Le Jol, Belgium and Olympic History. the One-Design Revolution
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1 Le Jol, Belgium and Olympic History. The one-design revolution by Bert Hamminga Since time immemorial, speed is of vital importance in sailing: in times where it hardly mattered whether a ship reached its destination a month later or earlier, the skipper could use speed to flee a larger ship to prevent robbery. If one had a larger ship, then speed was indispensable to be able to catch up with a ship to be robbed and to be received in the home port with cheering for the rich booty. It is therefore not surprising that racing against each other since the invention of sailing has always been practiced as a game, as a useful, and indeed indispensable, exercise for real life. In ancient times, prizes for outstanding speed were awarded on naval fleets en route to naval battles. Admirals already knew before the battle which boats had to be given the difficult orders. Sailing was not a number at the games in the Ancient Greek Olympia, but sailing and rowing competitions were held a lot in ancient Greece. With sailing skills, designing the ship was one of the skills in which one measured. There were sails and oars for propelling a ship, and both were used in competitions, often both at the same time. Winning with a faster ship was seen as just as honorable as winning with a faster sailing and rowing crew. 2 When peers George Cockshott (1875-1953), spiritual father of the International 12 Foot Dingy and Léon Huybrechts (1876-1956), world icon of competition sailing between the world wars, were born, rowing was rarely done anymore during sailing competitions, but the sailing classes’ rules still were very free, defined by hull length and sail surface. At the beginning of the new century there was a 6m, 8m and a 12m class. Within certain limits ("restricted class"), sailors were allowed to determine for themselves what they took on the water. Building specs were part of the competition. At that time the Boat Racing Association was established in England out of the need to do more for competition in smaller sailing boats ("dinghies" under 6 meters). It was precisely in this sector that enthusiasm arose for the somewhat longer-standing idea of excluding building skills and allowing the competition to focus solely on sailing skills. That required different building rules for competition boats: a strictly defined one-design class. Nowadays there are still "development classes" for people with a big wallet and for companies who want to stimulate or sponsor the development of certain types of technology. But the affordable competitive sport, we now know nothing else, works with one-design classes: the Finn Dinghy, the Laser and so on. 3 And the International 12 Foot Dinghy. Le Jol! But that was the very first one-design class ever to appear at the Olympic Games! That historic day in Belgium, at sea for Ostend, was 7 July 1920. We first go back 8 years. That is a step back over an entire world war. In 1912, the BRA launched a design competition for a one-design 12-foot sailing boat that could also be used as a dinghy by larger yachts. With this dinghy requirement, one hoped to widen the market and make the competition class larger. George Cockshott’s design won. The name became BRA “A”-Class One-Design. Twelve-foot one- design competitions were to be organized, as well as competitions together with the BRA “B”-Restricted Class, also a twelve-foot dinghy, but with more liberties. When the IYRU chose the dinghy in 1919 to introduce the first one-design ever at the Olympic Games, it was given its current name: International 12 Foot Dinghy. The Dutch/Flemish name twaalfvoetsjol is a confusing abbreviation. There are many types of twelve-foot dinghies, but there is only one International 12 Foot Dinghy, simply because it was defined as a one- design by the BRA in 1913. For example, the Italian AICD twelve-foot dinghy does not meet those design requirements and is therefore not an International 12 Foot Dinghy. On weighing them, for instance (sail ready), they turn out to be 25 kg too light, which alone makes them much faster. See table left, source: http://international12.org/other%20dinghies/ AICD/Towing%20test_eng.pdf. Neither does the Dutch "Nationale Twaalfvoetsjol”, conform the original design of the International 12 Foot Dinghy any longer since 1995, after the Dutch decided to go their own national way with a revised design. Since then the Dutch dinghy no longer is BRA “A”-Class One-Design (measure details free online summary). Fortunately, most dinghies in the Netherlands are from before that time. Moreover, the differences between the approximately 100 dinghies built to the revised Dutch National design and the “A”-Class One-Design are so small that hull resistance will probably come out as statistically equal in the most expensive tow tank tests. But one-design is one-design, hence the Dutch “Nationale Twaalfvoetsjol” (among other things 366cm long instead of 12’) is not an International 12. Why did the Dutch do it? It is not known, hence all explanations remain speculative, for example, in terms of an earning model: the Dutch sailing federation claimed copyright on the apocryphal Brinkhorst drawing, which costs around 80 euros. There is a digital file but the buyer receives a paper version. That federation also "sells" annual compulsory license renewals for boats already measured and licensed - on the federation's website, this priced annual renewal is called a "product". In regular meetings of Dutch owners of the “Nationale Twaalfvoetsjol”, organised by the federation, changes are made that make the local Dutch “jollen”-fleet drift further and further away from the “A”-Class One- Design. Prior to those meetings, when invited, the owners will be warned that they will only be allowed to vote if they have paid the last renewal of their boat license. The Watersportverbond recently 4 announced that this system of annual payment for the extension of boat licenses will be abolished Januari 1, 2020. Cockshott's Belgian generation companion Léon Huybrechts always seems to have had a liking for small sailing boats, but just like in England, they were treated somewhat stepmotherly in Belgium before the First World War. At the 1908 Olympic Games, Léon sailed on the Solent by Wight with his brother Louis and Henri Weewouters in the 6-meter class and won silver. He was 32. I would like to have witnessed the moment when Léon cut open the Yachtsman of July 1913 (that was the way it was then), and saw the prize-winning design for a twelve-foot dinghy. I can already hear him say "that is a cute dinghy!". Le Jol was born! To never disappear from the scene again. An Englishman! George Cockshott. Léon Huybrechts and George Cockshott 5 The most important thing about the small competition boat was affordability for a wider group, which probably improved the quality of the top in the competition, and then again challenged talent - such as Léon! - to measure. Another special feature was the use of body weight in the balance. 'Hanging' and balancing front/back and port/starboard, so usual to us, then was a novelty, watched with admiration from the shore. Thus in a very short time Le Jol became a boat for the then top sailors of the world. At the Belgium Olympic Games in 1920, Léon opted for the 6 meter (the then new 1919 type). Huybrechts again won a silver medal for his yacht Tan-Fe-Pah and his crew John Klotz and Charles Van Den Bussche. But only two of those yachts participated. At the Belgian Olympic Games of which we are going to celebrate the Centennial in Oostende (due to postponement) on 10-11 July 2021 with Le Jol, it was no different for the International 12 Foot Dinghies. The two Dutch teams, Cornelis and Frans Hin with the Beatrijs, and Arnoud van der Biesen and Petrus Beukers with the Boreas, arrived in Oostende in July 1920. We must assume: by ship by sea. You hardly had any cars or motorways yet and the boat trailer would not be invented until decades later. The traffic was still on horseback. But they were scarce and very expensive: in the first world war, 8 million horses had just died. The Dutch asked around in Oostende, but it turned out that no other dinghy sailors had reported themselves. 6 In 1920, two years after the war, the Oostende port was far from cleared On day 1 of the Olympic Games, the dinghies were sent to sea with the yachts. They bravely coped with the tide, unusual to them, and reached port in a freshening Westerly just without sinking. Biesen/Beukers won but there is also a story of a mark drifting on the rising tide. The organizers now understood: those dinghies no longer had to go at sea. A course was set out in the port for the following day. The designated officials, however, preferred to see the "real" competition and gave their starting gun and their results form to some friends to disappear themselves to the sea on the other jury boat. This came to the attention of some official Olympic baron who furiously annulled the dinghy races. Another baron, who came from the Netherlands, suggested that since the gentlemen sailors always sailed against each other on Durgerdam, near Amsterdam at the Zuiderzee, deciders could be held there in September. So it happened. At Durgerdam the wind dropped completely during the second race.