Jester (Blondie Hasler)

[john sefton]

HIS STAMP DOEN'T SEEM TO SHOW "JESTER" ALTHOUGH IT DOES MENTION BLONDIE HASLER. ANY FURTHER INFORMATION IS WELCOME.

Lieutenant Colonel Herbert George "Blondie" Hasler DSO, OBE (27 February 1914 – 5 May 1987) was a distinguished Royal Marines officer in World War II, responsible for many of the concepts which ultimately led to the post-war formation of the Special Boat Service. After the war he became a notable yachtsman, contributing especially to developments in single-handed sailing.

Hasler is known as one of the fathers of single-handed sailing, owing to his invention of the first practical wind-powered self-steering gear for yachts. This device enabled the skipper to set a course fixed in relation to the angle of the prevailing wind, and then steered the boat on that course automatically. No longer required to steer continuously, a single-handed sailor could sleep and carry out other activities such as navigation, cooking, repairs and sail handling. The device consists of a wind vane secured at the stern of the yacht, which is connected to the rudder via a system of ropes, pulleys and servos. If the wind changes direction, the self-steering must be adjusted in order to maintain a constant compass heading. In recent decades electronically-controlled and electrically-powered self-steering gear, which can follow a compass heading directly, has grown in popularity, but it requires a constant electrical power supply, and many sailing vessels continue to rely on wind-powered self-steering systems still substantially based on Hasler's work.

In 1960 Hasler competed in the first Observer Single-handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR), from Plymouth to New York. The race, originated solely by Hasler, did not include any "half a crown" bet as the myth suggests with Francis Chichester the fourth of the five competitors to enter the race. Of the fifty yachtsmen who sent letters of intent to compete, only five eventually started. Only Jester was equipped with Hasler's self-steering. Hasler himself sailed one of the smallest boats in the race, his heavily-modified Nordic Folkboat Jester, and finished second in 48 days to Chichester's much larger Gipsy Moth III.

Hasler had Jester built some years prior to the first trans-Atlantic race, specifying that a fully enclosed deck, with two circular hatches in the cabin top rather than a conventional cockpit, be built on the standard hull. He used the boat as a floating laboratory to develop his self-steering system, and also pioneered the use of a Chinese-style junk rig on a western yacht, to avoid the physical effort and potentially dangerous deck-work, required to handle a conventional rig single-handed. The junk rig allowed all sail handling to be done from the safety of the central control hatch, and Hasler claimed he could sail Jester across the Atlantic without ever leaving the cabin.

Hasler and Jester returned for the 1964 OSTAR, finishing fifth in 37 days, 22 hours. On his return Hasler, who was becoming disenchanted with what he perceived as the race's commercialisation, and the increasing size, complexity and expense of the yachts brought about by sponsorship, sold Jester to Mike Richey. Richey continued to race the boat until she was lost in an Atlantic storm during the 1988 OSTAR.

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