In Australia, dinghy builder Charles Cunningham designed the monohull dinghy Gwen 12 during WWII. This skiff, which arguably set the pattern for post-war design, had a hard chine planing hull, relatively big rig and a trapeze (some say this was the first one design to adopt the trapeze).

Charles followed the 12 with the Gwen 20 but only one or two were built by the early 1950’s when he moved to designing catamarans.

In 1952 Charles built a prototype, which, two years later was developed into a 20ft (6.09m) beach catamaran, Yvonne. In 1956 Charles & son Lindsay won the first national championships in the class. Over 5000 Yvonnes were built.

The Yvonne was followed shortly thereafter by the Quickcat in 1955. Over 2,500 Quickcats were built.

All subsequent designs were co-designed by Charles and Lindsey. Together they designed 25 catamarans in different classes. The greatest of these is the International C-Class.

Charles passed away in 1986.