Klassiske Linjer nr 10 1999 - Klassisk Treseiler Klubb

Reconstructed drawings of PESA.
yachting designer, is relatively
unknown in France. He
designed Meteor IV for the
Kaiser and FELCA, winner of
La Coupe de France in 1906.
His designing skills probably
approached the level of
Nathaniel Herreshoff. When
Max Oertz designed FEINSLIEB-
CHEN VII, he was 38 and
William Fife was 52. He worked
in Finland and at St Petersburg
before he founded his own
boatyard in 1897 at Neuhof,
near Hamburg. He participated
in pioneer aviation, starting up
the Göttingen aerodynamic laboratory
and Hamburg airport.
When Jean-Yves Roubinet
bought RAJA V in 1995, he
came to me with the task of restoring
her back to the original.
By chance, I already had the
drawings of FEINSLIEBCHEN
VII, sent to me by Yacht
Magazine in Hamburg.
We didn't find the actual line
drawings of PESA. But the two
keel versions of the two sisterships
are identical. I also had
the rating figures and calculated
the modifications from the
FEINSLIEBCHEN VII sailplan.
PESA had a coach roof but F.
VII was flush deck. I
redesigned it from the deck
plan of Midgard plus a 1913
picture. The headroom was
then 1.75 instead of the 1.50
required by the rule. From the
deck beams, I think that Pesa
was flush deck at launching
and modified later. We kept the
roof for comfort.
One thing is a bit mysterious
about these early 10 m. There
is not much room for a flying
jib between the fore and second
stay. The rule measurements
include the forestay, but
I never found any picture or
drawing of that ghostsail. The
Norwegian ADORNA ex NOREG
had a halyard displayed on a
picture. I designed a small flying
jib, and it works. On the 6
and 8 m there was no flying jib.
On the twelves and over, there
was a big one.
As PESA was often on land, the
original mahogany planking
was in pretty good condition
but caulked. This is not correct
for a metre boat. We removed it
to get splines. The deck was totally
rebuilt in oregon pine instead
of the existing teak as we
had to save weight because of
the engine. She had a small
Perkins which I moved to the
centre under the table. The cabin
roof is entirely of mahogany
built the classical way with canvas
on the top.
There was no specific deck
plan for PESA but three survive
of the other Oertz ten metres.
We got the deck fittings from
Dauelsberg near Bremen in
Germany and a few from Great
Britain. We decided against
winches, but the many blocks
work perfectly. One hard and
tough job is to trim the 95
sq.m. mainsail.
We had many matches with PEN
DUICK and it seems much easier
to handle a gaff rig with a
flush deck. This rig doesn't require
so much physical
strength, but more time and attention.
For instance, if you
start to set all the sails ten minutes
before the start, you will
miss the topsail at the gun.
KLASSISKE LINJER NR.10 MAI 1999
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