Fair point in some ways, although I'm not sure the size was a limit - more a suggestion IIRC. If they hadn't let the Soling in, I wonder whether today we would criticise them for not letting the smaller, cheaper boat, which was faster downwind, to compete! They also did the same thing when they let the Dart 18 in, despite the fact that it was too big for the trial conditions IIRC. It has also been a dud as far as a real worldwide international class.DavidC wrote:The best thing about history is distance and the discussions in between!
The two man centre board trials took a long while. The first round was in 1952 in Loosdrect Lake and on the Ijsselmeer. There were 16 designs from 7 countries. The FD seemed better on the lake and the Osprey had the edge on open water.
The articles I have on the trials indicates that at Loosdrecht (21-23 June) the FD scored 4,5,2,7 (guest skipper), 3,2,1. Osprey scored 5,6,7,1,8,3,4.
On the Ijsselmeer, the FD scored 7 wins from 7. The Osprey scored 9,2,6,3,6,4. I'd be interested in more info.
Unofficial further trials then took place in Chichester Harbour in September 1952 with the FD, Osprey, Gannet, Int 14, Merlin-Rocket and 12sq M Sharpie.
I have the reports and the FD did not dominate.
Yes, that tallies with the cryptic reports I've seen. Apparently on the slop and light winds, the FD got slaughtered - one reason it grew the bigger genoa which it could carry with the trap.
The IYRU then set further trials for 1953 in La Baule, by which time the FD's had new lighter hulls and more sail area. I quote from the confidential IYRU report at the time:
"The most consistent winner was Coronet, with two Flying Dutchmen next. Osprey also performed well, and among the smaller boats Fleetwing and one of the Canetons with increased sail area were pre-eminent. The performance of the Hornet was also impressive, considering her small sail area. It was striking that, with such wide differences in the size and design of the boats the racing should have been so close throughout the series"
Fleetwing was a souped up 14 with decks, self draining cockpit, genoa and one trapeze.
Interesting - my reports spoke of her as a standard 14.
Totally agree that many other boats were also very strong - the Osprey had superior buoyancy, skipper visibility, etc. The Hornet strikes me as one of the great boats of the day.
The British reports are possibly influenced by the traditional British preference for short boats, no? The 505 is one of the world's greatest designs but good designers like Lexcen also loved the FD.
Maybe the 505's have some claim. As a point, at the end of the trials the FD had broken 50% of their deck beams and had to be reinforced before production.
As to the IYRU modifying the rules, the Soling may have been a good boat, but Jan LInge himself told me it should not have been at the trials as it was the wrong size and a sailing plug not a production boat. When it was selected, he was not allowed to change anything which is why the boat ended up with measurement templates which would only fit one way round!
Over to you DH
I'm rather impressed by the success of these trials generally, compared to catastrophes of the choice of the Uffa Fox International Tornado dinghy and the ridiculous trials for the RSX board.
I would love to get a look at those reports - where did they come from?
