The relationship between designer Ricus Van de Stadt and champion yachtsman and plywood construction pioneer Cornelis Bruynzeel could reasonably be said to have changed the face of ocean racing. When the pair began working together – both winning ocean races and developing a new form of plywood based boat construction – Bruynzeel had already won the 1937 Fastnet race on his S&S design Zeearend. Together the pair would adapt their new form of boat building for the legendary Zeevalk (right) which won her class in the 1951 Fastnet and set the tone for what would follow 11 years later with the launch of the 73ft maxi Stormvogel (left), also for Bruynzeel. Stormvogel’s record remains unsurpassed in modern ocean racing, with line honours and/or overall wins in the 1961 Fastnet, the 1962 Buenos Aires Rio race, the 1965 Sydney Hobart, 1966 China Sea race, and the 1967 Transpac


The owner in question was Cornelis


Bruynzeel, a pioneer of the new construc- tion ‘wonder-material’ plywood. Boat- building seemed like a perfect environment to test this new material as long as designs could be produced that were carefully tailored to the qualities of the material. The young Van de Stadt had the perfect


flat panel shapes to suit and so began, in 1939, a new chapter in sailboat design and construction. Valk, launched just before the start of WW2, was a 21ft hard chine day boat and proved so successful that it is still built today and remains the most popular open boat in the Netherlands. But it is in offshore design that Van de


Stadt really broke down the barriers of convention. Many of his innovations have been credited to other designers over the years but in reality Ricus Van de Stadt really is theMr light displacement, fin keel and spade rudder offshore raceboat designer. And Zeevalk is all the evidence you need from her shallow hull body, to


the angular connection between hull and keel and the high aspect ratio foils. But if ever a boat deserved an accolade


for pushing the boundaries of design and technology to the limits available, it would be the Maxi Stormvogel. Once again a commission from Cornelis


Bruynzeel, to push the barriers of cold- moulded plywood construction to promote his building material, Stormvogel, at 73ft, the length limit in 1960 for the Maxi class, represented the equivalent of a ‘moon-shot’ in terms of available technology. Her design was typical of previous


smaller Van de Stadt boats with an unsup- ported spade rudder, shortish fin keel and, facing directly against typical big boat design for the period, an ultra-light displace- ment. She was, quite simply, an extraordi- nary yacht compared to the mainstream. What made this moment in history even


more remarkable was that the Van de Stadt design office was so busy in 1959 that Ricus initially declined Bruynzeel’s


commission for a new maxi racer. Imagine that, refusing to take a commission for a 73ft racing boat! But Bruynzeel knew what he wanted


and he was not prepared to wait. He looked at other designers for the project but figured Van de Stadt’s concepts were what he needed. A compromise was reached to share the


design time burden and, long before Amer- ica’s Cup-style design teams were even thought of, the first super-group of naval architects was assembled to create Stor- mvogel. Van de Stadt’s radical signature hull and foils were topped off by a rig from Illingworth & Primrose, while Laurent Giles took care of the structure, interior and deck layout. It proved the perfect marriage of talents. In the early days Van de Stadt’s design


business ran very much in parallel to that of Olin Stephens’ throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Both design houses produced race-winning boats as well as myriad


SEAHORSE 39 


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