Bruce Kirby 1929-2021

Bruce Kirby, journalist, three-time Olympian and designer of the Laser dinghy, has died at the age of 92.

Bruce Kirby was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1929 and began his journalism career in newspapers before writing for, and later becoming editor of One-design Yachtsman (now Sailing World magazine).

He began sailing aged six, and moved on to the International 14 class in his teens, winning the world championship twice in this class in 1958 and 1961. He also represented Canada at three Olympics, sailing the Finn in 1956 and 1964, and a Star keelboat in 1968.

Kirby had no formal education in boat design and used the fairly modest skills he had developed in model boat carving to create his first International 14, which he called the Mark One.

Kirby’s most famous design, the Laser (now ILCA), was created in 1970. The first rough draught was sketched while on the phone with his business partner, Ian Bruce, to create a simple ‘car topper’ concept. Bruce jokingly referred to Kirby’s sketch as ‘the million dollar doodle.’

The Laser went on to sell over 220,000 boats, becoming the world’s most popular one-design. The combination of simple lines and rig, and the boat’s physical challenge, made the Laser part of millions of sailors’ journeys. It has been an Olympic class for seven Games, while the smaller rigged Laser Radial is the women’s single-handed Olympic dinghy, and the proving ground of many of the most talented sailors in the sport, including Ben Ainslie, Robert Scheidt, Tom Slingsby, Glenn Bourke, Carolijn Brouwer and Marit Bouwmeester.

He also designed two America’s Cup 12-Metre yachts, Canada in 1983 and Canada II in 1987.