Beecher Moore

Moore was born in Rochester, New York, US but moved to Britain with his parents while very young. In the 1920s he went to Harvard University[3] but did not complete his degree and instead returned to England to work with his father in his business stationery company, Moore's Modern Methods, which he inherited and ran on his father's death.[4][5]

During World War II he served as ARP Warden for the Temple, London and had a lease on a flat in a building full of legal chambers where he remained resident for many years.

Moore's interest and involvement in sailing increased during the 1930s and he became a member of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Burnham-on-Crouch. Around this time he was involved in the development of what became acknowledged as the first trapeze used in a sailing dinghy - in the form of a bell rope on a Thames A Class Rater.[7]

Moore was an exceptionally talented sailor and over the years won many sailing competitions either solo, as part of a crew or with regular sailing partner Jack Holt. His successes included; the 14-ft Merlin Championships on five occasions in the 1940s, the National Hornet World Championship three times and the 12-ft National Championship once. In 1934 Moore was part of the crew of Endeavour l in the America's Cup when he was the only American to sail aboard the British challenger.[8][9] He was also heavily involved the administration of sailing at both national and international level. He was senior vice-president of the International 470 class, Chairman of the International Tempest Association and the Mirror 16-ft Association and a vice-president of the Amateur Yacht Research Society.[10]

Moore joined forces with Thames boatbuilder Jack Holt after the war. The two both worked and sailed together. Holt was a talented boatbuilder, sailor and designer. Together they were instrumental in the development and launching of many dinghy classes including the International 14,[11] Merlin Rocket[12] Hornet,[13] GP 14, Enterprise[14] and Mirror.[13] Holt designed the boats and built the prototypes whilst Moore looked after the marketing and development of each class. The company they formed continues to operate to this day under the name of Holt.[15]

Moore was a keen patron and collector of art and literature and accumulated a large collection of illustrated and written erotica. In 1964, during the puritanical scare period around the Profumo affair, he made a significant donation to the Private Case collection in the British Library.[16][17] In the early 1990s he sold another collection of erotic writing and drawings many of which were the work of his friend, the illustrator Tom Poulton. These were collectively published by Taschen in 2006.[18]