|
|
|
Endeavour (J Class)
|
She is the most beautiful J class yacht ever built. She was the fastest of the class when she was built. She should have brought the Americas Cup back to Britain.
Like all British J boats, she was designed by Charles Nicholson. Sir Thomas Sopwith was his client. Nicholson's lines were conventional. It seems the design was not even tank tested. However, her lines are fair, and extremely beautiful. She proved very fast indeed.
Sopwith was determined to learn from the humiliation suffered by "Shamrock V" in 1930. The new boat's rig was a technological marvel. Strain guages measured the loads in the shrouds and stays, and enabled the rig to be precisely tuned. Instruments measured wind speed and direction, reading out to guages directly in front of the helmsman. This is commonplace today, but then it was very new. A large number of winches were fitted. A new type of sail, the quadrilateral jib, supplied two tons of extra driving force. She was certainly a faster boat than "Rainbow", the defender. Sopwith was a superb helmsman, especially in the vital pre-start manoevres. As any competitive sailor knows, many match races are won or lost at the start.
|
|
Login
