Here you can see the Bath brothers
trying out a new main sheet system on their Hein FD in 1973.
With a "Loveday Loop" at the
transom which Christer incidentally had been using for many years on his 505s (sorry John
- Christer was well ahead of you with the loop!), he knew from experience that he would
get equally fast main sheet handling on the FD.
However, the tiller on the Dutchman
presented some major problems, so the contraption turned out more or less like some sort
of a radio mast as you can see.
Ridiculed at Kiel Week
Needless to say Christer and Pelle were the
laughing stock at the "Kieler Woche" when they first showed their new FD outside
of Sweden a few weeks after this photo was taken. The brothers were really ridiculed until
the racing began. With a few top placings by Christer and Pelle the laughter stopped.
As with the 505, transom sheeting on a FD
gives better sail control the more it blows (with the right handling that is!).
Unfortunately with the Ducthman, transom sheeting in Force 3 and above only works in
theory since the luff of the genoa starts to sag, thus hampering boat performance. Unlike
with the 505 you need the extra tension from the main sheet to keep the luff of the large
foresail straight.
This was a technical set back for Christer.
To overcome it he thought of having movable shrouds, thus creating the neccessary luff
tension on the beat, but he scrapped the idea in the end.
Yet another invention by Christer Bath
Christer thought new and constructed
adjustable genoa sheet blocks instead. These blocks were controlled by the crew from the
trapeze x). He knew that in sudden gusts it would be quicker for the crew to open
the slot between main and genoa than to rake the mast from a position outside of the
dinghy.
This genoa sheet system of Christer worked
beautifully, but not until some ten years later did it become commonly used in the
Dutchman class. Of course an american FD sailer with a good sense for marketing got the
credit for Christer´s invention.
505 sailors trying their luck with the FD
– a reflection
The Bath brothers, Krister Bergström and
many more prominet 505 sailors have all tried the Dutchman, only to find they were
underfinanced! While the Diesch and Vollebrecht brothers plus the rest of the top shots
all had two FDs to play with plus a third on order, the swedish FD projects (apart from
Hagander maybe) had to rely on one boat and the performance it could offer.
Those of us who seriously have tried the Dutchman knows how tricky this was. Not only did
you need to be lucky with "the built in" performance of the FD you bought (at
least this was the case in the sixty- seventies), the dinghy was also, let´s face it, not
so easy to tune.
In retrospect at least the Bath bros. would have thought three times before giving up 505
sailing in favour of olympic campaining if they only had known what they know today.
Besides, the 505 is a vastly superior dinghy to the Dutchman. We can all agree on that,
can´t we.
x) (see how the helmsmen constantly
tries to increase the work volume for the crew, something ITWU never has or will accept!)
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