A special reunion takes place below deck of the "Hiddensee I", a prototype from 1972, in Rostock. Six people from East and West, including the designer Walter Loos, sit around the cabin table or squeeze into the remaining corners. Simone Schuberth, co-owner of the neighbouring sister ship "KalkEi", says jokingly: "Murmann only built the new 'Uca' back then because we beat him in the 1999 Rund Bornholm race." The man from Kiel upgraded from a Baltic 67 to a 26-metre maxi.
Type Hiddensee: a special class of boat
By contrast, the Schuberth family's striking tool: the aforementioned quarter-tonner and today's classic Hiddensee - built by the previous owners themselves during the Iron Curtain era, of course. Knobbly and iconic eight-metre boats that have become emblems of GDR sailing, and not just because of their unconventional appearance. Landmarks like a Trabant, or rather: like a Barkas B 1000, the big Trabbi brother and GDR unit van with a two-stroke Wartburg engine. Barkas' look: cute and round like a chocolate car at Christmas. As far as the Hiddensee was concerned, there was never a shipyard despite the large number of units; if you wanted to sail, you had to build it yourself. And: the characteristic appearance belies the fact that the little boats turned out to be wolves in sheep's clothing. No wonder, then, about the Murmann.
For the Hiddensee anniversary:
"Hiddensee I" turns out to be a space miracle. The fact that six people can fit comfortably below deck in a quarter-tonner is quite something. In the dim light, stories fly back and forth, faded blueprints are rolled over, and people fiddle around with the corners, gunwales and keel bolts of the old, much-sailed club ship, which is now - lovingly restored - Loos' property. Rostock is still one of the Hiddensee centres in a reunited Germany. And it quickly becomes clear: Hiddensees are real crosses between racing and cruising boats - insider tips, pre-turnaround cruisers/racers.
What does "Tuppeln" mean and where does the term come from?
First, however, the existence of the repeatedly used word "tuppeln" needs to be clarified. This is because, among other peculiarities of terms specific to the East, the expression - onomatopoeic for "laminate" - is obviously part of the common boatbuilding vocabulary here. The term "tuppeln" is used all the time, especially in connection with the then chic everyman's boat, which made the dream of sailing possible in the first place and triggered a GRP self-build boom. "Logo, everyone says that here," everyone echoes in unison. "Well, yes. It actually means 'dab'," admits Loos. But distorted in Mecklenburg, it becomes "tuppeln". In the absence of vacuum pumps or deaeration rollers, laminate can only be compacted and consolidated by pressing it onto the laminate.
There are an estimated 500 Hiddensee quarter-tonne trucks, tuppered in garages, backyards and barns. But the number of unreported cases is far higher. This is because the only form was lent to willing Tuppel brothers by the Bund Deutscher Segler (BDS) in return for a licence (1,000 Ostmarks, "Aluchips"). It was obligatory to specify how many hulls were to be built - usually one. But with good preparation, it only took a little over a day to make a shell, which is why several hulls were always made in record time. "The productivity of the GDR was finally really high here," jokes Martin Kringel, who skippers Open 60s at Speedsailing next door, in the light of the under-deck lamp.
The GDR classic had to be built by yourself
Above Kringel's and Andreas Wenndorf's head, the nuts of the latch stopper bolts peek out of the wooden panelling. Wenndorf built the stoppers himself and they are indistinguishable from the originals used at the time. Another word learnt: "Ratiomittelbau". As a metalworker, Wenndorf worked in a company created for the sole purpose of making the impossible possible. "Rationalisation tools" were things, usually of Western design, of which people knew how they worked, but not how to procure them. So they were meticulously copied, as were trap stoppers.
Frank Schuberth, house and boat serviceman, sums it up: "Qualities that are talked about in expensive seminars today - teamwork, coordination skills, lateral thinking and so on - we had to have back then, otherwise there was no boat. The system taught us these qualities. Like removing stainless steel from scrap machines and replacing it with resin or brushes." The Tuppel brothers can be proud.
The origin of the Hiddensee type
Fairness dictates that we really should compare eastern apples with western apples of the same age. After all, the somewhat unconventional design of the Hiddensee dates back to a time when West Germany had nothing prettier to offer, when the wildest experiments were being conducted under the guise of the International Offshore Rule (IOR) and the booming GRP construction industry. Desert steel ships and forecastles in orange and corneal umbra, that was the spirit of the West. Seen against this background, the Hiddensee doesn't cut a bad figure at all.
For Walter Loos, data on other constructions was also much more difficult to obtain than an experienced Internet user in his darkest visions (power failure) would imagine today. Occasionally, line drawings were found in an issue of YACHT, which was available in the company library - but could not be borrowed. And photocopiers? Where did they have those? For Loos, who is now retired, developing the best design from various drafts and designing something that would exactly meet the IOR's quarter-tonne racing value meant never-ending old-school design work by hand.
Build it yourself? Not so easy!
The fact that the shipyard in Rostock had already erected the moulds for the foreship before Loos could finish the hull did not make him any happier, but it did result in a wider than usual, more planing stern. The Hiddensees resemble the tonner designs of the American Dick Carter, which were frequently seen at the end of the sixties: large, smooth-running hulls with small, stubby rigs - which looked as if they had been reefed - were the reason for his success.
However, Loos and the BDS placed high demands on the hobby boat builders. Before they were allowed to tupple, a test piece had to be submitted to a "plastic application engineer": Laminate plan read correctly? Was the ratio of resin to fabric right? Siegfried Nöckel, who still sails quarter-tonne boats enthusiastically today, was one of the experts appointed for building inspections. He doesn't like to hear the word "tinkering". "The boats were built with a lot of expertise and always under professional supervision."
It was often official. Loos had to "balance sheet" the material for the prototype two years before construction began in Berlin. Anyone who thought that balance sheets were drawn up retrospectively for business transactions was mistaken. Loos: "With us, everything was always planned." Because calculating the hull and rig had already taken a lot of time, the deck shape was created somewhat hastily and in a way that was compatible with wooden battens. That's why the superstructure looks rather bulky.
The classic becomes an icon
The day after the Tuppelparty on "Hiddensee I", crews prepare a handful of quarter-tonne boats for the regatta at the jetties of the Rostock Sailing Club 92 (RSC 92) on the Warnow - the former yacht marina "Schiffahrt-Hafen Rostock". The Blue Ribbon of the Warnow, a cult regatta even before GDR times, is on the programme. And Hiddensee quarter-tonne boats, which are now classics, have been part of the cityscape for decades. Schuberth's white "KalkEi" is also sailing out. Physiotherapist Simone, who learnt sailing from scratch in a club in East Berlin: "We didn't have the term 'yoghurt pot'. Anything that looked bubbly was a lime egg." Another lesson learnt.
The movements of "KalkEi" are elegant. It goes without saying that the cloths from the FES branch (Research and Development Centre for Sports Equipment) Segelform can be shoed properly and rustle in a sufficiently modern way. After all, sailing training in the GDR was competition-orientated, so you pay attention to things like that. The fact that former state sailors such as Peggy Bahr (formerly Hardwigger) often sail on the Hiddensee gives the class a boost. Owner of "KalkEis" neighbour "Bourbon": Gunnar Voigt, then a member of the 470 squad.
Hiddensees are an insider tip among regatta sailors. Some, such as the "Test" or the "Larn" (both Wismar), have been modified with higher rigs and carry different superstructures. Quarter-tonne boats sail on the raked side today, like many old IOR designs.
GDR: by regatta to the navigation licence PM 18
Even though the idea of competition was held extremely high in the East for political reasons (keyword: "diplomats in tracksuits") and often even outweighed safety concerns, not everyone was focussed on the sport. Many sailors only took part in GDR championships because they could obtain the PM 18 sailing licence, without which they were not allowed to sail on the Baltic Sea. "We weren't really wanted," recalls Wenndorf, who used to conjure up fittings on board "Selfmade", which belongs to his brother. "The more sailors sailing around the Baltic Sea, the more stress the German 'Success Navy' had." Of course, the coveted PM 18 was only valid for day trips.
Brother Wenndorf had little to do with regatta sailing and built himself a cruising boat on the basis of a quarter-tonner: he raised the hull a little higher and put a self-built wooden superstructure on top. The interior looks simply huge - a spaceship. It's hard to believe what can be built from an eight-metre hull.
Anniversary meeting for the 50th birthday
And there are also a few hulls. Frank "Schubi" Schuberth: "Some of them are still half-finished. They were glued together by building cooperatives shortly before the turnaround. Anyone who buys one of these and takes care of the details themselves has a good boat. You hardly have to put down 20,000 euros for it," says the expert. And you don't even have to dabble any more.
Half a century of sailing supremacy on eight metres is to be duly celebrated, according to the organisers of the "demilitarised regatta fun" taking place from 2 to 4 June 2023 in Stralsund on the Dänholm.
You can find out more about the anniversary event here:
This article first appeared in YACHT 22/2009 and has been revised for this online version.
Technical data "Hiddensee I"
- Designer: Walter Loos
- Shipyard: Self-build
- Lüa: 7.95 m
- Width: 2.89 m
- Draught: 1.53 m
- Sail area (example): 35.0 m²
- Displacement: 2.0 tonnes
- Sail carrying capacity: 4.7
