Max,
Based on research and not prior knowledge (so wide open to correction) here's what I think is the story:
There is a very interesting series of posts by John Guzzwell (yes, THAT John Guzzwell) with comments by Greg N. on SailingAnarchy. What I understand is that Cornelius (Kees) Bruynzeel, later of Stormvogel fame (also designed by v/d Stadt and winner of the 1967 TransPac) commissioned van der Stadt in 1955 to design 'Zeeslang,' and only one boat was allowed to be built to the plans. About a year later (first name?) Prout [in Cape Town] persuaded van der Stadt to design a boat he named 'Black Soo,' apparently very similar to Zeeslang, but narrower and with a smaller transom. This Van de Stadt design became known in Cape Town as the RCOD (Royal Cape One Design) and elsewhere as the "Black Soo" class.
In another Internet post I found:
I have a 1982 edition of the Van De Stadt Design catalogue. The "Black Soo" is not featured as a design that they were then still selling but is mentioned in the introduction in the History section. In the section reference is made to the many hard chine designs from Ricus van De Stadt and his collaboration with Mr C Bruynzeel, who was one of the first producers of marine plywwood. Bruynzeel was also an ocean racing skipper and a winner of the Fastnet race.
The section has a photo of a yacht, sail No. 1042, clipping along on a broad reach, two people in the cockpit, one other in the companionway, a dinghy tied down on the foredeck and on the transom the name "Black Soo R.C.Y.C.". This presumeably stands for 'Royal Capetown Yacht Club. The caption of the photo is Black Soo - designed 1960. The page goes on to say:
"Many designs from these years have now been replaced by newer versions, but some of them are still popular, like Zeeslang or Black Soo, a 30 feet (9.-m) overall boat, nearly 7 ft (2.1 m) wide, long, slim and slippery indeed! Bruynzeel took this yacht over to South Africa and the Capetown race committee adopted her as a Royal Cape One Design. These RCOD's are still active at the Cape today. She is still the fastest boat in relation to it's price in the world."
So, it seems the "class name" comes from one of the early variants of the design. None of this is absolutely clear, but maybe between Greg N, Ben M. and Steve B. we can get the complete story.
I've enjoyed this bit of research and hope that it adds some clarity.
I believe BLACK SOO's original owner was English, one Micheal Pruett, and he raced her in the 1957 Fastnet, one of the stormiest on record before 1979. In this Fastnet, 29 out of 41 entries retired, and the overall winner, Dick Nye's CARINA (USA) almost sank.
Nye used to encourage his crew by shouting at them, "Is every man a tiger?" They would answer back with a roar, "Grr...grr...grr..." At the end of this race he had more sympathy for them as they had pumped the yacht almost all the way round the 700 mile course. CARINA had fallen off a wave in the Needles Channel in Force 9 and cracked several frames to cause a severe leak. Once across the finishing line off the breakwater at Plymouth, Nye famously called out to his crew, "OK, boys, we're over now; let the damn boat sink!"
BLACK SOO's sail # was 1042. She was originally fractional rigged as shown in the photo to which Tom refers. But converted to mast head cutter by John Illingworth with a fully exposed upper batten, which qualified her for a gaff rigged handicap benefit. Illingworth's rig was derisively called a "gutter." In reality, this was an early version of the square top main.
The RCYC on BLACK SOO's transom likely refers to the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Cowes, I.O.W., England, out of which she raced and cruised. She has spent her entire life in British Waters and currently resides in Ireland.
There has been some attention to BLACK SOO's name. As BLACK SOO's owner in the 1970's, Gerry Murtaugh, wrote in the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Assoc. Newsletter: "BLACK SOO is simply the Dutch spelling of the Dakota Indian Tribe which we pronounce in the same way, but spell as in the French 'Sioux.' "
So, apparently BLACK SOO was named after the Sioux Indian Tribe, famous for their long straight black hair and Custer's demise. It is interesting to note that BLACK SOO's near sister, Cornelius Bruynzeel's famous ZEESLANG, means "Sea Snake" in Dutch, while "Soo" in the native dialect of the Sioux Indians means "Little Snake." As clear as mud.
It was Bruynzeel's ZEESLANG, designed by Van deStandt, that led to the formation of the Royal Cape One Design (RCOD) in South Africa.
Hope to see you all at the Myron Spaulding Wooden Boat Center for an evening remembering Myron Spaulding's Legacy. I'll be sailing WILDFLOWER over from Berkeley Marina.
Proceeds go to the Wooden Boat Center, a really good cause. Saturday, Oct. 20 at 5 pm.
Highlights of the evening include: On-site cooked Paella, Margaritas, and other culinary treats "Jazz of the Sea," performed by the BOOKTET Quintet featuring trombone, and in homage to Myron Spaulding, violin
With carbon fiber debris still washing ashore, the volume of speculation is only exceeded by the reported Apparent Wind Speed of 58 knots when ORACLE's crew went over the handlebars.
58 knots of wind, 3 knots of ebb, no way to reef, ease or windvane the sail past 45 degrees, a 131 foot mast, and their local tactician John Kostecki on the E. Coast, the outcome was very much foregone IMO.
To see the wreckage going past Pt.Bonita at sunset was sobering indeed.
Now ARTEMIS is broken again, and they weren't even sailing. The crew of New Zealand's "Tractor" are concentrating on not becoming over confident. But things are currently looking good for them.
Last evening was a fun and well attended fund raising dinner at Spaulding Wooden Boat Center in Sausalito. Many of Myron's designs were front and center, including NAUTIGAL and the stunning 28 footer ARETE, begun by Myron in 1958 and launched 48 years later.
The walls were oozing history. Tom and Sue from DAZZLER were at our table, and Tom reminisced about working for Myron, including the time the crane dropped the 45 footer ANNIE TOO. Myron was running the hoist, and somehow the controls got away. Luckily the boat dropped into the Bay, narrowly missing Tom on the dock.
Tom also explained the painted lines on the floor were from Myron's beautiful 45' yawl CHRYSOPYLE, and the angled hole in the floor under our table was a result of Myron's drilling CHRYSOPYLE's rudder post from under the shop back in 1961.
A highlight of the evening was seeing the oldest yacht on the West Coast, FREDA, rolled out. She just needs a lead keel cast, her rig restepped, some sails made, and she's good to go for another 127 years. Anyone wishing to donate to FREDA's restoration is urged to contact Andrea at the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center. It is a truly worthwhile project.
I'm sure Myron's and his many shop cats were in attendance last night, in spirit if not in body. As
Commodore said, Myron would have modestly wondered what all the fuss was about. But he would have been secretly tickled to see his shop filled with well wishers.
I'd forgotten what a fleet of dreams rides at anchor in Richardson Bay. Likely a third of the boats are semi-derelict, and with 40 miles of fetch to the SE, seem ripe to break loose in a good winter storm. On the outlier of the fleet is the red AGE of RUSSIA, a 75 foot America's Cup boat that never got off the ground. Around the corner is HYDROPTERE anchored off Corinthian. We circled her, trying to imagine sailing to Hawaii at 30 knots while steering from the very much exposed ama.
I picked up good friend Kim Desenberg at Brickyard, and we cruised the main down the Santa Fe Channel of Richmond Inner Harbor. Berthed at the commercial wharf was OCTOPUS, Paul Allen's 414 foot mega-yacht, homeported out of some small Caribbean island post office box. OCTOPUS's 67 foot tender is bigger than any vessel in Berkeley Marina or Brickyard. Did I mention the basket ball court on the aft deck?
It is interesting to remember that SF Bay was once connected to San Pablo Bay through Richmond. Point Richmond was an island until the marshes and sloughs east of the Chevron refinery were filled.
We threaded our way through no less than 50 Laser Radials, Optis, and El Toros being sailed by kids at Richmond Yacht Club. Even though the wind was light, everyone looked to be having fun. Certainly more smiles than across the Bay at Pier 80, Oracle's home base.
On our Sunday sailby up Richmond Inner Harbor, it was sad to hear from Kim that the big blue yawl ESCAPADE, for many years in storage at KKMI, would soon be chainsawed.
ESCAPADE, 75 years old this year, was a 72'6" yawl designed by Phil Rhodes and deemed "Queen of the Great Lakes" in her heyday before coming to the West Coast. At that time (1937), 73' was the max LOA allowed by CCA, and ESCAPADE, with a foretriangle base of 32', was truly a "maxi." http://www.syescapade.com/
Her blue hull was so very pretty, and when ESCAPADE was matched up against the black hulled BARUNA and the blue hulled ORIENT, I'm sure even God stopped to watch.
These three beauties were entered in the 1955 TransPac. As a 10 year old spectator, my eyes were glued to the fleet from aboard our L-36. At the Transpac start, ESCAPADE short tacked up the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Near Portuguese Bend she came to an abrupt stop when her big bronze centerboard found an uncharted rock and was unhinged. (ESCAPADE drew 14 feet with the board down.)
To the crew's credit, they cut ESCAPADE's centerboard free and continued the race. We motored to the West End of Catalina to watch them come around. The 72 foot BARUNA was all business, her jet black S&S hull marching upwind in the fresh afternoon Westerly. ORIENT was a mile behind on port tack when a williwaw came down the Catalina hills just west of Arrow Point. With an audible crack, her varnished mast came down.
Without a centerboard for balance, ESCAPADE suffered in that TransPac, eventually stripping her steering gear. Even so, she finished only a hour behind BARUNA.
As a kid, these were impressionable times. It is fun to replay in mind's eye as if it was yesterday. Long live ESCAPADE.
The staff at Berkeley Marina, WILDFLOWER's current temporary base, have been most friendly and accommodating.
But when I tried to pay for next month, I had an unexpected encounter at the front desk. Cheryl said, "you're a Live Aboard, aren't you?" I said, "No, not at the moment. Only spending weekends aboard." "Why do you ask?"
Cheryl said, "because you have a spice rack, and only Live Aboards would have a spice rack."
That's post #222 for you Skip, so time for a couple of remembrances . . .
Seeing her for the first time at Marina Village, and how comfortable you looked on that big cushion (a beanbag now that I think about it) in the back corner of her cockpit where you'd spent thousands of hours and miles.
After those first 2-3 days of the 2008 race, seeing you off to port. I thought "I must be going the right way" but then realized if I could see you that far into the race, I was kinda screwed (on corrected time).
Seeing you hiking out on the rail while single-handed. That set an example for me and I got an AP remote so I could do that.
When I launched WILDFLOWER back in 1975, I bought an old Cal 28 main for $25. The sail was too long on the boom, so we cut off about 2 feet of leach from clew to head. That removed the 18 from the sail number 18222, and 222 became the boat's (lucky) number.
That original main was built of yarn temper dacron cloth, which was golden brown. Blackaller, who was working for North Sails at the time, sees my main and shouts in his unique high pitched voice, "Where did you get the kevlar main?? How did you do that??" (Kevlar mains were just coming on the scene back in those days, very expensive, and looked golden with a sun backdrop.) I played coy, letting him think we had something special and "hi-tech." It was always fun to psyche Tom.
Attached photo from my 1978 SHTP Log shows that original main and sail #222 on WILDFLOWER. The photo was taken by Norton Smith, winner of the first SHTP. I kept a detailed log then (and now) as all navigation was DR and celestial and I had nothing but a Walker taffrail log and sextant. Big fish ate all my Walker log bronze spinners, so I'd estimate my speed for every 2 hour log entry.
At the time, WILDFLOWER had minimum electronics, but a big old ZENITH High Seas all band radio. It took 9 C cell batteries to operate, and the handle became the extendable antenna, telescoping to six feet. That radio lived in a 6" x 14" Bruynzeel plywood box bolted on the aft bulkhead above my bunk. In the '78 SHTP it picked up KGO and Iowa Christian radio stations real good. But that was about all. I didn't know if I was winning or losing until I came around the corner at Hanalei and saw only one racer's mast: Norton Smith's SC-27 SOLITAIRE.
When the radio died, that box became the spice rack over the galley, and held all the yummies including the jar of P-nut butter and pickle relish. Sorry for the longwinded explanation, but BobJ asked. I'm a story teller at heart.
Black Soo (caution, long post)
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