The St. Mawes One Design (SMOD) evolved as a result of a Dr. James beating Frank Peters in races off St. Mawes, Cornwall in the early 1920s. Frank, designer of the class and builder of Aileen, was part of a family firm which had been building boats locally for some two hundred years.
The firm was also well known for having built many of the pilot gigs used round the waters of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Aileen won three Falmouth Town Regatta Class races for 16 foot dinghies between 1923 and 1925, thus putting her firmly on the map and proving Frank to be a talented 21 year old boatbuilder and sailor. 45 boats have been built since 1923, 24 of them by Frank Peters, and 43 are still in existence.
Frank owned Aileen until 1949, when it was sold to new owners who took it to Chichester, and it subsequently sailed on the Thames for many years. This long absence from Cornwall helped to preserve Aileen largely in its original configuration, as changes in the design rules were allowing modifications to take place to other boats in the class, especially to the rigs which changed from gunter to bermudan during the 1950s. Aileen was donated back to the SMOD Association by the last owners, and restored by boatbuilder Jonathan Leach and a number of volunteers, following a campaign to raise the £4000 needed. It was relaunched on New Years Day 1990 in the presence of Frank Peters.
For a number of years Aileen was used as a hire boat for Association members, being unable to race competitively due to the non-conformity of the rig, something not allowed in one design rules. In 2003 the Association donated Aileen to the Museum on the Class 80th anniversary.
Frank Peters died in 1995 and is buried at St Just-in Roseland, overlooking the waters where he raced Aileen.
Dimensions:
Length 4.88m
Beam 1.90m
Draft, centreplate down 1.4m
