Cornelis van Rietschoten
Barry Pickthall went aboard Flyer, winner of the 1977/78 Whitbread Round the World Race, now restored by a Dutch charity
One name dominated ocean racing in the late 1970s and early 80s: Dutch round the world racer Cornelis van Riestchoten, who owned two yachts named Flyer. This great sailor died in December 2013, but a group of Dutch enthusiasts have restored the first of his yachts and rechristened her at his memorial service at the Royal Maas Yacht Club in Rotterdam in September before sailing her to Alicante to take pride of place in the spectator fleet of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Inspired by stories from the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973/4, Conny, as he was called, had retired from day-to-day business and, at the age of 45, was looking for new challenges. Fiercely competitive “ he was a scratch amateur golfer and a crack shot – he decided to take on the world’s greatest yachting challenge. He entered the 1977/8 Whitbread despite not having sailed competitively since racing his yacht Maze in the 1957 Fastnet Race.
His first step in planning his Whitbread campaign was to call on Sparkman & Stephens to produce a successor to their Swan 65 Sayula II, winner of the first Whitbread Race.
Flyer was a great improvement on the earlier S&S-designed Swan 65. Some 2ft 9in longer on the waterline and 1 ton lighter, she carried more sail area, yet rated exactly the same canvas as King’s Legend, her sloop- rigged Swan 65 rival in the 1977/8 race.
Van Riestchoten picked an international team and set out on an intensive programme to test boat and crew …read more
