RB Sailing: Outsider (Judel/Vrolijk 39)

19 January 2013

Outsider (Judel/Vrolijk 39)

Outsider began her racing career as Dusselboot, an early design from the emerging partnership of Dutchman Rolf Vrolijk and German Friedrich Judel. She was designed as a minimum rating (30.0ft IOR) light-medium displacement yacht (12,700lbs), constructed in 1980 in aluminium by Yachtafenwerft for owner Michael Schmidt, and featuring a tall fractional rig based on a Stearn three-quarter section. She first made a name for herself in England, when she won the 1981 Round the Island Race (Cowes) on a day when the German Admiral's Cup team for that year gave notice of its strength. Dusselboot won the race as a result of her ability to hitch a ride on the quarter wave of bigger yachts, in this case the Swan 51 Scoundrel, from the Needles to St Catherines Point. Team-mates Pinta and Container finished fifth and seventh.

Dusselboot/Outsider lines plan

Sailing in the 1983 Admiral's Cup

The German team finished the Admiral's Cup in third place that year, a position which may have been improved had Dusselboot not lost her mast in the Channel Race, dropping her to 15th place in the individual standings. The yacht was renamed Outsider when she was bought by Tilmar Hansen, and after some tweaking and improvement she made the German team for Cowes again in 1983, sailing alongside Pinta and Sabina. The German team was totally dominant, and they won the series by amassing a total 847 points, well clear of the second placed Italian team on 680 points. Sabina was top overall yacht, Pinta second and Outsider fifth.

Outsider was bought in the US and went on to compete in the 1984 SORC, where she was photographed by Larry Moran. The last photograph indicates that she was in an unused state in Massachusetts.