International Sonder Class Regattas between Germany and The United States

There were seventeen boats built to compete in the trial races — the designs varying all the way from the wide flat scow to the narrow sharp-ended hull, with heavy lead. One of the boats that year weighed over 5000 pounds and others were down to the given 4035.

In this table you find all famous yacht yards, designers and the wellknown yachtsmen in the Boston area of that time. Among all, Charles H. Wheelwright Forster owned about ninety yachts and was a great patron of the principal yachting photographers in Marblehead, W. Jackson . Today you will find his Collection is at the famous Hart Nautical Collection of the MIT. Adams 2nd., who later became the famous helmsman, owned "only" about sixty yachts.

AUK with long exaggerated overhang, narrow beam, hard bilged, flat shoal was chosen to be one of the American Defenders. Another, of the same general type, only wider and deeper, with less bilge angle, and smoother lined, proved easily to be the fastest of the fleet in light, smooth weather. Her condition was as nearly perfect as it is possible to get, having a mahogany skin, highly polished by trained piano polishers. She was also chosen (CARAMBA).

Construction plan of Sonderboat Auk of E. Boardman, 1906, showing heavy plank-on-edge trusswork bulbed lead. Mast in the position for catboat rig. Later it has been changed to normal rig.

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2.Place for Auk, Photo by W. Jackson, published in "Die Yacht"

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Sketch from the Auk, catrigged. The third boat VIM on the team, and which eventually won the Roosevelt Cup, was of an entirely different type, being narrow with sharp ends, heavy displacement, and a comparatively large quantity of ballast (about 2500 pounds).

Sonderclassboat Vim owned by L. Park, desingned by W. Gardner, Winner of the Roosevelt cup

American Sonderboat ViM Photo Jackson

Roosevelt Cup from 1906, today shown in the "Kieler Yacht Club. The Germans did`nt won it in a race . It has been found in Spain in a bodega after the second world war. Maybe the Parkfamily moved from Marblehead to Spain. I hope the Taft Cup and the Wilson Cup are still in the USA

The German Sonderboats

Willi and Teddy or the Krauts against the Yankees

About the German boats by the american constructor Boardman:
I looked over the German boats very care-fully in 1907 and they certainly have a great advantage in construction over anything that I have yet seen built in this country. The Spanish cedar used by them has been drying out for years and many of them were built with flush seams, having no calking whatsoever. This insured a good surface under any conditions, as there was no putty to squeeze out; also, instead of using rivets with bungs, of which there are about 4000 in one of our boats, they use small brass or copper nails, small headed, and flush with the outer surface. The skin was varnished above the water; with paint or potlead below the surface, and was polished to a high point of perfection. Their planking is very light, and on account of the small sharp-ended hulls they require very little interior bracing. These facts allow them to carry a very large percent-age of lead to total weight, about 60 per cent, which means about 2600 pounds of ballast — a very great advantage. They were also fairly heavy ; weighing 4300 to 4600 pounds — another advantage in their weather conditions, and so they were able to lug their rigs far longer than the American boats.

Their dimensions were very moderate — about 33 to 36 over-all, 4 feet 8 inches draft and 6 feet 6 inches beam, allowing thereby a long water-line of about 21 feet. They had very easy formed high ends, the angle of rise being twice as much as that of the Americans. There were no reverse curves in the profiles, but the overhangs ran straight from the middle body. Their sections were very round, with a heavy dead rise, and forward the sections worked into a "U" shape, while the stern transoms were narrow and the lines on the whole exceptionally graceful, depending on the ballast for stability, having practically no initial stability in the hull.

The sails used in 1907 were a great improvement on those used over here in 1906, being well-cut and of good proportions, but of fairly heavy duck and very flat (little draft). They used roller booms for reefing, which are necessary under German weather conditions, as it will sometimes come up and blow thirty or forty miles an hour without any warning, and to be able to reef quickly is a distinct advantage. In one race it was necessary for us, on the boat I was sailing on, to lower our peak, ease the mainsail well off, and reach across the wind for ten or fifteen minutes, while the German boats rolled in a reef and went about their business, gaining many precious minutes in the operation.

As before said, the German craft of 1907 were the finest constructed boats of this class I have as yet seen. There is tremendous interest in this Sonder Class, mainly on account of its international character It may be of interest as showing the friendly feeling that exists between Germany and the United States, that after the races in 1906 the architects of the American team forwarded their plans to Germany, to be published and used by anyone who might be interested, and to help along the sport. In return the Crown Prince of Germany in 1907 sent me a set of plans of his boat "Angela IV" for use over here. I know of no other international sport where such an open-handed policy Having, in a general way, covered the German and American types I shall say a few words about the Spanish Class that again puzzles the minds of the various designers.

The American team of the year 1907, after leaving Germany, went to Bilbao and San Sebastian, Spain, for a series of races with the Spanish boats. The outcome of this series was a victory for Spain and the winner was an exceedingly narrow, sharp-ended boat with a heavy dead rise on the sections. The races at San Sebastian were drifting matches with an old ground swell rolling in from the Bay of Biscay.

1909 Races for the Taft Cup in Marblehead