The 12 ½ Square Meter was originally conceived of as a junior boat for the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club (KNS). The designer presented the new boat in a short article in «Seilas» nr. 3 of 1929 (the magazine for the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club) stating that the 15 Square Meter had been drawn at the request of a «number of junior sailors. They were looking for a boat to fill the gap between the dinghies and the larger, more expensive keelboat classes.
They
requested a new boat with the same waterline as the «Junior Seilsnekke»
they were using, but designed to the Square Meter rule. The original design
was given a 15 sq. meter rig to match the boat length. After testing the
boat in the first season the designer and representatives of the Yacht
Club decided that the design was over-canvassed for juniors with the 15
sq. meter rig and reduced the sail area to 12 ½ sq. meters.
The boat type caught on and became an important junior boat in the era
between the wars. There were many 12 ½ Sq. Meters in Norwegian waters
and many of the best competition sailors in the coming decades began their
careers in these boats.
The advent of newer boat designs more in keeping with the developments
in the international sailing arena (rule changes favoring other measuring
rules, eg. Meter, IOR, and the choice of Olympic boats) in time lead to
a declining interest in the 12 ½ Sq. Meter as a training boat. The
boats began their long exodus away from the most central yacht clubs to
other areas, more or less following the coastline away from Oslo and Bergen
in a northerly direction. The last bastion for the 12 ½ Sq. Meter
is Aalesund where activity has recently picked up again after a quiet period
in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
C 19 
Built year: 1941
Design/Boatyard: Anker og Jensen, Vollen i Asker
Boat nr.: 412
The keel on C19 was mounted slightly off the central axis of the boat. This made the boat exceptionally fast on the starboard tack without any sacrifice of speed on the port tack. The payback came on runs with the wind where the added drag made C19 exceptionally slow. C19 was given a new mast and boom in 1963 and was actively raced from 1941 until at least 1964.
When I bought C19 she had been standing on land for several years.
Owners and port-of-call for C19
1941-1953: Per Fossum Oslo «SIREN»
1953-1959: Are Hovde Aalesund «GLONTEN»
1959-1964: Ornulf Opdahl Aalesund «DELFINEN»
1964-1966: Osterfjorden
«N.N»
1966-1971: Atle Valding Bergen «EBB-TIDE»
1971-1974: Richard Eng Bergen «EBB-TIDE»
1974-1980: Bjorn Tonnesen Bergen «EBB-TIDE»
1980-1983: Peter Taverner Austevoll «EBB-TIDE»
1983-1992: Thomas Johnson Austevoll «ISMAEL»
1992- : Kjartan Skår
Bergen «OPUS E»
(My thanks to Anita Irmelin Hovland for the list of owners)