At the end of WWII Alan Buchanan was working as an engineering draughtsman at De Havilland aircraft factory. His family owned a summer house at Mersea on the river Blackwater and here he sailed and designed boats in his spare time. Eventually he left De Havilland and set up as a boat designer at his home in Enfield, Middlesex before moving to Burnham-on-Crouch. He had a remarkable ability to grasp the basics of a brief and come up with a design from it very quickly. He used to visit Wyatt's boatyard at West Mersea regularly for maintenance of his own boats and when Wyatt's moved into building small yachts Alan quickly became their main designer.
In 1944 his design for a 4 ton Bermudan cruising sloop "Puffin" was published in Yachting Monthly and the following year his 29ft 3in cruising sloop "Pintail" won 2nd prize in that magazine's competition to design an estuary cruiser. In 1946 Maurice Griffiths, who had returned as Editor of Yachting Monthly after was service, commissioned Alan to design a 3-ton sloop for amateur builders. So the YM 3-Tonner was born, 20ft overall with fixed keel or centreplate. It proved to be a good small cruiser, although sadly not many were built although many sets of plans were sold. Readers found the round bilge type too difficult for home build and requested a simpler version. Alan was then commissioned to design the 19ft Wild Duck.
During the 1950's his reputation grew and he was soon running a sizeable office at Burnham employing around 10 draughtsmen and engineers. In collaboration with Priors Boat Yard he built a series of successful off-shore racing yachts. In 1952 Buchanan began building steel yachts in Holland to be finished in England, and this soon became a major part of his business. By the mid 1950's his office was developing glass fibre designs and Alan designed the first European glass fibre yacht – 35ft, built by Stebbings and called Bonito. The first production design was the 22ft 6in crystal class, which later became known as the Halcyon 23.
Since the early 1970's he has continued to work from his home in Jersey and in 50 years he probably designed more yachts and pleasure craft than anyone, as well as considerable number of small commercial craft. In 1979 in recognition of his achievements he was awarded the medal of the Small Craft Group of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. He is an honorary member of the EOA and in 2002 he very generously transferred the copyright of the 3-Tonner and Wild Duck to the EOA.
Instructions for building Wild Duck can be found in the book "Building Chine Boats" by Michael Verney and available only from the EOA. Building details for the 3-Tonner can be found in the author's previous book "Complete Amateur Boat Builder".