Flying Dutchman flying on the Harbour this weekend

by Peter Campbell on 7 Dec 2006 Former three times FD World champion sailor Ian McCrossin this weekend is aiming for the rare, if not unique, achievement of winning a NSW State championship in two famous International and one-time Olympic classes in the one season.

McCrossin, a Nowra-based medico, last month steered Martin Burke’s Dragon class yacht Riga to victory in the NSW State championship but this coming weekend he will back on the helm of his favourite class, the spectacular Flying Dutchman.

With James Cook again as his crew, McCrossin will be among a small but highly competitive fleet contesting the NSW State Championship for the Flying Dutchman class, sailing from the Sydney Flying Squadron.

McCrossin has won three World Championships in the FD, on Lake Garda in Switzerland in 1995, St Petersburg, Virgina in 1997 and at Durban in South Africa in 2000.

His major rivals this weekend will include 505 champion Norman Rydge, former leading 12ft skipper Michael Chapman, and Mark Thorpe, a past Moth World champion.

'We expect up to nine boats to sail this weekend, with a long race on the Saturday and three short races on Sunday,' McCrossin said today.

'However, there are about 25 FDs being actively raced around Australia and we expect a strong fleet for the Nationals in Brisbane over Christmas-New Year.'

Whilst the Dragon is an 8.9m LOA displacement keelboat, the Flying Dutchman is a high-performance 6.07m LOA centreboard boat of exceptional speed. It was the biggest centreboard class in the Olympics from 1960 to 1992 and attracted many of the world’s best dinghy sailors through the 1960s to early 1990s.

The FD has a round-bilged hull, a hiking strap for the skipper, and a trapeze for the crew. It can fly a mainsail, a roller furling 150% genoa, and can launch and retrieve a spinnaker from a port in the foredeck, at the bow. Modern FDs also have a continuous trapeze system, and a spinnaker pole launching system.

The FD is also one of the fastest trapeze dinghies in the world even after 50 years of sailing. It is nearly 20 feet long and dwarfs many peer boats for its sheer size and performance.