8 CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2016BLITZEN
raised the eyebrows of a gentleman sailor in the late
1930s. The sum of these measures, and Olin’s more
general work in reducing wetted surface area, was what
must have seemed like a very exciting, modern yacht
back in the days of dams, deals and guilt-free smoking,
and certainly she proved her worth almost immediately,
winning Class B in the 635-mile Bermuda race in 1938
(Class A went to another S&S yacht, Baruna, that year),
then winning the formidable 2,225-mile Transpac overall
in 1939.
Current S&S CEO Jason Black concurred that while
Blitzen was clearly a linear development in the S&S
design canon, “her three-spreader, masthead cutter rig
[and centreboard] were also a bit of a departure from
what was commonly in vogue in the office at the time”.
It is reasonable to surmise that Olin and brother Rod
Stephens had won a rare commission in 1937, in the
sense that Reynolds was a man with grand ambition,
vivid appetite and the means to commission a yacht for
the sole purpose of race-winning: any other function,
such as suitability for family cruising or luxurious
appointments, remained secondary. Reynolds was no
hands-off owner, crewing and helming in many of the
yacht’s triumphs. According to his biographer, the 1939
Transpac win was his proudest racing achievement,
although there were other notable podium finishes
during Reynold’s packed pre-war race schedule. Yachting
magazines and newspapers of the era proclaimed
excitement at the arrival of Blitzen and her glamorous
owner at start lines in America and abroad.
After the war, her history becomes harder to follow,
but she was owned throughout much of the 1960s by
William and Thomas Schoendorf, under whom the boat
carried on winning races, now on fresh water on the
Great Lakes – the Verve Cup in 1965 and ’66, and the
Chicaco Race to Mackinac (known by tout le Monde as
simply ‘the Mac’) in ’62, ’65 and ’66. Well, to be precise,
she won the Royono Trophy in those three races, which
is for the boat first over the line, the purest expression of
a boat’s ability. That she was awarded the overall trophy
as well in 1966 seems almost superfluous, given her stash
of silver over the years. It is also worth noting that all
three of her Mac-winning years were held in light airs,
seemingly no mean feat for a yacht whose increased
beam (from, say, Dorade) ought to point to great
sail-carrying ability in fresher conditions, but in fact her
waterline beam had increased less than her overall beam,
giving a slippery ride through water with all the
advantages of greater beam above the water.
There is something of a blank in her history after the
1960s, although in a tragic and ironic footnote to that
decade, the boat’s original owner Reynolds died of
emphysema in 1964 – probable cause: smoking.
We do know she was used as a charter yacht for some
years, with the attendant indignities that the trade so
often imposes on yachts. On Blitzen, this manifested
itself as a series of bulkheads and other additions over
the years, as well as a general decrepitude suffered after
eight years on the hard.
Peter Morton of Southampton Marine Services
(formerly Shemara Refit) found her for a client, and by
December 2014 she was in the shed ready for headboatbuilder Oliver Ophaus and a team left over from the
huge Shemara job, to start working their magic.
You might well ask why a clapped-out ex-charter
yacht should have everyone on the Blitzen team so
excited. Of course there are the obvious reasons: the
S&S provenance, the sheer good looks (even just the
sheer which, as Oliver points out as we look her over,
rises quite strongly in the Stephens style) and the
wonderful race history – not to mention the amazing
story of her first owner. That would be enough, but there
is an even more tantalising element to Blitzen’s second
coming, Oliver and skipper Kade Jacques explain as we
sit in the yacht’s minimal saloon this May, soon after her
re-launch from a 50,000 man-hour refit.
The CIM rule is one of the most divisive aspects of the
classic racing scene, sometimes misapplied, sometimes
confusing but at the heart of it is an effort to reward
authenticity. A yacht that comes as standard with a huge
genoa, a serious winch and a centreboard, is an exciting
idea. It is immediately tempting to suggest that she could
be the new champion, but Ollie and Kade are sensibly
guarded on the point, exuding an air of quiet optimism.
Certainly, on an upwind course, she would be a force
to be reckoned with, with good windward ability and
fast tacking thanks to the big coffee grinder that we
admire on deck. I am also shown the two interchangeable
wheels (a small one for cruising and a large one for
racing), the complicated halyard-and-block arrangement
at the foot of the mast, and the big spinnaker pole lying
in wait for a fair breeze. Even without her mast in, the
boat exudes an air of purpose – menace, almost. As Olin
himself remembered many years later, “she was always
considered a difficult boat to handle”.
First though, there was a little work to be done.
Oliver, who project-managed the re-build, takes up the
story. The first job, after appointing a surveyor in the
form of Hugo Morgan-Harris, and naval architect Paul
Spooner (see page 48), was to remove the eight-tonne
lead keel and send it to Irons Brothers in Cornwall, who
cleaned it up and got the centreboard working again – it
had been glassed in place for decades. We look at the
worm-gear winching mechanism, sourced from the
original and still extant manufacturer, and it is a
thing of beautiful simplicity.
The next step was to particle-blast the hull paint off
and put the boat in an armature in preparation for the
rest of the work that would follow. Her construction, in
double fore-and-aft planking (Alaskan yellow cedar on
the inside and mahogany on the outside) on all-steamed
oak timbers was fairly typical S&S, as was the builder,
Henry B Nevins of New York, but at some point the
bottom planks forming the bilges had been removed and
replaced with a single planking layer, so these were
removed.
The next job was to start putting in replacement
American oak framing, with the hull planking still on to
keep the shape (and, if fancy permits, to add to the
continuity of the boat’s identity with old parts mingling
with new throughout the rebuild). These new frames are
laminated rather than steamed, for extra strength, quite
common in old wooden yachts that are going to be raced
hard with the extra strain that non-porous modernFacing page,
clockwise from
top left: new
bronze winches
on a sea of swept
teak and
Brazilian
mahogany; sea
trials; the racing
wheel in place,
with binnacle-
mounted
compass; new
bronze
chainplates to
the old pattern