Left: Nelson/Marek designer Greg Stewart’s 1930 Six Metre Sprig is finally loaded up and ready to begin a long 3,000-mile road trip cross-country to Oyster Bay on Long Island just a few weeks after she was badly holed racing on her home waters in San Diego. ‘Holed’ does not really do it justice (opposite)
the class rules. To help the process class measurer Andrew Williams put his laser-scanning skills to work to identify the critical dimensions on the hull… which in turn allowed Stewart to identify how to also take small advantage of a nifty class rule that gives a flotation allowance for older boats due to their hull sag over many years! What could have been a terrible tragedy after years of planning and dreaming worked out well in the end for Stewart: Sprig finished third overall in the Classics division, bested only by two strong Spanish teams, with HRH Juan Carlos winning the class assisted by a team of all-stars on his 1947 Arvid Laurin design Bribon. This was His Majesty’s fourth Classic World Championship win,
modern and retired pro sailors, designers, builders, keen amateurs and even European royalty, racing in boats ranging in age from nearly 100 years old to just a couple of seasons. Besides aesthetics, and nostalgia, and a reliable backbone of technical support in measurement compliance throughout its history, another key element for preserving this enduring interest lies in the class dividing its racing divisions into two distinct groups: this year it saw 17 entries in the Open division of ‘modern’ boats designed and built since the 1960s and a Classic division of 12 entries that preceded this. Due to the impressively long heritage of the 6 Metre culture, both have conversation-stopping trophies to award. ‘Being at this event at Seawanhaka was like being at a museum,’ said Greg Stewart of Nelson/Marek Yacht Design, who competed in his CH Crane-designed Sprig, built by Nevins in 1930, the 40th of 46 6 Metres built in the 1930s. ‘The whole scene was impressive: the club’s welcome to all of us, its displays of 6 Metre history, the boats and the teams. Amazing and really extremely special.’ Sprig almost did not make it to the event. One month prior to leaving for the cross-continent road trip from San Diego to Oyster Bay, she was holed in a collision and needed an extensive repair true to her original wood-planked construction and conforming to
but for Bribon herself, previously known as Gallant, it is her fifth. Her first was under skipper Eric Jespersen in 2009 at Newport, and with His Majesty she was victorious in 2017 in Vancouver, 2019 in Hanko, 2023 in Cowes and now in Oyster Bay. She also won the Classic European Championships in 2012, 2018, 2021 and 2022. In a class where the pedigrees of the boats are as important as their owners’, this impressive record may yet challenge Goose’s claims to be the most successful 6 Metre ever. Meanwhile, it was class stalwart Dieter Schoen’s Momo II that dominated the Open division on a new Judel/Vrolijk design raced by an all-star team. Unlike Sprig’s traditional wood build, this boat was built at Knierim Yachtbau in solid S-glass laminate over a CNC- milled plug and cured in an autoclave, but with careful attention paid to class rules to keep weight-equivalent to wood construction. How long can interest in a class of 100-year old boats continue? As long as modern designers like Juan K, Jason Ker, Judel/Vrolijk and others are asked to get involved with new boats or upgrades to existing designs. And as long as sailing legends like Dennis Conner and Mateusz Kusznierewicz keep coming out to sail, and dedicated owners like Greg Stewart keep at it, perhaps indefinitely. Dobbs Davis
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