Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
It’s such a pity that the FD is hardly seen on local waters any longer as it was such a graceful looking speedster, especially in full flight. It’s also spoken about with superlatives that only true-blue FD sailors can!
Way back when in 1967 Don Ord imported a state-of-the-art fibreglass FD into this country, and it was written about in SA Yachting Magazine in awe. This is what was said: “Called the Plastrend Flying Dutchman Hull, the craft was manufactured by the Plastrend Corporation of Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A. The Plastrend hulls incorporate many ultramodern design features which have not been seen in the Republic. The craft’s layout and design show radical changes from the conventional Flying Dutchman and these improvement are a big change from fibreglass hulls which were imported some years ago.
“President of Plastrend is the keen American yachtsmen Andy Green. It was probably his enthusiasm which sent his engineers in search of a fibreglass hull which would provide the answers to the old bogies which have crept up in other fibreglass hulls.”
READ IT ALL HERE: 1967 01 – SA Yachting – don ord’s glass FD – OCR
