Len Randell - Rugged and other WA designs at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2023

Presentation: Western Australian legend Len Randell will talk about some of the vast range of boats he has designed over many decades. Perhaps his most famous design, Rugged has become a legend in WA as the winner of the inaugural Cape Naturaliste Race in 1955 with Len as skipper. Len Randell designed boats are extremely popular with boat owners in West Australia and can be found in waters around the globe. By the end of the 1990’s, hundreds and hundreds of Len’s distinctly designed boats were built as either leisure craft, training vessels, commercial ferries, cray boats and prawn trawlers. Many strong reliable, seaworthy former crayfishing and ferry boats have been converted and repurposed as leisure craft and Rottnest cruisers.

Speaker: From an early age, Len spent much of his spare time around the Swan River and associated waterways, building canoes and improvising with home-made sails. As a teenager in the 1930s he visited Perth boatyards on the banks of the Swan River, and seeing these boats being built inspired him to design one himself at the tender age of 15. The resulting 16-foot hard chine boat was a success and encouraged him to continue designing craft and become involved with yachting in general. Although he designed racing and cruising yachts, it was fishing boats that launched his commercial career. The introduction of high-powered diesel engines was a significant change and needed someone able to calculate the power and propeller requirements, along with the best hull shape and construction, if the craft was to achieve its desired performance. Len had the technical expertise to capitalize on this need and soon started working with builders to produce efficient and elegant designs, now known the world over.

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Thanks to the Australian National Maritime Museum and Utas.