John Guzzwell’s design brief called for a self-build 20’- 21’ L.O.A. yawl and his requirements included a sufficient length of straight keel to facilitate slipping. Reverse sheer, self-draining cockpit, watertight compartments fore and aft to be used for stowage.  The hull should be sufficiently robust to resist damage by collision with “deadheads”, i.e. water-logged logs, a common hazard of British Colombian waters.  The ability to ride out bad weather at sea was called for, and was in the owner’s mind in deciding on a yawl rig.

An essential feature of the Columbia Class, and one to which Jack Giles attached great importance was that they should be, so far as possible, unsinkable; achieved by providing watertight compartments fore and aft.  The hull possesses an enormous reserve of buoyancy and the bow and stern compartments are closed by removable watertight hatches and panels.  The somewhat unusual angled covering board was designed to give acceptable headroom in the cabin without excessive apparent freeboard and windage in the topsides.