1978 International 505
World Championship Copenhagen/Denmark
Report by Dennis
Surtees President International 505 Class Racing Association
The place: Skovshoved Sejlklub, Gentofte is a few kilometers north of Copenhagen on a well-equipped,
well-used Marina with a friendly club, good restaurant, and hard-working club members. The Danish 505 Association, the city, the club and it's members and sponsors combined put on a memorable and exciting championship. Under Tage Schack, the organization was smooth and efficient. The local fleet, with the help of the International Rules
Committee, handled the measurement expeditiously. More hulls were measured by Ted May than ever before. More of them were sent away either permanently or to return corrected. A tent city sprang up at one end of the harbour and a container city at the other. Local hotels, boarding houses and private homes quickly filled with
505ers and we were ready to race.
Glenfiddich sponsored a moving little opening ceremony at which the National flags were raised and much Glenfiddich was lowered. Not the least of the latter was the half-tumbler full that the French thought that Derek and I should chug-a-lug! I am told that we made a pretty sight as we wandered arm in arm down Hellerup main road. It is a credit to the Whiskey that we felt no special ill-effects the next
day, or are we just so hardened to it?
The racing: From my somewhat unimpressive place in the fleet I cannot give you a blow-by-blow of the action up front. Perhaps you will find it elsewhere. Perhaps equally fun to read would be a few of the observed highlights. The weather remained force 3 to 5 through the first four races, with lumpy seas. As the days progressed the wind tended to go clock-wise but within each race there were many shifts whose predictability can be attested to only by the leaders. Most of us found wind (and current) capricious, judging from the quality of the helmsmen that found themselves in the middle (or muddle) of the fleet at the first mark. The first start was notable for the number of 5-ohs that tried to sink the gate boat despite dire warnings of the consequences. The ultimate culprit was found in the
boatpark later after many "who-me"s or "I wasn't anywhere near that end"s. After the one DSQ the gates returned to the even tenor of their predicted ways.
West Coast, USA types were elated to see Jim Warfield and John Gilmore first with Brauch and Beck second the first day. Jim, unknown to many outside the USA, has been a very successful helmsman for years back home. It was no accident but the championship was to be nobody walkover. Peter Colclough and Terry Kyrwood fought out the second race with Kyrwood finishing the winner and Peter second. Colclough came back to
win the third race while the fourth went to our host country with a win by the
Bojsen-Moller brothers. At this stage, with one throwout, the Bojsen-Mollers led overall with Colclough second. The equilateral
(60-60-60) triangle had been working well. The reaches were mostly difficult three sail legs but there were times when two sails were faster (and easier) than three. Frequently it was necessary to raise or drop the spinnaker during the leg revealing all too well the level of training of the various teams. The small flat spinnakers seem to shine in these conditions. No one type of boat dominated. Kyrwoods, Parkers, Lindsays and other one-offs had similar pace. It truly appeared to be a test of crew skills. The
Bojsen-Moller boat might have been exceptional. Paul Elvstrom watching most days, felt that their boat had a speed edge. It was one of the original Kyrwood hulls from La Rochelle, with a carbon-fibered Alpha Minus mast.
The fifth and sixth days were wiped out by excessive winds. The loss of the fifth day was taken well by most crews after the huge beer tasting, dinner and dance given by Tuborg on the fourth night. No doubt the record quantities of beer (according to Tuborg)
consumed that night were responsible for the relieved looks on the overhung faces in the dinghy park!
The loss of the sixth race was a different matter. The banquet was that day. After much agonizing, we decided to hold the fifth race on the spare day so the trophy banquet became a banquet without trophies! It was non-the-less, very enjoyable. My boat had disappeared on a ferry that morning. I was leaving early myself until I saw that Jim Warfield was in
the lead and the black lines of cloud that were developing. Four boats could win on paper: Colclough,
Bojsen-Moller, Kyrwood and Warfield. At first, Colclough and Moller were "in the tank". Could Warfield hang on to win? Could Colclough recover so many places? The lead changed hands several times as line squalls decimated the fleet. Edward Owens led for a
long time until he was slow to take down his kite in a squall. Kyrwood, too, held the lead (and the whole championship) until he was bowled over by a huge gust. Brauch took over the lead only to see his
mast collapse under the strain. Steve Taylor won that day but Kyrwood's capsize had cost him the championship because Peter Colclough was, indeed, doing his accustomed climb through the fleet. Boats appeared to disappear in front of him as on succesive roundings he went from 20th to 12th to 7th and finally third. He was one of the few not to capsize that day. He truly did a champion's job in coming through to win his third championship in a row. We thought that his wife Sue was going to have a heart attack as she listened to the results round by round.
Meanwhile, I'd got so excited that I forgot all my plans for an early
departure for the ferry. Rob Napier and I sat there counting the scores as we bewailed the conditions that thrill us most.
Throughout the racing the committee showed excellent judgement in moving either the weather or reaching marks, depending on wind strength and directon. The competitors did not
appreciate, however, the siting of the course on the first day over the Copenhagen sewer outfall! On seeing the broad brown slick on the water, I asked Roy Parker "What the hell is that?" He replied: "It looks like it. It smells like it. I'm pretty sure that I know just what it is!" He was right. Sally Lindsay insisted that it was faster to sail in it than out but her stomach is stronger than mine. On one occasion when a big header caused me to turn back into it, all I got from my crew was a laconic "thanks".
Boats and Equipment Last year at La Rochelle, each of the first four boats was at minimum weight. We took that lesson to heart. This year, minimum weight was the rule not the exception. This applied to all builders. It seems so obviously possible to be below minimum using modern methods that the class will find it necessary to weigh more stringently in future, perhaps both all-up AND and stripped, or checks on the leaders of each race as in Australia in 76. The Parker, Kyrwood and Lindsay seemed equally fast. My impression of my borrowed Rondar was that it, too, was as good as any. It appears to have recovered that great turn of down-wind speed of yore. The Kyrwood and Parker balsa shells are heavier than before but they make up for it with lighter deck and tank construction. Even boats that are 2 to 3 kilos over on the hull can get to minimum all-up using good rudder and centerboard construction. The question will be "How long will these light hulls last?" For this reason, it seems wise for our class to continue to allow experimentation with new materials. At the recent Star World Championships, I talked to Buddy Melges about their problems with restriction of materials. At the moment, our most expensive boats are the wooden ones. We need a production boat in modern synthetic materials that will be long-lived under the terrific rig tension that we are using. The Star builders have abondened wood techniques but struggle under their materials limitations. Buddy thinks that our rules should allow us to build boats that will last forever! His personal opinion is that a balsa core in a sandwich of the new woven rovings of glass carbon and/or Kevlar vacuum-bagged into a rigid panel will produce a strong boat that is lighter than anything that we have seen. Melges has made these ideas work and has been a World or Olympic champion in Stars, Slings and Scows.
Masts: Apart from Bojsen-Moller's Alpha Minus, the Proctor D continues to be the commonest section. The "carbonized" Alpha Minus raised our eyebrows. It was certainly
on a fast boat but whether it was the cause of that must be confirmed. Schaeffer booms are very light and stiff but need very careful fitting out.
Jeff Brauch had a carbon fiber spinnaker pole with all the fittings epoxied on. It was
not lighter but much stiffer than other poles.
Centerboards: The Kyrwoods stick to the non-jibing, conventional eliptical shape with laminar flow sections as advocated by Frank Bethwaite. This contrasts to the high aspect ratio boards with the
so-called "continuous leading edge" on the best European 505s. The U.S.
boats mostly used jibing, high-aspect ratio boards by Mark Lindsay. There has been much speculation whether the better performance of the Kyrwood boats in heavy air is related to their different hull shape. Now that all the best boats are light and have stiff panel construction, it is quite possible that the difference in centerboards is the primary factor in different performance. In this regard, it is important to note that Terry Kyrwood's boat had been altered to class tolerances. It no longer has the magic narrowness at station 6, as did the Bojsen-Moller boat. I have been using the Australian style of board all year but used a large, long, jibing board at the Worlds. I was made very aware of the changes in sailing characteristics that this causes. This is not, after all, a very new concept but new boat owners should think as much about the area and shape of their board related to their weight as they do about the fullness of their sails. Whether you get a rocking (jibing) board or not relates to your style of sailing and the
water smoothness. A rocking board may work much better if you are a "pincher" (variously also called stuffers or screwers in the English vernacular) than if you are a "driver" and certainly better in smooth water.
Sails: Colclough used Mustos again, moderately full jib and main with considerable luff curve. Moller's sails were Elvstroms; they certainly fitted their bendy Alpha to perfection. Kyrwood had a flat Burke main on a stiff mast. The Australians, in general, used flatter mains than most except the Banks and, I think, the Norths on Taylor's boat. Warfield, fifth, had his own De Witt sails and thought
that he did not develop his speed until he went to flat sails. Are we seeing yet another cycle caused by the need to point out of the "Gate" starts ? The "shy 'chute" seems to be here to stay, at least until we get a course change at the World
Chaimpionship. The Australian section can take pride in the introduction of yet another class revolution.
Equipment: Many manufacturers are copying, the Harken roller blocks but the Harken "Cammatic" cleat is in a class of it's own (all be it, a rather expensive one. The
U.S. boats showed the most adjustables but their low weights allowed for it. In general, most boats are going for simplicity with fixed shrouds or simple shroud Highfield levers with adjustable forestays to compress bend into the mast. Almost every boat sheets the jib to the inside edge of the tanks now. A few, including Brauch and Warfield, each quite fast in a breeze, can pull the jib fairleads outboard. Spinnaker fairleads are being moved forward for the smaller spinnakers and, finally, stripes are definitely considered fast now.
