A Squib is a type of small racing keelboat designed in 1967 by Oliver Lee as a successor to the Ajax 23.

The Squib has been adopted by the RYA as the National Keelboat and is big enough to race at sea and small enough to be trailed easily behind a family car.

Following a succession of trials, the prototype was used as a "plug" from which copies of the boat could be built using glass-reinforced plastic construction.

During 1968, a further five Squibs were built, and the first fleet began racing at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club at Burnham-on-Crouch.

Over the following few years numbers grew at Burnham and new fleets were formed at Waldringfield, Brixham, Abersoch and Aldeburgh.

[1] The Squib was granted national status by the Royal Yachting Association in 1972, when numbers exceeded 300.

After the death of Oliver Lee, in 1994, the licence moved to Barker Brewer Boats who built 768 to 782.

In 1997 the licence was acquired by Bruce Parker Sailboats who, by Spring 2009, had built 100 Squibs, their first being 783 and final boat 885.

Strict control is kept over Squib build to ensure that older boats do not become uncompetitive as has happened in some other classes.

In 1996, the National Championship winning boat was a Barker Brewer build (771 Arctic Fox.)

Six brand new Squibs recently went to Germany and there is talk of the class featuring in Kiel Woche and of racing on the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands.

In Ireland the Inland Championship is always held at Lough Derg Yacht Club in Dromineer.

Ranked by attendance at National Championships, the Squib is consistently one of the top ten classes.

The Sandhopper is a shallow draft version of the Squib, also designed by Oliver Lee.