International 14

The displacement style, is also known as the "Before Uffa Fox Era". Many of these were designed as a National 14 by designers such as Francis Morgan-Giles of Tynemouth and Hammersmith.

Planing, which started with Uffa Fox and his deep-chested hulls, (boats named Avenger, and Alarm were quintessential examples) which were broad aft with nearly straight buttocks, and narrow forward with a deep vee; another notable boat was Windsprite, designed and built in cold-moulded plywood by Austin Farrar at Woolverstone, Suffolk, in the early 1950s, whose distinctive hull shape was emulated later in the International 505 dinghy. One of the most famous International 14s was Thunder and Lightning, sail number 409. Built in 1938 by Uffa Fox, she was sailed to victory by John Winter and Peter Scott in the Prince of Wales Cup that year. The crew was helped considerably by the revolutionary use of an early form of trapeze, which was considered unsporting by the racing authorities of the day and promptly banned. Thunder and Lightning is now based at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

Trapeze planing, which came about decades later, when the trapeze was finally legalised in the class (it had been tried by Uffa and others in the 1930s but was banned); during this evolutionary period larger ballast tanks were permitted by the class rules that greatly improved the ability of crews to recover from capsizes; the period also saw the introduction of multi-chined boats that were radically different in hull shape from the earlier carvel-built and molded-plywood designs;

Double-trapeze super-planing, which has gone through a number of evolutions. The concept was developed in Australia and New Zealand, and influenced the design of the high-powered but lightweight Australian 18. This form of the boat really started to take form in the early 80's (but with only one trapeze) as the minimum weight was lowered and upwind planing became possible.

Contemporary boats weigh as little as 165 lb, and have as typical equipment a retractable spinnaker pole, unlimited asymmetric spinnaker size, 200sq ft mainsail and jib area, a fully battened mainsail, an adjustable carbon rig, and a hydrofoil rudder that allows the boat to be trimmed fore and aft for different conditions, and as a drag reduction device.

Since this is a development class, older boats have been obsoleted through rules changes. Many of the older boats still race in fleets of similar boats. Penultimates, also known as 'Pennies' are boats that feature much of the same technology as modern boats but are from prior to the 1996 merger between the International 14 and Aussie 14 classes. Classic boats are boats prior to 1984 and feature a symmetric spinnaker, single trapeze, and many feature cold molded wooden hulls.