Whooper, with her light displacement, shoal draft, tall rig and extraordinary turn of speed has been described as one of the most advanced and unprecedented concepts. What is often overlooked is that Whooper is an almost identical repeat of an earlier design.

Wapipi (Design number 0031) was built at Plymouth by Morgan Giles (no relation) a year earlier for Commander W. B. Pirie and Mr Gregory’s Whooper shared her lines with minor changes to the keel, she has an iron keel and composite iron and teak swing keel whereas the earlier yacht was fitted with a lead ballast keel and 100% teak swing keel blade. The rig design and basic construction scantlings were by and large unchanged from the original.