Despite first constructing detailed scale models of various alternative bow profiles, when she went afloat Germán Frers was heard to mutter that he still had not quite got it right. To ordinary mortals, however, the 140ft Rebecca is surely one of a tiny handful of modern yachts that can reasonably lay claim to being the most beautiful in the world. Built by Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth, England, Rebecca first went afloat in 1999. Since then she has had three extensive refits – testament to the fact that this fab puppy goes sailing
Saudade. His other three designs at the event, Wa Wa Too, Wizard of Paget and Matrero, did less well in results terms, but nevertheless had demonstrated impressive all-round speed. Frers was now at the start of a journey that would see his designs replace the hitherto all-conquering S&S designs in the big boat arena. Recluta’s second place on individual
points was enough, in this hot international fleet, to attract several new owners keen on the new big boat kid on the block, who seemed not only able to produce race-win- ning shapes but who had an eye for timeless elegance. It was a combination that would lead to a virtual takeover of the S&S stran- glehold of the top end of the IOR fleets. While Peterson, Holland and Farr domi-
nated the Ton Cup classes from 25 to 40ft Germán Frers became the go-to designer for events like the Admiral’s Cup, Sardinia Cup, Southern Cross, Onion Patch and Kenwood Cup, where the successful boats tended to be in the 45-50ft range. Sizes that
fitted the Frers design philosophy perfectly. It’s hard in these days of identikit race-
boats that don’t look so different, be they 20ft or 100ft, to appreciate the distinction between small boat and big boat designers that existed in the first 15 years of the IOR. But exist it did and when the Frers one-off 46-footer Noryema took the laurels as the top-scoring boat in the 1975 Admiral’s Cup he secured the top step in the evolu- tion of ‘big’ ocean racers. And to an extent that Frers’ command of the top spot still exists – wherever sailing superyachts are to be found racing against each other. Frers-designed yachts have won nearly
every major trophy around the world including the Admiral’s Cup, Bermuda Race, Transpac, Whitbread Round the World Race, SORC, Kenwood Cup, San Francisco Big Boat Series, Two Ton Cup, Maxi World Championship, ILC champi- onships, Louis Vuitton Cup and countless others. The Frers look and style tended to focus on beauty of line rather than
on rating-inspired idiosyncrasies and this ‘natural-art’ has served the Frers design office extremely well – so well, in fact, that Germán Jnr is still practising his art today at the age of 78 and 50 years after leaving the S&S offices to continue the family business. The non-extreme ‘agelessness’ of the
early Frers IOR work soon benefited Germán with a growing reputation as the safe pair of hands that produced winning designs under IOR that wouldn’t, over time, fall foul of rule changes due to design trickery or fashion. This approach undoubtedly helped Frers secure the design order for the Maxi Flyer II for the 1981/82 Whitbread Round the World Race. Com- missioned by Conny van Rietschoten to replace Flyer, the S&S mini-maxi that had won the previous Whitbread race, Flyer II proved a more than worthy successor by giving Rietschoten the Whitbread line honours/handicap double in 1982. The perceived longevity of his designs helped give Frers the opportunity to
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