Few men start a new career at the age of 55. Even fewer are lucky enough to do for a living what was formerly a hobby. In 1966, Jack Köper, South African yachtsman, sailing dinghy designer and backyard boat builder did both – he left the printing trade in which he had worked all his life, and became a professional sailmaker. In his sail-loft at Paarden Eiland he had a stuff of six to cope with orders from as far as Canada and United States. They range from sails for the little “Dabchick” which Köper designed himself, to sails measuring hunderts of square feet for ocean going keel yachts.
Like many of his other activities, Köper’s sailmaking self-taught – “through books and trial and error” – though before setting up as a professional, he went on a brief visit to England, Holland, Switzerland and Italy to study the latest methods. “A lot has been written about the science of sail shapes and wind forces and so on – but sailmaking is still a creative art.”
Jack Köper’s first sailing experience occured when he was nine, on a river near his birthplace, Haarlem, in Holland. “My father took me out in his 12-ft dinghy, and I was dead scared. Water was coming over the bow and I thought we were going to capsize. I kept out of sailing boats for years afterwards.” About ten years later, however, he joined a rowing club, but was forced to give up this form of exercise because of health reasons. “So at the age of 22 I started sailing agin. I bought myself a 12 square metre Sharpie and won the first race I ever sailed in, which was very encouraging. I didn’t know the first thing about the rules.” In 1936 Jack Köper came to South Africa, married a Dutch girl, and then returned to Europe at the outbrake of war and served with the Netherlands Government in London. In 1947 the Sprog sailing dinghy made its appearance on South African vlies, and Jack was asked by a fiend to skipper a Sprog at Zeekoevlei. “We sailed quite successfully,” he recalled modestly. What, in fact, happened was that he won the national yachting regatta at Knysna in 1950.
Shortly afterwards Köper, with an instinctive feeling for the best in sailing, was struck by a new design published in a Dutch yachting magazine to which he subscribed. With others he sensed that the 20 ft. Flying Dutchman – now regarded as the aristocrat of single-hulled sailing dinghies throughout the world – could become an international class. With the aid of another well-known yachting personality, Dr. Ken Warr, he arranged for the first batch of FD shells to be sent to South Africa, an order for five shells and one completed hull as a pattern for finishing the shells. An unconfirmed legend is that the completed hull in this batch was Van Essen’s prototype Flying Dutchman, sent out to meet the South African order because it was the biggest received and the prototype was the only complete hull in existence. This internationally-historic hull is reputed to be still on the hard at Hermanus Yacht Club.
His Family, two sons and two daughters showed great interest in their father’s sail hobby. When Gerhard, the second oldest, was 14 he wanted his own boat. “So I decided to design one myself. It had to be safe, easy for a young boy to handle, simple and cheap to build, yet fast enough to plane and provide real excitement. The result was the Dabchick, which I designed in six months. Underwater, the hull was V-type, yet it was totally enclosed and no water could get in in the event of a capsize.” ”
The size of the boat was entirely dependent on the material I had to hand. The largest plywood sheets are made 8 ft by 4 ft So three sheets would cover a boat 12 ft by 4 ft which are the overall dimensions of the Dabchick.” Ten years later, there were 2,100 Dabchicks, not only in South Africa but also in England, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zeeland and several African countries including Kenya and Nigeria.
The Tempo followed in 1963. Köper said: I thought there was room for a third boat between the Sprog and the Flying Dutchman. The basic design would be that of a Dabchick, but it would be far more sophisticated. It was to be a boat with sufficient comfort for adults, but built for speed. To capture public imagination, it also had to look fast in appearance and be utterly different from any other class. My idea was to use four sheets of 8 ft by 4 ft plywood, limiting it to a maximum length of just under 16 ft. It would have a baem of 5 ft for stability and this involved carefully cutting of the plywood. The boat would be norrower than 4 ft fore and aft and the off-cuts would be used for the wider mid-section.” The Tempo took two years of design. After he had built it köper launched it secretly at Hermanus in 1963 and sailed it there for six months before officially letting anyone konw about the boat. “I then sailed it single-handed in an all-class race and was soon far ahead of everyone else. After these tests I found it necessary to make it a bit stronger. I also added buoyancy tanks to the sides of the cockpit – it already had fore and aft buoyancy. Plans for the Tempo have since been published in yachting magazines here and oversea. In Holland, where there are now about 150 Tempos, they are trying to make it an international class. Tempos are also being sailed in Germany, England, Italy and United States. at present 186 are registered in South Africa.” The Tempo took two years to design. After he had built it Köper launched it secretly at Hermanus in 1963 and sailed it for six months before officially letting anyone know about the boat. “I then sailed it single-handed in an all-class race and was soon far ahead of anyone else. After these tests I found it necessary to make it a bit stronger. I also added buoyancy tanks to the sides of the cockpit – it already had fore and aft buoyancy.” After there had been reports about the Tempo in sail magazines all around the world, it was distributed in South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Italy, and the United States.
It is not surprising that when, in 1970 Jack Köper designed a third dinghy, the Sonnet. This time the design offered a smaller scow, drier than the Dabchick, with adaptibility to one or two-man sailing but – more imporant and almost revolutionary in South Afrrica – the Sonnet was rigidly “one design”. By an extra long centreboard case it is possible to sail the Sonnet with and without (single handed) fore sail and adjusting the centre of lateral resistance by altering the centreboard to the front or aft to the altered centre of pressure of the sails. The Sonnet is certainly a very successful class in South Africa today.