The Keyhaven Yawl was born from Giles’ earliest cruising yacht designs; much of the initial design was inspired by Argo, (0004) a 32’ yawl designed by Jack Laurent Giles and built by Stow & Son in 1931.

Fifty two years later and unlike the majority of new designs, Keyhaven Yawl was one, not with a client brief, but purely to fulfill the designers’ requirement for a perfect boat. The 1980’s had seen a vast expansion in production yacht construction but it was very apparent that contemporary ideas had moved away from classic styles, gaff rigs and long keels in favour of the ‘fin keel production yacht’ image.

Initially Laurent Giles had expected the lapstrake design to invite little comment within the industry; the design lay undisturbed until 1985, but in 1986, Frank Smith, a boat builder of Bangor, Northern Ireland, learned of the Keyhaven Yawl design, named after the village and popular river adjacent to Hurst Castle at the westernmost end of the Solent.  Although originally designed for the simple and most economical lap-strake construction using plywood and mainly plywood frames and bulkheads Frank was enthusiastic to build a round hull form and so the Keyhaven Yawl very soon evolved to the round hull strip plank option as design number 0982.

Two keel versions were offered as standard: lifting keel with a shoal draft of 3’ 6”, and a full draft version with 4’ 6”.