Des built all the first hulls himself (numbers 1 to 233) in Pinus Radiata veneer, off the same mould, even though many were completed by their owners to the strict one design rules of the class.

In fact the original class rules stipulated that sails must be "strictly to a pattern lodged with Boyd and McMaster sailmakers."

Des was one of the early adopters of mass production in recreational boatbuilding using the postwar (WW2) available waterproof glues - in this case Resin Syrup by Desford or Cascade as used in construction of the De Havilland Mosquito aircraft not so many years earlier.

He also developed efficient techniques for removing staples from the veneer after glue setting using the recently released synthetic packaging strap which was starting to replace metal binding.

Approaches to Townson revealed that the original mould had been cut up by him to make space in his Dunlop Lane, Panmure, workshop.