Since designing his first boat in 1948, Askew’s portfolio included countless yachts, launches, work boats and classic craft. Besides timber, he also designed boats for construction in GRP, alloy, steel and ferro-cement.
Askew trained initially as a joiner and worked in the construction industry until 1968, when he became a full-time yacht designer. Before this, he’d come under the wing of Wellington yacht designer/boatbuilder Athol Burns, training which he expanded on through studying the writings of the likes of Harrison Butler, Howard Chapelle and L. Francis Herreshoff.
While Askew favoured timber construction, either carvel or cold moulded, in the mid-1970s, he began designing steel cruising yachts for amateur construction. These traditional-styled yachts featured solid scantlings and low-aspect cruising rigs. One of these yachts, the 8.3m Stoke skippered by Austin Brookes,…
