Bich, with son Bruno, hied himself to Newport to watch the 67 proceedings, and before the final trials were over it was apparent that Olin Stephens had achieved a great leap forward in 12-meter design with Intrepid. So Bich approached the syndicate managed by Bill Strawbridge with an offer to buy Intrepid if she won the cup in four straight races. Terms were discussed, but after Intrepid had overwhelmed the Aussies, the syndicate declined to let her leave. Thus the French did not have the fastest yacht afloat as a basis for a challege in 1970, but then Bich made a brilliant gamble. Two months after the cup matches, he approached Britton Chance Jr. of Oyster Bay to discuss a design. Young Brit Chance had never tackled a Twelve, but he reigned supreme in the world of 5.5s, another class requiring a delicate juggling of factors within the framework of a rigid measurement rule. For the Olympic Games in Acapulco, 17 5.5s were building to the design of Chance & Co. in various countries, and they were to finish 1-2-4-5. At the end of January, Chance received a firm order for a design at least as fast as existing 12-meters or, if possible, faster. It was made clear that the boat was to be used for comparative model studies in tank testing and as a trial horse for a Mauric-designed challenger yet to be built. Chance & Co. was given a free hand in all details, Brit Chance has written. Economic limitations were imposed only by the cost-effectiveness studies that we made. Plans were delivered in June 1968 to Hermann Egger in Neuch�tel, Switzerland, a renowned builder of 5.5s and other racing craft. He is like a man who makes a watch, I was told by an Italian client. No one else combines such workmanship and accuracy. While the hull took form in the shadow of the Alps, most of the gear was being manufactured in the United States. The mast was fabricated by Bob Derecktor in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Special winches were ordered from Barient of California. Sophisticated metals and advanced engineering of these and lesser items like blocks resulted in efficiency comparable to similar equipment on Intrepid but with a considerable saving of weight. Sails were by Ted Hood and Lowell North. When christened in mid-August of this year by Mrs. Sargent Shriver, wife of the U.S. Ambassador to France, Bich assigned his million-franc-plus baby a no-nonsense name, Chancegger, simply combining the names of designer and builder. In her, Brit Chance indeed achieved The New Look in Twelves, as he entitled an article in Yachting. Sectional shapes, combined with a small keel area, reduce wetted surface by about 30 square feet below any existing vessel in the class, while the sum of weight-saving details increases the ballast/displacement ratio by 3%, improving both stability and efficiency. The sail plan shows a longer fore-triangle and a short, low main boom, increasing the aspect ratio, which should result in better performance to windward. Chancegger is fast—very fast—and very sensitive on the helm, I was told by the dean of European racing skippers, Louis Noverraz, one of the first to sail the new-creation. With a lifetime score of 1,500 firsts, former champion of Europe in both six and 5.5 meters and this years winner of the Championnat International de Suisse with a score of six firsts in six starts, the 67-year-old Swiss master can be considered a reliable judge of boat speed. In every match to date, he said, Chancegger simply walked away from Constellation on every point of sailing. This had been foretold by model tests, but the more important question of how she might compare with Intrepid, the superboat of the previous defense, was answered in an odd way. As Olin Stephens was committed to design a new yacht for the Bob McCullough-George Hinman syndicate, Bill Strawbridges group, owners of Intrepid, commissioned Brit Chance to study the possibility of making her even faster before the next campaign. Chance thus came into possession of the lines. As a preliminary to modifications, he engaged in extensive tank tests and, according to informed sources, Chancegger is faster than Intrepid. So Marcel Bich apparently won his gamble. With the latest brainchild of Olin Stephens barely past the blueprint stage, the design of Charley Morgan not finalized in the towing tank, Brit Chance pondering the modifications to be made in Intrepid and the Australian hopeful still on the builders ways, Chancegger is undoubtedly at this moment the fastest yacht of the 12-meter class in the world. Thus, instead of trying to catch up from behind, as have the English and Australians in past challenges, the French possess a boat so advanced it will tax the ingenuity of rival designers to come up with a faster, more efficient racing machine. There is one great catch, of course. The new boat is useless as a challenger. In the deed of gift of the Americas Cup, a clause stipulates that the competing yacht and its components must originate in the country making the challenge. Some latitude is allowed by the New York Yacht Club in its interpretation of the rule, but Chancegger could never qualify. Bich did not expect it to. He was willing to go to the trouble of building a fabulously expensive vessel simply to provide a springboard for the next move, the construction of the challenger, which will bear a simple, majestic, sentiment-evoking name: France. Sport Illustred
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 08:59:49 +0000
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