Backfire Schuttevaer • Photographer Theo Kampa • Netherlands • 1977
If you look closely, you can see a pair of legs over the leeward rail
From the Yachting World archives, this is Schuttevaer, a modified one-tonner designed by Doug Peterson, bowling downwind and about to go into a death roll. If you look closely you can see a pair of legs over the leeward rail as a crewman is grabbed just before he disappears over the side. What happened next is not difficult to guess: this boat, kicker on hard, is about to roll into an accidental gybe . . .
The coastal race was one of a number this yacht took part in that season preceding the Admiral’s Cup in August 1977. Schuttevaer, owned by Dr J. C. W. van Dam, was one of the Dutch team. Van Dam later bought another Doug Peterson design, which became known as the Serendipity 43. She was also named Schuttevaer and raced in the 1979 Admiral’s Cup and Fastnet Race, a disaster from which the crew were forced to retire.
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YACHTING WORLD DECEMBER 2015