Career
He was responsible for designing some of the best-known classes in New Zealand sailing, including the Starling, Zephyr Mistral and Dart classes. Later the renowned "Moonlight" trialed impressively for the New Zealand entry for the One Ton Cup in 1971. Moonlight was followed by a series of successful designs for his own enjoyment and that of many devotees, where he refined design principles established in Moonlight of strong upwind performance and good all round performance and handling.
These included the elegant Townson 32"s Starlight and Twilight, the transitional Townson 33 Restless and culminated in the Townson 34"s Dreamtime and Talent, his most successful keelboat designs.
Des is credited with having at least 3,500 of his designs produced by 2008. In 2008 his contribution to yachting earned him membership in the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen"s Birthday Honours list.
In his later years Townson focused on producing top one design radio controlled Electron racing yachts. Townson died on 15 October 2008 after a long battle with cancer at his home in Auckland.
