| Photo: YACHT/N. Krauss
The marina in Arnis on the Schlei. A great white shark lolls in the sun. It has been moored with four mooring lines so that the imposing creature cannot move. It jerks on the lines, and when the wind picks up briefly, the sea creature trembles. It seems to be asking when it will finally be set free.
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He probably senses that it's about to start. After all, the shark has to show what it's made of today. And why his family, this historically significant unit class from the far north, bears the name of the feared predator. And last but not least, this beloved specimen from northern Germany will tell us why it is now mostly lonely and alone in this country, where its conspecifics have gone and what they are up to now.
Although the Finnish standardised class from 1932 still enjoys great popularity in its home country and has achieved cult status in France as the Requin, its existence is under threat in local regions, just like the sea creature that gave it its name. The domestic fleet is only just in double figures, spread across northern Germany and various lakes in Germany.
Authentic shark boat from 1947
The "Zoé" is now being rigged for the first time in Arnis by Stefan Ernst Schneider and his shipyard team after its winter hibernation in the Grödersby boatyard. The white pine hull on oak frames shines just as immaculately as the varnished Oregon stick deck. The appearance of the 9.60 metre long and 1.90 metre wide open keel boat with its tiny superstructure, which reaches just up to the mast and has a real face with two bulleyes, is reminiscent of the long, slender skerry cruisers from Sweden; the mast and boom made of spruce wood look rather restrained.
"Zoé" is an original appearance. At first glance, you can see that her condition is flawless and yet authentic. She was built in 1947 and not much more is known about her history. The restoration work carried out in recent years has certainly not affected her soul - apart from the new deck laid in 2011, the substance from the year of construction has been preserved to this day. The nicks driven into the shark by the ravages of time have been steadily worn away without its body parts being replaced for cosmetic reasons.
A look inside reveals an aged structure. "That's the way it should be," explains shipyard operator Stefan Ernst Schneider, who has been responsible for maintaining the boat for many years. The well-organised cockpit is open and, as with the Folke, provides a view of the natural interior of the planks. The helmsman can use a small transom dinghy, while the foresailor has space on two forecastle boxes that converge at the front to form a bridge deck. Inside the boat, there is a small locker to starboard, a tiny galley to port, two berths in front of it and a double berth in front of the full-length mast. Nothing more.
Love at first sight
Owner Hans-Jürgen Schmutzler stands on land. The retired pastor took on the shark boat in 2004. "I fell in love with the lines at first sight," says the classic car enthusiast. At the time, he bought the boat from a woodworm who had brought it back from Stockholm a year earlier and repaired it in order to sell it on. Since then, Schmutzler has been travelling from his summer berth in Bockholmwik around the Danish South Sea and to classic car meetings in northern Germany. He has travelled several times on summer trips lasting several weeks. The fact that the cruising comfort on his boat is even less than that of a folk boat has not dampened his enthusiasm for sailing with the Hai.
In the meantime, the 15 square metre mainsail has been hoisted and the four square metre jib is ready. Hand over hand, Stefan Ernst Schneider hauls the gem to a dolphin, where the wardrobe is set and the "Zoé" is unhitched for a trip on the Schlei.
History of the shark boat class
Michael Möller is at the helm. The shark boat expert has a very personal history with the class: his grandfather sailed a sister ship on the Szczecin Lagoon back in the 1930s. After reunification, Möller went in search of the ship and found it in Ueckermünde in complete disrepair. He bought it back in 1994 and had it restored in Estonia. Since then, he has dedicated himself wholeheartedly to shark boats, later rescuing a second one and organising several international class regattas. Möller has researched the history of shark boats extensively.
It began in 1930, a time when Northern Europe was slowly recovering from the consequences of the First World War and the Great Depression, which also gave sailing a boost. A year earlier, a cheap-to-build boat for the people had been created in Norway in the form of the kite; in Sweden, archipelago cruisers were booming, and in Finland and the Baltic states there was also a desire for a simple boat class that would enable less well-off sailors to compete with each other on the water and go sailing in their free time. It should be suitable both for the sheltered waters of the archipelago as well as for passage trips on the open sea.
Consistently geared towards series production
The designer Gunnar L. Stenbäck from Helsinki is commissioned by the Commodore of the Helsinki Yacht Club Eric Numelin and the Commodore of the Tallinn Yacht Club Eric von Holst to design such a boat. It was to be easy to build from local timber. Stenbäck submitted his commissioned work in October 1930. It features a long and narrow round bilge hull with a draught of 1.10 metres. The small superstructure and a fore hatch correspond to what is usual on skerry cruisers; the rig, with 19 square metres of sail area, is deliberately undersized for the 1.7 tonne boat.
The design is consistently geared towards series production. As it is not possible to build an S-frame with tight radii, the pine planks can be cold-formed on the moulds before the 45 frames are bent in and riveted. The keel made of wood and iron ballast is manufactured in parallel and then simply bolted under the hull.
From the Baltic regatta course to northern Germany
The publication of the crack in issue 47 of YACHT also made the boat known in Germany in 1931. It was published in an article under the heading "Cheap boat types": "The lines of the frame crack appear quite strange to our eyes, but suggest good seaworthiness and usable speed," it read, and that the design of the hull, the material and the construction were primarily tailored to a favourable price.
The following year, the Shark was officially recognised as a standard class by the Finnish Sailing Association. And the first regatta trophy had already been donated by the tobacco factory La Ferme from Reval in the form of the Manon Cup. It is still in the possession of the Baltic Sailing Association in Steinhude and provides impressive information about the history of the class, which brought Finns, Estonians and Baltic Germans together on the regatta course for many years. A fleet of six boats was also built in Memelland at this time, which were bought from Finland by local sailors. Until 1939, the Sharks fought for the trophy on the Baltic Sea off today's Tallinn.
The forced resettlement of the Baltic Germans as a result of the Hitler-Stalin Pact led to the haiboat fleet in the region haemorrhaging. Many owners find a new home for them in Gdynia, now Gdynia, which was then known as Gotenhafen. Towards the end of the Second World War, almost all of the former Baltic German shark boat fleet was shipped to northern Germany. The turmoil of the end of the war and the post-war years, flight and confiscation meant that very few of the boats were subsequently returned to their owners.
How a shark boat moves on the water
The "Zoé" was built two years after the end of the war. Owner Hans-Jürgen Schmutzler has still not been able to find out who built it. He only knows that its previous owner bought the boat from a doctor in Stockholm. Since then, it has obviously felt at home here on the Schlei - sailing it is a real pleasure. The Hai is extremely narrow and its ballast is not very deep. It therefore quickly lays on its side, but soon finds its stable swimming position and is then travelling as if on rails. Thanks to its small sail area, it parries gusts without fuss.
However, those with sportier ambitions should take a closer look at the design, as Michael Möller learnt when he sailed his restored Hai for the first time in 1995. "It's important to bring the crew weight forwards," explains the expert, recalling the years of learning at the beginning of his racing career. "The start is always difficult," he says. The boat likes to get stuck with the stern because the ballast is not only high, but also far aft.
It is also important to pick up speed with a schrick in the sheets before the sails are trimmed upwind to gain height. On "Zoé", two backstays are available for this trim, with which the luff tension can be easily controlled. This is not provided in the original. Otherwise, the boat is easy to handle, can take a lot of wind and sails very dry even in short, steep waves.
Start-up difficulties in Germany
Despite its good sailing characteristics and cheap construction, the boat had a hard time in Germany from day one. While around 100 new boats were exported to France early on and more than 30 to the USA, the class competed with whaleboats, metre yachts and skerry cruisers in Germany. Attempts to have it recognised as a national class fail due to the Third Reich's policy of equalisation. And the breakthrough is not achieved at international level either. Initial ambitions to establish the Shark as an Olympic class fail - in 1948 the Dragon becomes the Olympic open keelboat class.
Nevertheless, a few shark boats were built at German shipyards before the war, the first in 1935 at Empacher & Karlisch in Königsberg. Before the war, the Scharstein shipyard in Kiel-Dietrichsdorf built six boats in what was then known as the Reichsgebiet, but according to Scharstein, they were not suitable for regatta purposes due to numerous owner requests.
When the Second World War came to an end, Scharstein, now based in Strande on the Kiel Outer Fjord, built a further six sharks. However, according to British occupation regulations, these boats had to be shortened to 9.00 metres. Scharstein also builds this series one plank higher and equips it with extensive cruising equipment and an extended sail wardrobe.
In addition to the normal sails, the spinnaker is also to be used on "Zoé" today. The westerly wind has freshened to 4 Beaufort, gusting more, and after passing the Arnisser Enge, we head upwind until just before Lindaunis. The shimmering greenish towed water clings to the leeward deck while the shark speeds ahead. The crew feel safe in the small cockpit, even though they are virtually at eye level with the water. The manoeuvres are uncomplicated, the small sail areas are easy to handle, the rudder provides good control, and so there is no hectic rush. After a gybe, the spinnaker rises on the short mast, fills with wind and "Zoé" starts the race almost silently on an even keel.
The shark boat on the international stage
It is easy to understand why large regatta fields of this small, fine boat class still come together in France today. The Hai was recognised there as a national class as early as 1934. After acquiring the building licence, the "Requin" was created from the hull with a higher rig and obligatory backstays from 1938, a boat type that has retained its loyal fan base. Since the 1970s, this type has been built from GRP, but aluminium is now permitted as a material for the rig. Around 500 examples are registered in France - wooden boats and those made of GRP sail against each other as a single class.
In Finland, on the other hand, the attempt to move with the times has led to a split. In 2000, a mould of the GRP Requin was purchased from France and the "Hai 2000" was developed. It is also propelled by a larger rig, which comes from the H-boat and, unlike the original, is on deck. The boat also has a self-draining cockpit - it is therefore not recognised by the class association. It still consists of around 150 classic wooden boats, some of which, however, have migrated to the GRP shark 2000 sailors with retrofitted H-boat rigs.
Even in the USA, the shark has left its mark. Of the 30 pre-war boats exported, only a few have survived, but they are being looked after. Michael Möller visited the fleet a few years ago. The exotic boats are at home in Camden/Maine on the east coast and are known there as "Haj".
Future of the German shark boat fleet
It was also Möller who initiated a small shark boat renaissance in Germany a few years ago. After sailing for a short time at the Kieler Woche in the 1950s for a prize donated by the Kieler Yacht-Club for shark boats, the class had disappeared into oblivion. But Möller's research a good 20 years ago revealed that a local fleet of just over ten boats still existed. He made contact with the owners and invited them to an international shark boat regatta at the German Classics in Laboe in 2000. Two Requins from France, a Hai 2000 and three classic Sharks from Finland and five boats from Germany - half the fleet - came together at this event, the Americans sent two crews and there was some ambitious sailing. A success that was repeated several times in the following years.
But apart from such highlights - the shark has remained true to itself and will no longer find a broad public in our waters. It won't bother him or his loyal friends. A great white shark is a loner anyway.
And so, wherever they appear, the boats attract attention and exude what the "Zoé" also embodies so impressively: the aura of a wonderfully pretty small boat class with exotic, classic lines and an exclusivity that consists less in glamorous yachting history and proximity to sailing celebrities than in Nordic simplicity and recognisably uncomplicated sailing fun.
Technical data shark boat
- Design engineer: Gunnar L. Stenbäck
- Year of origin: 1930
- Total length: 9,60 m
- Length CWL: 6,60 m
- Width: 1,90 m
- Depth: 1,10 m
- Displacement: 1,7 t
- Ballast/proportion: 1,05 t/62 %
- sail area: 19,0 m²
- Mainsail: 15,3 m²
- Fock: 3,7 m²
- Class association: In Finland, the owners of classic wooden shark boats are very active (www.haipurjehtijat.fi)
The article was first published in 2017 and has been revised for this online version.
Lasse Johannsen
Deputy Editor in Chief YACHT
