Little America's Cup gallery - 1

Top French photographer Christian Fevrier gives us his insight on the high performance C-class

The principle of The Hinge's wingmast was the split trailing flap similar to the one on this old Australian DC3 plane in an airplane museum, north of Melbourne. The boat design came from the young British designer Roland Whitehead and she was sailed by John Downie.
1987 McCrae.
The Hinge was skippered by John Downey, one of six Concorde pilots at the time. A Tornado sailor, Downie was National Champion in 1976 and 1984 and initiated several major developments in the Tornado Class including the design of a new mast. His crew was Keith Bliss, also a fierce competitor in the Tornado class.
Helmsman John Downie and crew Keith Bliss are doing good work upwind in spite of the weight of their boats immaculate wooden hulls.


Note the split trailing flap wide open in the light winds - the boat had a strange look! In one race the British crew broke their rudder shaft. In the end they were beaten by 4-nil.