Essentials

Notes

Sabre location (about 1970) - 11.06.2019 by Preston Briggs

I saw Sabre for sale in Seabrook in about 1970. My father and I talked briefly to a broker and were able to crawl around her a bit. I was too young to understand much about her condition. I believe she went to a local Sea Scout troop.

Sabre Location - 10.05.2010 by William Turner

Frank Howard, my grandfather, bought Sabre from Ernest Fay and raced it for a few years. I found a couple of great photographs from the 64' Olympic Trials that I might post in the future.
Each of his boats (Corinthian, Soling, 5.5) had a different fate and I just wanted to know if anyone knows the current location of Sabre.

Luders hull numbers - 15.02.2008 by Matti Muoniovaara

This boat is a Luders design #986. Totally there are 66 Luders 5.5 meter designs. Sabre US-6 is third Luders 5.5 design. The first ever design which Luders mentions was never built and it has no Luders hull number. The first Luders 5.5 hull number is 785. The last design is #1098 dates from 1981.

First 5.5 Luders design ever. - 14.02.2008 by Sebastien Schmidt

Luders design # 1 of 39, 1956.

Designer's Comments - 14.02.2008 by Sebastien Schmidt

The first interest I know of that this country showed in 5.5 Meter boats was at the time of the 1952 Olympics. We designed a 5.5 Meter for the late Walbridge Taft in 1950 and the plans were published in YACHTING, but this boat was never built due to Mr. Taft's poor health.
When Dr. Britton Chance bought a Swedish 5.5 and won the Olympics with her in 1952, it created considerable interest in the United States. Also, Dr. Chance himself stimulated interest in the 5.5s by promoting the class and delivering several informal talks on the subject, showing movies of the racing at Helsinki, Finland.
As interest increased quite a few foreign boats were bought by Americans for the elimination trials in 1956, to try for selection as the American representative in defense of the 5.5 Meter Championship Medal.
Of course, this brought up the possibility of building new bmtts to American designs, and quite a few people seemed interested, but in the end the only ones to come through was a Boston syndicate consisting of Ted Hood, John McNamara, et al with a boat called "Quixotic", designed by Ray Hunt.
Herman Whiton designed one for himself called the "Pathfinder" which we built for him, and we designed the "Sabre" and the "Flame" owned respectively by Ernest and Albert Fay. These boats were built by the Seabrook Yacht Yard, in Texas.
It was fint decided that we would embark on a model testing program, using a foreign design as a trial horse. Mr. Whiton and I produced several designs which we towed in the Stevens model tank. It is interesting to note that our first design in each case was pretty terrible, but the second ones looked like very promising boats. As a matter of fact, these two models turned into "Pathfinder" and "Sabre". It was many model tests later before we made any real improvements on the "Sabre" design. When the 5.5 Meter trials were conducted at Marion, Mass., in 1956 she did fairly well, but never developed her full potential until the following year when she really came into her own. After that she won many important victories. I think it is safe to say that "Sabre" is probably the most successful American 5.5 yet built, on an allround basis.
A. E. LUDERS, JR.
Stamford, Conn.
In YACHTING JUNE, 1963 p.64, 65 & 103

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