S&S 47 Sparkman & Stephens 47

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1973

The 1972 Kiel Olympics provided another sea change to attitudes around the Admiral’s Cup. The introduction of the IOR rule brought new ideas, gear and techniques from dinghy sailing to offshore and the Olympics provided a forum for sailors to exchange ideas. In Germany, whose previous best performing boat had finished only 14th in an individual race, this was taken up in full and they built a roster of boats to meet the IOR rule including the eventual team: Carina, Saudade and Rubin. The boats this year, across the board, embraced innovation: pits were used by the Australians, twin-grooved forestays and crosslinked winches by the British.

There was a dramatic start to the Channel Race with a brisk 20 knot breeze blowing out spinnakers. For the British, the 2ndand 8th of two of the team was negated by a 42nd, dragging them to sixth overall; Germany led, followed by Holland and Italy. The second race was held in a force 8, blowing 9, but this didn’t stop Berend Beilken of the German team comparing it to a dinghy race with tactics to match – he took the overall win with Saudade although the Australian team moved into second place to the Germany by just 12 points. The third race, again won by Saudade, boosted Britain into third place behind Australia, now only 6 points behind the Germans. Consistency in the Fastnet Race meant that Germany went home with the Admiral’s Cup after what was a frustrating race for many, with fog and meandering to negligible breeze towards the end.

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