1964 olympics

MELGES-BENTSEN
XVIII OLYMPIAD BRONZE MEDALS

by Bob Levorsen, Region X VP and
Olympic Coach for the Trinidad FD Team

Bud Melges and Bill Bentsen, the U. S. Flying Dutchman team in the 1964 Olympics, were each awarded the bronze medal for their third place finish during the closing ceremonies held at Enoshima, Japan, October 21, 1964. Their 10-2-DNF-2-2-3-10 record during the preceding ten days gave them a best six out of seven total point score of 5,158. This was over six hundred points ahead of Miss Denmark, skippered by Hans Fogh, 1962 World Champion. And it was only 398 below the 5,556 points earned by Britain's silver medal winners, Musto and Morgan, whose "Lady C" finished ahead of Melges "Widgeon" in four out of the seven races. First place gold medals went to New Zealand's Pedersen and Wells. They were running nineteenth out of twenty-one after the second race but came back in story book fashion with three firsts, a third and a fourth to accumulate 6,255 points and the admiration of the rest of the fleet for their amazing speed to windward.

Weather conditions at Sagami Bay varied from extremely light with dead patches in the trial race to the third race's roaring rainstorm when gusts were recorded at over forty knots. All except the last day's wind came from the land, and wind shifts were both frequent and severe. They seemed to affect almost everyone equally, though, and in the end it was boat speed that decided the series.

US Representatives Bud Melges-Bill Bentsen at the weather mark in the fourth race. They lead the entire Olympic fleet to each mark in this race. On the last leg they carefully covered New Zealand while Denmark played each wind shift and beat US across the finish line by six seconds. Photo by K. Hashimoto who was an official photographer of the Japan Yachting Assoc. and an FD sailor himself. After the race he purchased Denmark's FD.

New Zealand's Gold Medal winning team of heavy weather experts Helmar Pederson and Earl Wells. Photo by Bob Levorsen.

The FD provided the greatest thrill of all the Olympic classes with spectacular speed, capsizes, critical breakdowns, and close finishes. The caliber of the competition is best illustrated by the fact that last year's world champion, Renevier of Switzerland, could place no higher than eleventh in any race and wound up seventeenth just behind last year's Pan American Games winner from Brazil.

The impression that will last the longest from this year's Yachting Olympics will undoubtedly be the supreme effort put forth by the Japanese organizers Nothing wa s left undone and the facilities provided were outstanding. The Enoshima Yacht Club, specially built for these races, could have held five times the number of yachts involved (21 FDs, 33 Finns, 17 Stars, 23 Dragons, 15 5. 5s). Each yacht was loaned a stop watch, and individual daily weather maps, forecasts and water current read-ings were provided. Results, including rounding order at each mark and current point standings, were usually available by the time the last boat of each class was back at the club. Visibility aids included large marks, ten foot balloons and 150' committee boats. Over seventy vessels and three thousand men were utilized in running the races on three separate Olympic courses! Measuring of the FDs was supervised by a professor of naval architecture, Dr. K. Nomoto. Only about half of them measured in the first time, including "Widgeon", which Melges had rebuilt before shipping to Japan by air. The most common serious fault was having decks too high. All faults were correctable with the help of five Japanese carpenters, but many FDs sailed with peculiar patches, including one of the two plastic boats present.

The US yachtsmen all stayed at a small hotel very close to the Enoshima Yacht Club. While this saved them the half hour ride to the Yachting Olympic Village at Oiso where everyone else stayed, it caused them to miss out on most of the international fellowship which is a good part of the Olympics. A resume of the individual races follows:

These photos are by our own FD/US Olympic reporter -photographer Bob Levorsen.
The top photo shows Melges' damaged deck after the rip-snorter third race. Five Japanese carpenters were on duty for quick boat repairs.
The next photo is the transom of the Gold Medal winning New Zealanders. With so many first place finishes, it is appropriate to have a stern photo.
The broken boom was Denmark's. Another third race casualty.
The bottom photo shows our Bronze Medal winners Bud and Bill after taking a second behind New Zealand in the fifth race.

TRIAL RACE, October 9: Although a good idea, the trial race proved to be a boring affair sailed in dying winds that left many boats stranded and frustrated. Rhodesia took an early lead only to have Russia pass on a wind shift that made the rest of the race a side sail. New Zealand's second boat, brought along for tune-up purposes, came third. The US team, with their wives, watched from the side lines.

FIRST RACE, October 12: So many boats had been over early at the trial race that caution prevailed during the start of the first Olympic race with no boats even close to the line when the gun went off. France was first over at the favored starboard side. The fleet stayed mostly on starboard tack with only short port tacks being necessary. Italy's Capio had a poor leeward start but maintained good boat speed in the light air and followed France around the weather mark. Buffet of France had trouble raising his spinnaker so Capio used his genoa until he had drawn even, blanketing Buffet so much that he had to bear away off course. Melges rounded eighth after Norway, Russia, Japan, Sweden and Canada.

About this time the sun broke through the high clouds and the wind swung to the east and dropped even lower in intensity. It was then a dead run to the second mark and a close reach to the third. Italy, France and Norway were well ahead as the wind swung around even more and picked back up to the initial five to eight knots. The race then became a reaching parade but with several changes in position. Rhodesia seemed to like the lake-like sailing conditions prevailing and with mast pushed well forward moved up from tenth at the initial weather mark to third at the final leeward mark.

They almost passed France for second place trying desperately to do so with a quick spinnaker raising 100 yards from the line. They missed by five sec-onds, however, as France covered nicely. Canada moved up three places to fourth and Switzerland, 19th at the first and only weather mark, pulled up to 11th just behind the US. No one had nearly the boat speed that Capio showed, however, and he finished a good two and a half minutes ahead of France and Rhodesia.

SECOND RACE, October 13: With the wind rising to 12 to 15 knots, the second race promised to be more to the liking of the heavy weather countries. The Australians made full use of their good start and soon had a commanding lead. Miss Denmark hit another boat while on port tack and retired soon after a good start. Melges' last minute switch back to his heavy weather main paid off and he seemed to maintain good boat speed while pointing high. Little tacking was required until the first" mark which Australia rounded forty seconds ahead of the US, followed by England who had moved up very well, France, Norway, and Trinidad's Barrow Brothers sailing Jake Van Heeckeren's boat. By this time the wind had dropped to five knots and Norway and Italy passed France, and Trinidad dropped to fourteenth. On the second reaching leg no further changes of significance took place, but on the second beat, while Melges was concentrating on breaking away from the Australian leader, England split tacks, caught a good wind shift and rounded second, 35 seconds behind Australia, but a very important 55 seconds ahead of US 600. Buddy tried to catch up by jybing downwind but while he caught halfway up to the Australian boat, he lost ten more seconds to mark.

On the last beat, England increased her lead while the US team finally broke loose from Australia, whose speed to windward in the lighter air was very slow. Final positions were: England first by 2 min. 20 sec. , USA second, Holland and Australia only 7 seconds apart. Capio recovered from a poor start to finish fifth, giving him a 203 total point lead over Britain. New Zealand retired after the one knot current had set her onto the leeward mark. Norway, who was either fourth or fifth around every mark, held on to starboard tack too long on the final beat and wound up twelfth. This was so frustrating that the skipper's foot stamping damaged his hull and kept the Japanese carpenters up half the night! Canada's protest that the Austrian's had tacked too close was upheld after a two hour and forty-five minute, multilingual hearing before the fifteen member International Jury, headed by Peter Scott.

THIRD RACE, October 14: In this, the most crucial race of the series, Buddy Melges' keen desire to win was his undoing as he capsized while spinnaker-ing after the leader. He was not the only one to have trouble though, as seven other boats retired and three of the finishers capsized as well. It was a cloudy, rainy start with about 25 knots blowing. Austria, Trinidad and France were first across the line, followed by Holland and Denmark. Melges soon moved out in front of the starboard tack boats and came up the middle of the course. The Russians had gone over to port right after a poor start, and it enabled them to round the first mark over a minute ahead of Buddy and Bill who were closely followed by Denmark, France, Austria, Norway and New Zealand in that order.

Buddy went into a planing beam reach rather than follow Russia straight to the second mark. After several hundred yards, he raised his spinnaker in an heroic effort to close the gap. Wind and sea were too much though and "Widgeon" capsized, was righted and capsized again, breaking rudder, wooden mast foot, and part of the deck in the process (see photo). Rhodesia's rudder broke with spinnaker up and he "capped" and retired, while Russia's lead disintegrated along with her rudder on the third leg. It was about this time that the anemometer was reading an average of 35 mph with gusts to 42-46 mph on the adjacent Finn course. Trinidad and Australia also capsized. The Australian crew got separated from his boat and was picked up by the Swedish FD which then continued around the course and eventually finished 12th. This fine sportsmanship received a great deal of publicity from the Japanese press.

These fine photos of the exciting third race were taken by M. Kawashima of Tokyo. Above, Austria is doing its best to get the bow up and boat flat, but for some reason the crew is not on the trapeze. Meanwhile Norway is capsizing after a bad jybe. Norway righted and continued to finish seventh.
Denmark is shown finishing fourth with a broken metal boom. She was leading when the main halyard lock gave way and then the boom.
1960 Olympic Champion Peder Lunde planing hard on genoa and batten tips as main is luffed.

Denmark now had the lead in this race and proceeded to hang on to it for three more harrowing legs. Norway capsized while jybing on the second run (see picture), but righted and continued to race. In the meantime, New Zealand had been moving up steadily until at the last leeward mark she was third behind Denmark and England, yesterday's winner. England's full and flapping main did not allow her to point high enough to hold off New Zealand for long, and then disaster struck the leader, Denmark. First, her main halyard lock came unlocked, and then her aluminum boom broke (see picture). She continued on but gradually was passed, first by New Zealand, then by England, and then, just before the finish line, by Austria.

The remaining nine finishers were spread out over an hour and a half with Japan manfully finishing under main alone after repeated capsizing. Needless to say, the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent checking, repairing and replacing equipment.

FOURTH RACE, October 15: The last race of the first group was made by Henderson of Canada. It gave him such a good lead that he was soon able to port tack the entire fleet. This cut him only to sixth at the first mark as he could not keep his boat going as fast as the others in the 15-25 knots of NNE breeze which prevailed under clear skies for a change. In fact, that was his best leg and he was soon out of the running. Melges sailed a beautiful race, leading at every mark. While he was carefully covering New Zealand on the last leg, Hans Fogh was playing the wind shifts and crossed the finish line six seconds ahead of US 600. France should have finished fourth, but unfortunately took a strong header about 100 yards from the finish line and "capped" to windward, finishing fifteenth.

A three day break followed, during which time the leaders all contemplated cumulative points for the first four races which went like this:
1st    Britain   8-1-2-5    3789 points
2nd    Denmark   6-dnf-4-1    2990 points
3rd    U. S. A.    10-2-dnf-2    2768    "
4th    New Zealand 16-dnf-1-3    2689    "
5th    France      2-7-5-15       2671 "
6th    Italy    1-5-dnf-12      2592 "

FIFTH RACE, October 19: The second series of races started under clear skies and 20 knot winds, with Mount Fuji looking down upon the scene for the first time. Although Denmark got a good start, she soon lost it and Melges led the fleet up the middle. Then, once again the early long port tack paid off and Norway appeared out to the east to round the weather mark first. She soon had her big red spinnaker pulling, but to keep it full had to bear slightly off course. Melges, there-fore, went upwind on genoa for about half the leg before allowing Bentsen to set the pale blue arid white spinnaker that had dragged them under the week before. Norway rounded the second mark and jybed without losing a bit of wind, but Buddy had to let his spinnaker luff madly for several boat lengths as he came upwind to round and jybe. Norway's reaching did not put her far enough in front and she was passed by the US, New Zealand, Rhodesia and France on the next beat and by Denmark and Britain on the final beat. The US did not lead at any mark this day as New Zealand passed her to weather on a slight lift and was not to be caught by anyone. Their boat has been perfectly tuned for beating inthe strong winds, on which they have apparently been weaned.

France took a flier on the last beat by going out to starboard and it worked well enough for them to pass two boats and make Melges and Bentsen come over to cover, which they did just in time. USA finished eleven seconds ahead of France and fifteen seconds ahead of Rhodesia. Denmark also came up fast, crossing the line a split second ahead of England. This was quite a comeback for them as they were sixteenth at the first weather mark.

SIXTH RACE, October 20: The wind continued blowing out of the NNE but with less intensity than before. But it was strong enough for the boys from New Zealand. They were first to the weather mark. England rounded second and caught and passed KZ on the next spinnaker reach. The USA's white hull was behind England, Norway, and Russia. Buddy soon worked his way up to third but was never able to catch the fast flying British and New Zealand teams. KZ 22 led the way across the finish line a bare five seconds ahead of 2nd place England, but seven minutes ahead of 3rd place US. Russia took a flier to the east on the last leg and it paid off beautifully, enabling her to record her second 4th of the series. Australia retired after hitting another boat while in 5th place.

Here's the start of the seventh race showing US 600 at the best end of the line with wind free and bombing away. The wind played dirty tricks this day though and after the first tack US stood no better than sevehth and finished tenth. To have won the Gold Medal, Melges would had to win and New Zealand finish no better than fifth. Photo by Bob Levorsen.

The start of the ill-fated third race. Melges' number is not visible but we believe he has wind-ward position. Austria (second from left) bearing away, and Trinidad got the start, followed by Denmark and Holland. Melges soon took the lead however, except for the Russians, who took a port tack flyer and rounded the weather mark a minute ahead of second place Melges. It was in a valiant effort to close this gap that US popped its chute and capsized.

THE GAMES OF THE XVIII OLYMPIAD, TOKYO

ENOSHIMA YACHT HARBOR IBM OLYMPIC DATACENTER NO. 20-04-27P

UPDATED CLASSIFICATION OCT. 21, 1964

YOTTO *** YACHTING *** YACHTING

FLYING DUTCHMAN

-7TH RACE - RACE POINTS AND PLACE TOTAL OF PLACE COUNTRY SAIL NO.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BEST SIX 1 NZEALAND KZ-22 16 219 - 101 1 1423 3 946 1 1423 1 1423 4 821 6255 2 BRITAIN K-93 8 520 1 1423 2 1122 5 724 6 645 2 1122 11 382 5556 3 U.S.A. US-600 l0 423 2 1122 - 101 2 1122 2 1122 3 946 10 423 5158 4 DENMARK D-10 6 645 - 101 4 821 1 1423 5 724 13 309 7 578 4500 5 U.S.S.R. SR-l 7 578 13 309 - 101 4 821 10 423 4 821 1 1423 4375 6 NETHLAND H-187 15 247 3 946 8 520 8 520 11 382 5 724 2 1122 4214 7 FRANCE F-50 2 1122 7 578 5 724 15 247 3 946 15 247 - 101 3864 8 AUSTRIA OE-100 14 277 - 0 3 946 10 423 9 469 6 645 3 946 3706 9 NORWAY N -15 4 821 11 382 7 578 9 469 7 578 7 578 6 645 3669 l0 ITALY I-311 1 1423 5 724 - 101 12 344 12 344 8 520 13 309 3664 11 RHODESIA KR-184 3 946 8 520 - 101 6 645 4 821 9 469 15 247 3648 12 CANADA KC-41 5 724 l0 423 l0 423 13 309 13 309 12 344 5 724 2947 13 GERMANY GO-92 17 193 9 469 6 645 11 382 8 520 l0 423 12 344 2783 14 AUSTRAL. KA-95 13 309 4 821 - 101 7 578 - 101 - 101 9 469 2379 15 JAPAN J-7 9 469 6 645 13 309 - 101 15 247 16 219 14 277 2166 16 BRAZIL BL-24 12 344 12 344 9 469 14 277 17 193 17 193 8 520 2147 17 SWITZ Z-83 11 382 15 247 11 382 16 219 - 0 11 382 18 168 1780 18 SWEDEN S-40 18 168 14 277 12 344 17 193 14 277 14 277 17 193 1561 19 TRI-TBAG KT-4 19 144 16 219 - 101 - 0 16 219 18 168 16 219 1070 20 TURKEY TK-6 20 122 17 193 - 101 18 168 18 168 20 122 20 122 895 21 MEXICO MX-58 21 101 18 168 - 0 19 144 19 144 19 144 19 144 845 :: THIS REPORT IS FINAL UNLESS PROTEST IS MADE 8Y 19:30

Pointwise the standings were as follows on the eve of the final race of the XVIII Olympiad (with poorest race thrown out). New Zealand 5,434, England 5,036, USA 4,735, and Denmark 3,922. This meant that for Melges to win the series, he had to place first and New Zealand no better than fifth. The "Kiwis" anxiously studied the weather maps and forecasts, exclaiming with joy over the low pressure area headed directly for Sagami Bay.

The favorite to win this XVIII modern Olympiad was England's super-team of Musto and Morgan. They couldn't fend off the heavy weather experts from New Zealand though and had to settle for second. Photo by Bob Levorsen.

SEVENTH RACE, October 21: For the first time the wind was from the sea and it brought with it a combination of swell and chop that had not been seen before. The Japan Yachting Association Committee boat circled for a half hour before finally deciding which starting position to use. They hardly had the line laid before the wind had shifted, making the port end heavily favored. KC circled around that end and would have had another good start but was forced over the line early by an advancing wave of FDs. Soon the US, New Zealand and England were in the lead. New Zealand's boat could point higher in the sloppy seas than the others and when all went over to port tack she was 100 yards ahead of the US. England dropped further and further back with a too-flat genny. Russia once again made an early long port tack and was first to the wind-ward mark, followed closely by New Zealand, Holland and six others before the US. It now appeared to be certain that New Zealand had the Gold Medal. Holland passed New Zealand on the final spinnaker run while Canada showed its true form for the first time by maintaining fifth for the final three legs. New Zealand seemed satis-fied to stay out of trouble and finished fourth. First to finish was Russia, followed by Holland and Austria. The US finished tenth, just ahead of Musto and Morgan.

The US Olympic Team of Harry Melges, Jr. and Bill Bentsen had captured a Bronze Medal. They represented us well and deserve the very finest tribute of the USA and the Flying Dutchman Class.
Nice going, men. Bob Levorsen

REGION X VP PLAYS ROLE IN INTERNATIONAL YACHTING
by Bob Halderman with the
assistance of Bella Levorsen

A rather unusual example of international FD cooperation that occurred recently is certainly worth telling, and involves Bob Levorsen, Region X Vice President. Having spent several years in Trinidad and having many close friends in yachting there, Bob saw a chance to help Trinidad enter the FD Olympics in Tokyo and provided the FD and equipment. The Trinidad Olympic Representative turned out to be a very good friend of Bob's, Rawle Barrow, and Bob also wound up in Japan in the official capacity of Team Manager for Trinidad. This helped enormously to view the races and bring THE TRAPEZE the very excellent photo story of the races which is in this issue.

With the aid of Bob's wife, Bella, we were able to dig up some very interesting background on Bob and Rawle, and it includes the story of the development of the FD in the Bahamas. Bella writes "Although Bob learned to sail in Minnesota as a boy, his most active boating began in 1953 after moving to Trinidad, where he later served as Chairman of the Yacht Racing Association in 1957, 1958 and 1961, and won laurels in both keel boats and in his FD.

I Bob first met Rawle in 1957 when "Girl Pat", the Levorsen's 26' sloop, broke her mast during a Saturday afternoon race and afterwards several fellows from the neighboring club came to help unstep and mend the mast. Rawle was among them and worked right up until the 10 minute gun Sunday helping get her back together for the race.

Skipper Rawle Barrow chats with Region X VP Bob Levorsen as they make plans for their Tokyo expedition. Bob was instrumental in founding the Trinidad FD fleet and went to the Olympics as Team Manager.

FD entered the picture in 1959 when John Bennett brought one over from England (Bennett competed in the NA's in Houston in October). Until now all racing in Trinidad had been handicap style, and with the great speed of the FD, handicap events proved to be very unsatisfactory. John began pushing for an FD class, and Levorsen bought Trinidad Olympic the first one, a glass hull turned out from a mold that John took off his boat. Bob and Bella took a trip to Holland and while there decided to look up FD fittings (to outfit anything more than a fishing boat in Trinidad you must either import or make all fittings and rigging.) Their search led them to the home of Mr. Phillippe in Loosdrecht. Here they purchased a complete set of fittings, a suit of sails and all rigging. Mr. Phillippe also put them in touch with Conrad Gulcher, who was a kind host, and provided them with about their third sail on an FD. Bob and Rawle spent the summer building 'Genever II' and Rawle crewed for Bob all next winter. Even then Rawle was Trinidad's leading small boat skipper and during that winter he taught Bob how to race a small boa t. In the meantime he was building his own FD, 'Firebird'. With the completion of these two FDs, class racing began!

In 1961 Bob was transferred to Bolivia, and had to sell his "Genever". They couldn't bring themselves to sell "Girl Pat" so left her in Rawle's care. Before leaving Trinidad, Bob also started the island's venture into international sailing. He was the one who instigated sending a representative to the Pan American Games in Chicago in 1959. Rawle and John Bennett went.

When the 1964 Olympics came up for discussion, the big question was money. They weren't notified until July 17th that any yachtsman from Trinidad would be going. In the meantime way last January Bob had offered any sails and equipment needed to Trinidad's entrant. Of course it made it nice when Rawle won the trials, but they would have done their best for any FDer.

About the first of June the question of measurement came up and they found that "Firebird" didn't measure in. It was assumed that none of the others made from that mould would measure in either. The only boat on the island was John Bennett's from England and he was going to Houston in October for the North Americans. Bob still didn't know for sure whether Rawle was going to Tokyo, but Bob offered him his present FD, "Genever II". The money for Tokyo for Rawle came through just when Bob found out that Jake Van Heeckeren's boat was for sale in Palo Alto, California. He personally bought it and it was a real rat race to get the boat fixed up and shipped to Japan on August 24th. That same day Bob got the idea of going along with it. He did go as an official, and was able to bring us a very excellent Olympic report.

The Flying Dutchman Class is proud of Bob Levorsen and his fine spirit of International cooperation. He gave unselfishly to start the Trinidad FD fleet, to improve the caliber of its sailing, and to get it into International competi-tion. Many thanks, Bob Levorsen, for a job well done. Bob Halderman

BILL BENTSEN COMMENTS ON OLYMPICS

Top-level competition means sailing regularly with other good boats, and it was no surprise that an "unknown" (New Zealand) came through. We figured on the English and Danish as boats to beat, but also expected that at least one other, whose record beforehand did not include any previous internationally-important FD regattas, would be tough.

NZ were a good cut above the rest of us; winning three races was pretty amazing. They had at least two things: excellent boat speed (they say there are three others at home just as fast), and plenty of experience sailing on the open sea, with its attendant problems of boat-handling and steer-ing. The Danes had the sea experience but no top notch fleet to tune up with. Their relative lack of boatspeed was surprising. The English had good speed, but not outstanding -we had about the amount they did, in the medium air. And I think the Sagami Sea (swells underneath the ordinary wind-waves) caused them some difficulty, though not much.

I saw no revolutionary equipment; the English can change jibs conveniently with open hooks at the deck and on the halyard. We all found that plywood rudders are suspect; ours and at least two others failed in the third race. It was not extremely windy (20-25 mph), but the peculiar seas may have weakened the blades.

Organization was generally good, although the first three races or so the starting lines were laid square to the course rather than the wind direction! Sometimes the line was 25 degrees off. But, for some reason, this did not cause everyone to bunch up too much. People were cautious, maybe.

We had hoped to do better and potentially could have; our capsize and rudder loss were costly errors the 3rd day (we were clearly the fast boat that day, and were 2nd at the time), and two other days lost first due to tactical considerations.

I think the FD will be the Olympic boat again for '68, after a somewhat lengthy debate (I predict) in London this month. Whoever wants to be deadly serious about the Olympics should try to sail against top competition regularly, keep abreast of the international FD events (we did this with lots of foreign magazines), sail abroad as much as possible (the Clas s should get USISA for support now, not three years from now), and in general plan to work like mad.

For Olympic competition it should pay to take great pains to get to minimum total sailing weight, and technologically this should be possible. Also, skipper and crew should be light and medium, respectively. (Duanes had a really good combination in this regard.) Someone should experiment with a rig having the mast all the way aft; theoretically this should produce better windward speed.

In any case, now is the time to start work for the 1968 Olympics.

Bill Bentsen