving in its day.
“Today it’s crucial to design mouldings that are easy to produce, with easy hull/ deck joins and easy deck release from the mould to avoid time-wasting repairs. In the old days hull/deck joins were made with adhesive plus bolts through the toerail. Now they just use adhesive.”
David Moody also stressed the importance of designing in cost-efficient methods, saying “Moodys worked with Bill
for approximately 25 years – through times of boom and bust and strong competition from overseas. Bill played a major role designing in efficiencies and using new materials within cost constraints, while maintaining the build quality.”
When I asked Limb which he thought was the most popular and successful Dixon-designed Moody, and why, he replied: “The 1987 Eclipse 33 is one that stands out. Bill and I had an idea for a modern style of motor-sailer and convinced Moodys and David King that we could do something unusual and have a strong success with it. The Eclipse 33 was hugely successful, looked very different to anything on the market at that time and was an immediate top seller.”
Indeed Dixon liked the Eclipse 33 so much that he bought one for himself. I vividly recall a tight tussle against it (in our demonstration Hunter Horizon 32) on a stormy Round the Island Race. We were neck and neck until Dixon’s crew managed to shred his spinnaker just before St Catherine’s Point. Thereafter, flying an Impala 28’s heavy spinnaker, we stretched away in the ever-strengthening wind and growing mayhem. We even won our class!
So those who like the idea of pilothouse or deck-saloon sailing should definitely put the Moody Eclipse 33 on their list. Over 250 of this elegant 32ft 6in (9.90m) yacht were built and they are as sought after today as they were when they hit the scene in 1987. I suspect that if it were reintroduced now, an updated Eclipse 33 would still sell very well.
When I asked David Moody which were the most popular and successful Dixon-designed Moodys… and why... he replied: “This is a very difficult question to answer because they were all successful, but, to me, the Bill-designed mid-length yachts seemed the most popular in terms of numbers sold. The Moody 37 and 376 accounted for 313 boat sales from July 1985 to July 1991 while sales of the Moody 38 were 163 between September 1991 and November 1996. It seemed that a size band rather than an individual yacht was most popular.”
I then asked him which was his favourite Dixon-designed Moody model. He replied: “On a personal basis and bearing in mind that all the Moody range were well-proven and tested, there is one that seems to tick all the boxes even more than the others.
“For me, the Moody 44 of the early 1990s was that yacht. She had good performance, a comfortable interior and was a joy to sail. This was closely followed by the Moody 54 – winner of the 2000 British Nautical Awards Yachting World Sailboat of the Year Offshore.”
So how was each new design to hit the production line decided upon? David replied: “As part of the regular three-way team meetings there was always an ongoing product control cycle review that led to specification change at approximately three years into production. We worked closely with Bill during the design development stage so that all parties concerned could contribute to the various iterations that Bill worked on, until the final design sign-off when the project was forwarded to development. He was then fully involved through design and production. Bill was flexible and open to changes suggested – but was not afraid to put across his point of view during some of the strong discussions that inevitably happened. He was tenacious.”
David Moody explained the system for model evolution, adding: “For instance, in the 80s the Moody 34, 37 and 422 became the Moody 346, 376 and 425. The Moody 47, built at Swanwick, became the 471 and later the Culverneer 500. These changes incorporated a sugar scoop bathing platform transom (replacing the flat transom) that later became a standard feature of the Moody range. There were other detail changes to the interior and general specification at the same time.’
This process goes a long way to
explaining the commercial success of Dixon’s Moody designs. The Dixon + Moody + Marine Projects team realised that the sensible route often amounted to assessing a model’s strengths then updating it with improvements and upgrades. This process has major advantages. The builder is able to retain a steady production flow (rather than spending time and money on unnecessary replacement model tooling) and at the same time know that good performance and internal comfort are guaranteed.
To get first hand Moody experience, I contacted a few leading lights in the MOA. Chairman Richard Martin told me that of the 2024 current MOA members, 277 were Med based, 89 were in the Americas and Caribbean and 21 were in Australasia, adding: “I suspect that while some may have gone down to the Med by canal through France, most, like myself, went the long way via Gibraltar. I also suspect many of these trips were undertaken as retirement projects or lifestyle voyages by people who chose a Moody as the right boat for the job.”
As for his own boat, Richard said that when retirement age approached “Moodys were first on my list of preferred boats, in particular the late 1990s/early 2000s centre cockpit boats – the Moody 36, 38, 42. All are solid, stable and comfortable – important to my wife who isn’t a strong sailor. I fell in love with the roomier 42 and in 2005 bought Sealion. Clearly Bill Dixon deserves the reputation he has as one of the great designers of the era.”
The MOA’s webmaster Neil Eccles also sails a 42 and told me: “The 44 was, according to David Moody, the best boat they ever built and we lusted after one. But we could not find one that suited – so we bought our 42 in December 2000.
“Our 42 is a super boat. It is ‘what the M40 should have been’, according to some at Moodys. We love the modern lines (old fashioned now but great then), centre line aft berth and centre cockpit. It is a bigger boat than we could have afforded if we had gone for, say, a Malo or HR and we are glad of the stability.”
Neil added that “Bill and Chris Dixon have been to almost every MOA AGM since these started. They support the association loyally and are good friends, even though Bill’s design practice has now moved on to larger yachts.”
Experienced owner David Longhurst explained why Dixon’s Moody 346 design was a top seller (254 built).
“Having retired we were looking for a boat that was dependable and would take us around Europe in relative comfort, be easily handled by two (and single-handed if necessary) without running up large marina bills or expensive maintenance. This suggested a boat in the 35ft range.
“We’d seen quite a few when we looked at a Moody – a 34. This was centre cockpit and made up our minds because we liked the solid build and the spacious aft cabin accommodation that could be reached without having to go outside. Better still you could stand up and put your trousers on in the aft cabin. We also liked the hull design, shaft drive, half skeg-mounted rudder and the substantial fin keel.
“We have now sailed many thousands of miles in her. Our cruising area stretches from the Baltic in the east to the west coast of Ireland and the north coasts of Holland, Belgium and France as well as the south coast of the UK from the Thames to the Scillies.
“If I were asked to say which represented the very best of Bill’s Moody designs, I would say a 38 or 40 with a shaft (rather than saildrive). If I were to choose one for a circumnavigation it would be the older M422, which ticks all the boxes on handling, heavy weather performance, durability and sheer common sense in its design.”
In addition to the Marine Projects-built Moodys, Dixon has designed numerous other successful production boats. The Warriors, Tridents, steel Callisto and Premier Yachts cruisers, Far East-built Taswell, Hylas and Passport Vista ranges have all included excellent Dixon designs that have sold around the world. If you prefer two hulls, the Discovery Bluewater 50 catamaran won a recent Cruising World Award. And since Hanse took over the Moody name, the new Dixon-designed Moody DS range and Classic models are proving exceptionally popular. If a production powerboat takes your fancy, the new Hanse-built and Dixon-designed Sealine range is selling at speed. Finally, Dixon has designed more than 80 Superyachts (sail and power), many of which have won major international awards.
‘The 44 was the best boat Moody ever built and we lusted after one’
n Read more about Bill Dixon’s recent successes and design team next month.