ROFA's Rig?

[Adam]

In John Parkinson’s annuls of the CCA Book, "Nowhere is Too Far" (great book BTW, highly recommended) - he makes note of the first "re-start" of the Bermuda race after the 1905 race to allow small boats - 1928. In the book he makes some - well - non-flattering remarks about the Herreshoff designed ROFA (HMCo. # 933) in this small boat class. Parkinson states she had a very experimental rig called a "Manfred Curry" rig. And he alludes to the fact that it was dangerous and she should never have been allowed to race. She was, of course de-masted in this race, and upon towing her back, was sunk.

Now I know Manfred Curry was a German Designer of Rigs - does anyone know what this particular rig looked like - or what made it so "experimental" and 'dangerous"?

The Boat was designed by Sidney - and a 1928 "Time" article of the race makes note on ROFA that "...designed by Herreshoff, who learned about sails in Scandinavian fjords". Was this true? - Or was the article really referring to Curry and not Herreshoff?

[Steve]

Adam:  I can't add anything to this ... sorry.  I do note that your reading list is especially interesting .. you have pointed out a number of good choices over the past months.  Thanks.

[Adam]

Well Curry was very partial to full batten sails - I wonder if this was the case with Rofa? would seem kind of strange - a gaff rigged full batten schooner....

As for the library - well I've been slowly been building one of mainly American yachting history, or area's of maritime/nautical flavor that would interest me - usually for for family reasons...much of this is from my Fathers own collection and much has been guided by Llewellyn Howland III's published bibliography "Yachting in America" - available from Mystic. That book alone makes for a short learning curve...

If your looking for something in particular let me know....

[HerreshoffHistory]

Hm, Rofa. She originally had a "conventional" Marconi schooner rig,
just like her sister Harlequin #934s which was contracted for on the
same day as Rofa in 1925. One club-footed jib and two spreader-less
masts. Three sails.

In 1928 her new owner William Roos replaced that rig with a very
unconventional rig with six sails, three of them on pivoting booms
with their tacks coming down to the middle (pivot point) of the boom
and their clews to the end of the booms. The other three sails were
jib-like sails whose tacks were attached to the forward ends of those
three pivoting booms. No full battens. Rofa was untested when she
started for the Spanish transatlantic race and the whole rig came down
after a few days. She subsequently sank while being towed at high
speed by a steamer (no one saw her go!) but had been fairly fast in
the race until her dismasting.

The rig was said to have been heavily influenced by Manfred Curry's
thinking, but I do not know who actually designed it.

Curry was an American citizen, born in Germany.

Send me a private mail and I can supply you with more info on Rofa,
including photos.

[Adam]

Will do - on the road next few days (work getting in the way again...)

[Adam]

HH - Thank you. I'm embarrassed to say I don't have any of Curry's books (something I hope to remedy shortly...) which I would hope to have an example of this sort of Rig. I do notice that in Chapelle's "Yacht Designing and Planning" he has a line drawing of a rig on a schooner in what appears to be the rig you describe - See pg. 256. He calls it a "Fenger" rig.

[Adam]

Well in reading through "Winning the Kings Cup" there she is - a picture of ROFA's strange rig....yep looks to me like a bunch of jibs (6 total) on two masts with the booms pivoting and not attached to the mast (sort of like a wishboom) - While the sails have no battens - there apears to be a wishboom type gaff on the fore mast that is attached to the outter edge of the foresail....There is also some strange rigging on the booms themselves. Maybe I'll scan it and post....

[HerreshoffHistory]

Another photo of Rofa under her "Curry-rig" can be found in Rosenfeld, Stanley. The Story of American Yachting. New York, 1958, p. 176.

Note, that Mystic Seaport appears to have two Rosenfeld photos of Rofa. One being the above cited. Accession numbers are 1984.187.28983F and 1984.187.29026F.

[Adam]

Hmmm...Have that book - never noticed - Thanks HH!

[HerreshoffHistory]

It's a nice book and good to have in one's library.

I forgot to say in my last post: If you are really interested in Rofa's (well, Isabella's) rig, you may want to visit the Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, at M.I.T. and look at:

# 130-160: Sail Plan for "Isabella" (Ex "Rofa" # 933) (1928-6-1)
# 080-104: Rigging Details for "Isabella" (Ex. "Rofa" # 933) (1928-6-26)

[Adam]

Yep found the picture as you stated....I wonder if the one in Bell's book is the other Rosenfeld picture that Mystic has?

BTW tried to find it on the Mystic "Rosenfeld Collection" site - no luck for anything Rofa...

[HerreshoffHistory]

>I wonder if the one in Bell's book is the other Rosenfeld picture that Mystic has?

Probably. Rosenfeld took several photos of Rofa/Isabella on June 30, 1928, the day of the start of the transatlantic race.

To search for Rofa photos at Mystic, try http://mobius.mysticseaport.org/info.php?s=rofa&type=all&t=objects (but you won't see the images themselves).

[Adam]

Thank you HH - I ran those ID's yesterday and didn't come back with anything - must have done something wrong! Saved that link for future reference....