Old Quarter Tonners -Magic Bus

Gary et al

Another interesting reach (compare my post above about Wave rider) was experienced by Pelle Pettersson in the half-ton cup in Norway in -83. More known for his R-6 designs he had now designed the IOR-boat Queen of Sheeba. Among the other boats the Briand design Freelance could be seen. The year before in Greece Freelance almost did it, perhaps 2:nd (Atalanti won). Some years earlier Briand had worked at Pettersson design office. There were several good French designers in those days, Faroux, Nivelt, Briand et al. But I am pretty sure it was Briand who worked at Pettersson's office. So let's say the appretiance was going to meet his mentor. The Queen of Sheeba and Freelance looked rather different. The Petterson design had a lot of sail-area, but the Briand boat had not. The latter looked like a big dinghy with very fair lines. Similar to Wave rider version 2, the Petersson-design had a lot of bow-down trim. The first reach became a nightmare for Pettersson. Broach after broach. While the Briand design did the reaches similar to the quarter-tonner Bullit. Freelance won and the Pettersson-design was about 10:th. The Crown-Prince of Norway Harald (now king) competed in an Amble-design (certainly called Fram something) and did well, in top 5, I believe.

Regards,
Booster

 

Hi!

Yes, those days were great. Atalanti competed again after its win in Greece. To optimize Atalanti for Norway -83, the displacement was reduced about 50kg. At the controle-measurements the bumping (to compensate for the 50kg) at the measurement positions showed to be to small. Over night a micro-baloon race took place. But they didn't have time to get a perfect surface. Chifralene II designed by Berret? (there were so many good French designers in those days) showed to be a good compromise of dinghy shape still having rather big sail-area. As I recall Chifralene II was second after Freelance. Perhaps someone have the results list? Anyway, Peter Norlin (winner in 69-71, third in 83) had the designed Caviar that finished about 10th. I don't think Norlin steered this time, though. In -81? (won by ArBigouden) in the World's in Sweden Norlin competed with the half-tonner Butterfly and was 4:th. This boat had very fair lines compared to ArBigouden. No bustle at the aft sections an so on. With Caviar there were more bustle. The sail-area was big compared to the other boats. But Norlin later stated that the aft sections should have been wider for better down-wind performane.

Regards,
Booster

 

I believe Cifraline was an Andrieu design.

Here are the results of the HT Cups.

http://www.histoiredeshalfs.com/Half Ton Cup.htm

 

Paul B!
Thanks for the correction and the results list.
Regards,
Booster

 

Hi!

Yes, those were the days. Stellan Westerdahl (crew for Pelle Pettersson in the Star) wanted to compete in the Swedish trials for the half-ton World's in Norway -83. Did he revamp a Star to half-tonner? No, but a Pettersson designed Maxi-boat similar to the J24 was converted. Was it fast? No. The Norlin designed Butterfly competed as well, renamed to Stureplan (place for rich people in Stockholm). Did it end well? No. They broke the mast early in the series. As I recall Xantippa (Peter Ståhle design) was the winner of the trials. Nowadays, Stellan Westerdahl sails 2.4mr. He has a lot of stories to tell. Listen to this one: During a transport of a Pelle Pettersson R-6 to Switzerland on serpentine-roads the boat fall off the truck and slided down a hill. The boat finally come to a stop a typical old-fashioned Swiss village. A local sailor repaired it and managed to win the World's at the Lake Boden some years later.

Regards,
Booster

 

Hi!
In earlier post I can see that the 1-ton cup winner in Germany several years ago, Tilsalg, i dealt with. At the same 1-ton Cup the former CEO of Volvo, Pehr G Gyllenhammar, took part. His boat Amanda was a Holland design as well I believe. The boat rated somewhat below the 1-ton limit, and didn't do that well. However, it was fast by Swedish standards. The next year Gyllenhammar competed in the Around Gotland race. The boat did even worse and it was unbelively slow. The crew couldn't find out way until they checked under the waterline. An obvious sabotage was revealed. The boat had been painted with asphalt! Another famous sabotage was the cutting of the spreaders of the 1-tonner Jenny H (Bruce Farr design). This boat was a sistership to Red Lion, winner the year earlier in NZ. The NZ readers probably recall that there were other sisterships as well Mr Jumpa?. All of them were fast. Anyway, to my knowledge it was never found out who the individuals performing these sabotages were. In some of their numouros posts Doug and Ernest early warned that something like this might happen sooner or later, but did anyone listened? Sorry, I couldn't avoid the previous sentence. Promise to never write about the Doug and Ernest again.
Regards,
Booster

 

Booster, I've heard those stories - the Lidgards on SmirnoffAgen (Red Lion sister) complained that someone had slackened their rigging off in the night between races - you must remember that the relationships between competitors in those days, with the unheard of high performances and superiority of the light NZ board boats, was quite ugly, to say the least. Laurie Davidson talked of the very unpopular (with some Europeans) win of Pendragon as a small One Tonner, when after prizegiving, the crew found the deck had a large boot hole in it.
The Farr daggerboarders were: Red Lion, Jenny H, SmirnoffAgen and Mr Jumpa plus there was also Paul Whiting's Smackwater Jack and Jim Young's Heatwave - the latter was sold to Denmark the next year and should have won the OTC, save for a race cancellation - apparently it was easily the fastest, always first to the top mark and winning the prestigious long distance race as well.

 

Thanks Gary,
the NZ has some good sailors here in Sweden as well. A progressive 50 footer started as a 40 footer. The owner from Varberg in Sweden wanted to optimize it. The NZ John (I have forgotten his surname) was asked to make the bow sharper. This was about 3-4 years ago. John is an expert on this kind of work. There are a lot of problems involved. You must base the work on a male-plug. Otherwise, the radii in the bow becomes to small and other problems arise. Moreover, the extension has to be strong enough to take the fore-stay load. Besides being a good boat-builder John proved to be a good sailor. He used to sleep during the day, and steer during the night. Based on a diet on Red Bull he sailed faster during the night than we managed during the day, according to the Swedish crew. Perhaps some NZ can identify this John?
Regards,
Booster

 

Some old wives tales I think.

How would someone paint the bottom of a boat in the water with asphalt? Nope, couldn't be done.

Now I once raced on a boat that had a new bottom job done just before going off to a major regatta. Seems the previous bottom paint and the new one did not agree chemically, so the bottom became a texture like a nonskid deck within 24 hours after launching at the new site. Maybe that was the issue with Pehr's boat.


Jenny H came to the USA after the Hobart and never had any spreaders cut as far as I know. Who would climb a mast with a saw and cut anything? The risk of being seen would be great, no matter what time day or night.


Pehr had a successful Peterson 3/4 tonner, then when he wanted to do a 30.55 rating One Ton he went to Sodergren, to keep things "national". He then asked Peterson to review the drawings and comment before the boat was built. Of course Peterson declined, not one to interfere with another designer's work. If Pehr wanted a Peterson One Ton he could have ordered one.

 

All the boats in the OTC that year were from NZ (including a couple of rentals), save the Aussie boats. Two of those were also daggerboarders, so I doubt anyone slacked off Lidgard's rig out of anger against the type. If so, they should have been going after The Red Lion and Mr. Jumpa. I would suspect a lack of cotter keys, and an easy, colourful excuse.


I also doubt the Pendoggie story. I've sailed on a lot of boats with ply decks like theirs, and no way you're going to put a boot through, no matter how hard you try. You'd be hard pressed to make the "boot hole" wielding a 12" winch handle for an hour.

The truth is Pendoggie won that worlds because the fleet was terribly weak, with only the Holland "Indulgence" as a newer design. The rest were years old. Not to mention Indulgence seemed to see Holland off his game, good upwind but a bit of a barker downwind.

Also, the races had downwind finishes that benefitted the Davidson. If they had to beat back to the finish in all the races she would have lost places and Indulgence would have won.

As for Young's boat being great at the '78 Worlds, well she wasn't very fast in '77, so I suspect the fleet must have been quite soft that year as well. Another Holland boat won, yes? That nearly confirms the weak fleet, based on the pace of Indulgence the following year.

 

Paul, yes, the story of the Lidgards' having their rig slackened was looked on askance here too, but they were adamant it was true. But you are wrong that Smirnoff wasn't competitive, that boat won the '77 heavy weather long distance race. Red Lion won overall but I don't think she ever took the gun, was very consistent instead.
The hole in Pendragon's deck story came straight from Laurie's mouth, so who's to believe, yours or his?
Heatwave was never that good in light conditions, according to Jim Young but was very fast when the wind was up, in fact was recognised as the fastest boat in those conditions. She lost the '78 OTC by finishing poorly in a drifting race and because that race could not be discarded, failed to take the cup. Remember there was some hot competition that year with the latest Farr Export Lion with Murray Ross helming - and the fact things didn't go right for them (the forward facing unfolding propellor as one example) still doesn't disprove their speed, she was the NZ chosen representative after all. And I think you are being too derogatory writing off the Holland designs as weak performers too. The Danes, no slouches in the sailing world, mate, sailed Heatwave better and better as the series went on and in the end, were very impressed with the Young design's performance.

 

Paul, Holland designs did pretty well in the OTC, winning in the windy 1978 series (Tilsalg, with her sistership Bremen second); second in the light 1979 series (Indulgence); third in light/medium stuff in 1980 (Sharkey; Indulgence pretty much lost the series close to the finish of the intermediate but Holland still got 3,5,6 o/a); 2nd and 3rd in 1981 with 2&3 year old designs (light winds); and while I can't find the info I think 2nd or 3rd in 1983.

Tilsalg was only 1 year old when she did the worlds Pendragon won, and there were some new Cook designs. Was that the year the Farr "Downtown" was launched but had rating problems or something?

Indulgence scored a second overall in '79. In '80, she finished with 3-2-24 (after leading for 162 miles)-8-1. Apart from R3, her scores looked very good against the winner's 10-5-6-3-4 and runner-up's 2-3-11-4-7. In '81 she was back up to 3rd against at least 4 new custom boats. Sounds like an outstanding record!

Like Paul, I find it hard to believe that the SmirNoffAgen incident was due some feeling against light boats, since the whole fleet consisted of light boats. There were some light Aussie boats and some chartered light NZ boats with OS crews but why would they pick on another light boat and why one in particular?

The contemporary reports, IIRC, speak of a similar incident during the NZ trials and implied it was a civil war, not some heavy v light thing. Sure, some Aussies were over the top in their attack on light boats but the MkIIIA that resulted from the 1977 lightweight domination certainly did not kill the lightweights, as was proven many times in the years that followed. It may have just helped to give the lightweights someone to race against because no fleet can handle having 90%+ of its numbers made uncompetitive. Not many people are going to race hard to Fastnet or Hobart, knowing they have no chance, and not many people can sell a heavy racing boat to build a new light one unless the old heavy one is reasonably competitive and therefore has reasonable resale value.

 

As a famous designer once uttered, "So, who'd he beat?"

For one thing, the Cook designs that followed on to his successful Rouges Roost were pretty terrible things. The rule had bounced the lightweights, and Cook's heavier boats were not good. The NY36, a production boat for NYYC owners at the same time, is one of the worst sailing IOR boats of the era, and not fast.

Farr's Downtown was in build when the rule change hit, and she sailed the circuit with about an extra foot of rating and was not good. Export Lion was a next generation attempt, but still off the pace due to the ratings changes. After this Farr took his hiatus from the IOR until things settled down.

I believe a Peterson Ganbare-type was top 5 the year Pendoggie won. That tells me the fleet was not too strong.

In those years there were no new Peterson boats, or Frers, or even a new Davidson, Chance, etc. So Holland was doing well, but not winning, against fleets that were not really at the top of the game.

When Pendragon came back to SoCal she did not dominate as one would expect a OTC winner to do. Based on results of those days, a Peterson Chita 37 called Sunjammer should have been the OTC winner if she had gone, or even one of the Turner CF37s if they could have pulled the rating down enough.

Heatwave's finishes in Auckland were 8-3-11-3-5, with one of the 3rd places due to a big comeback on a huge shift on the last beat. I guess you have to understand everyone writes history with a particular point of view about performance in conditions, but it was a VERY windy series, so if HW was supposedly quick in the breeze it didn't show. Reports by her designer saying she was fastest off the wind in the breeze are disputed somewhat by the facts.

For example, in the distance race B195 had a runner j-hook come out of the mast, so they had to tack to keep the rig. After sending someone up to fix it they re-joined the race and rounded last. On the extreme breezy long run they passed EVERYONE and took the lead at the leeward mark.

The accounts by many say the Peterson was actually the fastest boat running in all conditions, and slow upwind. Quite the opposite of what you would expect. This was probably due to carrying no ballast in their board, which made them tippy uphill but didn't change the COG as much when the board was raised.

I guess you could say somewhat that the 1977 OTC wasn't any more well attended than '78 or '79 or '80. However, it is clear that the Farr lift keelers there were much better than everything else in the world at the time. I don't think that can be said for Indulgence or Tilsalg, or even the Vallicelli, Castro, or Schiomacen boats that won the subsequent OTCs. It wasn't until '84 and the new rating OTs that things again became a race between the best-of-the-best.

 

Paul, in the '77 long distance race, Heatwave was last round Flat Rock, not B195, because they had unraveling rigging problems which took a long time to repair and the fleet was out of sight ahead by the time they turned the corner. But after the night of hard downwind running they'd caught them all and were level with the leading boats at dawn - but then the wind fell away and they lost their edge. Sure, every competitor sees things differently.
The point you make about Pendragon being not that quick compared to other designs after her OTC win - remember that P was only 34 feet long, giving away 3 odd waterline feet to the others. I know Holland was very annoyed with that boat's downwind performance saying something like, "any large sail carrying lightweight is going to blow downwind faster than normal designs."
Here's a couple of jpegs of Farr's Export Lion.

 

You are correct about this. However, from the Inchbold account, Heatwave was never among the leaders at any time and were still far astern even when the wind had still not dropped below 20 knots:


…By the time the recalcitrant runner had been tamed B195 was trailing the fleet, with the exception of Heatwave, a late starter by 30 minutes. The wind had now increased to more like 40 knots..

..By mid-afternoon the wind was up to nearly 50 knots, with the fleet, still on a beat, heading for Channel Island after rounding Flat rock. B195 was beginning to pull up and her crew, at one stage, were delighted to cross tacks with Mr. Jumpa. Nearing Channel Island, the gale, blowing against the tide, had built up six metre seas and the going was rugged and extreme..

..So, at dawn on the second morning, nine boats were left in the race. At Sail Rock SNA and Red Lion were locked in the lead, but B195 was only about 150m behind them. ..”After Channel Islands,” said Tom Stephenson, “..we just rocketed through on the run, clocking over 18 knots and taking a couple of miles out of the leaders between the island and Sail Rock.”

..Now came the tight reach to Groper Rock..It was still blowing hard and..B195 was able to keep up with the leaders..On the next leg, from Groper Rock to Poor Knight’s Islands,..B195 pushed into the lead. “We Piped along pretty well,” said Tom, “sailing a straight course with no wipe outs.” At one stage the yacht was at least a mile in front of SNA and Red Lion, still locked together, with Mr. Jumpa pressing them hard.

..SNA and Red Lion had trailed B195 by 8 minutes and 15 ½ minutes respectively at Poor Knights…

B195 led around the Poor Knight’s and the yachts now headed for Sail Rock again. This leg was a beat, mainly on Port Tack, with the wind down to about 20 knots…Four Yachts – B195, SNA, Red Lion, and Mr. Jumpa, were now clear of the rest of the fleet..

Now in fourth place, SNA, Red Lion, and Mr. Jumpa had now consolidated first, second, and third places, with the remainder of the fleet four or five miles back.

B195 trailed the three leaders home to take fourth place. After her, and a long way back, came Heatwave, fifth, Country Boy, sixth…


Tom Stephenson recently told me he believed his boat was the fastest downwind in all conditions, especially in a blow. When they went to Clipper Cup the won the Hate The State race by something like 15 hours corrected, due to a lot of legs being really windy running, where they could sail the same speeds as boats rating more than 10 feet higher.