International OK Dinghy history into print

The International OK Dinghy Class has consigned its class history to print in a magnificent illustrated book, just released, titled 'Completely OK - the history, techniques and sailors of the OK Dinghy'.

The class celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007 and this book was brought out as part of those celebrations to encapsulate a class that has had a major impact on generations of sailors for the past half century in upwards of 40 nations across the world. It was published on May 1 2008.

Vast in scope, 'Completely OK' has been written and edited by long term OK Dinghy sailor Robert Deaves. It is 208 pages in length, A4 format and includes more than 150,000 words, 1,100 photographs and diagrams, 3,500 results and more OK Dinghy lore than has ever been collected together in one place before. It is a must for all those who have ever sailed an OK Dinghy.

Completely OK - okdia.org

Authors include past world champions Karsten Hitz, Thomas Jungblut, Svend Jacobsen, Roger Blasse, Nick Craig, Bo-Staffan Andersson and J?rgen Lindhardtsen and other personalities such as Dick Batt, Sten Wald?, Paul Elvstr?m, Don O'Donnell, Jonty Sherwill, Richard Creagh-Osborne, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Hans Peter Hylander, Ralph Roberts, Peter Montgomery, Harold Bennett and many, many more.

The OK Dinghy was designed by Knud Olsen of Denmark in 1956/7 mainly from the inspiration of Danish Pirat sailor Axel Damgaard Olsen, the man who introduced the Optimist dinghy into Europe from the States.

What followed was nothing short of a sailing revolution as the easy to build-at-home, simple to sail, yet hard to master singlehanded OK Dinghy filled a niche, first across Scandinavia, then Europe and then the Antipodes for a fast, lightweight planing dinghy.

At its peak, the OK Dinghy was one of the most populous adult and youth singlehanded dinghies being raced in the world.

This long history has left an ongoing legacy to sailors worldwide and this new book brings the birth of the class, its development and its main protagonists to life in a unique way. The books covers an in depth history of the class from its earliest days, its technical growth, the development of the class rules, and a complete record of all the major championships.

It then goes on to describe techniques for building, tuning and sailing the boat before ending with a collection of stories and interviews from sailors from the past and present in a fascinating expos? of what makes the OK Dinghy such a popular class to sail and why it evokes such devotion from so many sailors across the world.

Ordering information

Online ordering is available at www.okdia.org/completelyok.php

Copies are available through many of the OK Dinghy national associations and through OKDIA.

ISBN: 978-0-9559001-0-5
Price: [GBP] ?20

Postage & packing:
All UK addresses (?3)
Western Europe & USA (?4)
Eastern Europe/New Zealand/Australia (?5),
Central and South America, Middle & Far East, Africa (?6)
Discounts are available for bulk purchases. Trade terms available.

Orders should be placed with the main stockist:
Robert Deaves
124 Heatherhayes
Ipswich
IP2 9SG
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 7932 047046
Email: robertdeaves@yahoo.co.uk

Some excerpts:

In 1956, 'A group of Pirat sailors under the leadership of Axel Damgaard realised the need for an inexpensive one-man planing, racing dinghy. The task to design the new dinghy was given to the boat designer Knud Olsen, who was asked to design a light one-man dinghy, that was cheap, could be amateur built and could be easily transported on top of a car. Axel asked his good friend Paul Elvstr?m to design the rig and Paul suggested a flexible unstayed mast like the Finn.'

In 1963, 'On an unusually windy winter's morning in June 1963, 11 sailors from Cairns Amateur Yacht Club, in the north of Australia manoeuvred their boats across the starting line at Cairns Inlet before embarking on the first ever ocean race for OK Dinghies. The course was the 17 mile open sea voyage to Green Island on the Barrier Reef some 17 miles distance.'

In 1967, 'the [South East Asian Games] was staged in Phuket, His Majesty the King Bhumibol represented Thailand...in his OK Dinghy TH 27 and won a gold medal... His daughter, Princess Ubolratana, sailed OK Dinghy TH 18 and they finished equal first. That day, 16 December 1967 became Thailand's National Sports Day.'

In 1970: 'Meanwhile Australian OK Dinghy champion Norm Clarke couldn't ship his boat to Auckland [for the world championship] so he brought it with him on the flight from Brisbane. After passing through Customs he collected his boat and headed for Takapuna Beach. He reported that his OK Dinghy only just fitted through the aircraft doors.'

In 1982, 'This was Pakistan's first ever gold medal in yachting [Asian Games] and it was quite an event in the country. OK Dinghy PK 1 ended up in a museum in Pakistan, Khalid Akhtar became an Admiral and Pakistan struck a postage stamp depicting the OK Dinghy.'

In 1989, '..some West Germans were on their way to the Berlin Regatta as usual. But this year was different. The border controls were not working anymore and the streets were littered with empty champagne bottles. The wall had come down on Thursday night. On arrival at the club, they were a bit amazed to find a Trabant with an OK Dinghy behind it already there. Long before it was possible for him to go there Kay Nickelkoppe from Frankfurt/Oder had heard about OK Dinghies racing in November in West Berlin. The night the wall came down, he decided to hook up his boat and become the first 'Easti' to sail in a West German OK Dinghy regatta.'

In 2001, 'At the world championship Karsten Hitz won his second title while second and third placed Bart Bomans and Thomas Hansson-Mild put themselves forward for President and Vice-President Northern Hemisphere [of OKDIA], but agreed that whoever came first in the race on August 7 would be President. On the final beat Thomas was leading the race and Bart was second. Thomas asked Bart if he would like to go in front. Bart declined, so became Vice-President while Thomas became the tenth President of OKDIA.'

These are just a few of the many hundreds of stories to be found in 'Completely OK'.

by Robert Deaves