KATHY MANSFIELD INGRID ABERY KATHY MANSFIELDJOUR DE FETE
In the first version of the Universal Rule, there were
no scantling rules, so boats were lighter than those built
under the International Rule. This partly explains why
fewer of the Universal Rule have survived, and when
they have, they need a more comprehensive rebuild. But
then they are light, fast, responsive and a joy to sail.
“They are rocket ships with 10 knots of wind and flat
seas,” comments Bruno. However, by the time Jour de
Fête was built, the Universal Rule had adopted Lloyd’s
specifications, so the boats were stronger.
The Universal Rule boats were also designed for a
different environment in New England – racing in
sheltered inshore bays where waves and tides are small
and summer winds light. Sailing in the Solent or Scotland
means being often subject to a weight and strength of
wind that requires strong boats and less sail – not that
sailors there were any more averse to piling on sail.
The Universal Rule evolved into 10 classes, from
the 88ft (26.8m) I-Class, the J-Class, down to a 17ft
(5.18m) waterline for the S-Class, 20ft (6.1m) for the
R-Class, 25ft (7.62m) for the Q-Class, 31ft (9.44m)
for the P-Class. Over the years and thanks to several
rule changes, the boats were designed longer: the
1930 Jour de Fête has the longest waterline of the Qs
at 32ft (9.75m). She’s 52ft (15.8m) LOA and less
beamy than earlier Q boats.
The Q boats were raced both in Long Island Sound
near New York, Sherman Hoyt’s Capsicum winning
many races there, and in Marblehead and other bays of
Massachusetts. By 1913 the larger P-Class was the
choice of the top skippers and owners. After WWI,
however, things changed. The Ps were deemed too
expensive to maintain and crew, and at that time all
boats were moving quickly away from gaff rigs to the
new bermudan (Marconi) rig. The R-Class, about the
size of the earlier Q boats, began to dominate and some
of the P boats were sold to racing clubs in the Great
Lakes and Canada. One of the designers in the
Marblehead area of P and R-Class boats was Frank C
Paine and his first R-Class Gypsy was seen to win manyB
runo Troublé, of America’s Cup and Louis
Vuitton fame, has a new project. He is
promoting a renaissance of some of the
smaller classes of the Universal Rule,
discovering and restoring boats in north
America and bringing them to race in the
Mediterranean. The Universal Rule, devised in the USA
in the late 1890s by Nathanael Herreshoff and adopted
by the New York YC in 1903, is most famously known
by the J-Class, the largest of these racing classes denoted
by letters of the alphabet. Jour de Fête, ex-Falcon II, is a
Q-Class design, more the size of an International Rule
8-M class, designed by Frank C Paine in 1930.
Jour de Fête’s arrival five years ago on the classic scene
in the Med has developed into many wins and some fine
match racing with a Johan Anker designed Q boat,
Leonore, ex-Cotton Blossom, introduced by another
America’s Cup legend and friend of Bruno’s, Dennis
Conner. A larger P boat, Olympian, was brought to the
Med in 2014 by Bruno with great racing success and
another, Chips, is being restored at the moment. Perhaps
five P boats still exist, and they are fast coming out of
obscurity to be given a well-deserved new racing life.
There are probably six Q boats still surviving out of
an initial 20 before World War I and perhaps over 40
built after that, by such fine designers such as L Francis
Herreshoff, John Alden and Sherman Hoyt besides those
already mentioned. These boats are turning heads and
are winning prize after prize.
The Q-Class was the first to use the Universal Rule,
with Starling Burgess’ new design of Orestes in 1904,
36ft (10.97m) overall and 25ft on the waterline, with a
sail area of 770sq ft. The new rule was much needed,
promoting displacement and penalising sail area. At a
stroke it moderated the dangerous extremes in shape
and scantlings that were becoming prevalent under the
earlier Seawanhaka Rule. The new system provided
more balanced, seaworthy boats, much as the
International or Metre Rule did a few years later
in 1907 in Britain and Europe.Above: After a major rebuild in Maine, the boat was brought to Europe
by Bruno Troublé (centre)