Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
Many will know the name ‘Blondie’ Hasler, and many will have heard of his yacht ‘Jester’.
For those who don’‘t, here is a very brief refresher: He is considered to be the father of single-handed sailing as he invented the first practical self-steering gear for yachts – a system still in use today.
The concept of the OSTAR – Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Race from Plymouth to New York was his, and he competed in the very first one in 1960 in which just five yachts competed. His boat was a modified Nordic Folkboat Jester, and finished second in 48 days to Chichester’s much larger ‘Gipsy Moth III’.
Jester was built some years prior to the first trans-Atlantic race, with Hasler specifying a fully enclosed deck with two circular hatches in the cabin top rather than a conventional cockpit. He also chose a Chinese-style Junk rig as he planned to carry out all the sail handling from the safety of the central control hatch. He claimed he could sail Jester across the Atlantic without ever leaving the cabin.
After also competing in the 1964 OSTAR he became disenchanted with what he perceived as the race’s commercialisation and sold ‘Jester’ to Mike Richey who raced the boat until she was lost in an Atlantic storm during the 1988 OSTAR.
The feature today tells the story of ‘Jester’, and of Mike Ritchie abandoning her, plus how he described ‘Jester’ as becoming one of the most famous yachts in the world.
I have used every original image I have of jester in my archives in memory of such a fine yacht.
READ IT HERE: Pages from 1991 03 – SAILING Magazine – OCR
