AT THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR THE ALLIES TOOK OVER A LARGE NUMBER OF YACHTS THAT HAD FORMERLY BEEN OWNED BY THE KRIEGSMARINE AND DIVIDED THEM AMONG THE VARIOUS SERVICE YACHT CLUBS IN ENGLAND, AMERICA AND RUSSIA. THESE YACHTS WERE CALLED WINDFALLS. ALTHOUGH HER PEDIGREE IS SIMILAR TO THESE YACHTS WHISPER IN A SENSE ISN’T ONE OF THEM AS SHE WAS BUILT SHORTLY AFTER THE WAR AND HER OWNER DID PAY THE YARD FOR HER CONSTRUCTION. ONE POUND, TO BE PRECISE! TEXT: RON VALENT was built in 1946 to an existing design by Henry Rasmussen. Rasmussen made his name before the war with among others a large number of 10- and 12-Metre Class yachts that were ordered by the New York Yacht Club in the 1920s as well as many offshore racing and cruising yachts. His yard also produced a series of Seefahrtkreuzers. These yachts were designated by their upwind sail area and ranged from 40, 50, 80, 100, 150 and all the way up to 250 m2 yachts. Most of these were ordered by the German navy and were used to train their officers in seamanship and navigation. After the war many of them became so-called Windfalls and were shipped off abroad or, as in the case of the British Kiel Yacht Club, a number of 40, 50 and 100 square metres were put into use by British naval officers stationed in Germany. These yachts have proven their seaworthiness, speed and, now 90 to 100 years later, also their durability many times. The 250 m2 Nordwind for instance when sailing for the German Navy in 1939 set a Fastnet record that was only improved 26 years later and she is still a regular competitor in Cannes and Saint-Tropez. She has even participated in the Trans-Atlantic Race. Whisper is no exception in this respect and has also proven herself a durable and capable yacht. ONLY FOUR OWNERS IN 80 YEARS Her first owner was British general G. E. Prior-Palmer. At the Normandy landings at Sword Beach, he commanded a tank unit which, equipped with screens, had to »float« to the coast. Not surprisingly, after the exercises on nice flat water in England, they fared less well during the landings in the rough seas off Normandy. Most of these tanks sank before reaching the shore. With his now replenished tank unit, Prior-Palmer fought in the Ardennes Offensive and Market Garden, the unsuccessful liberation of Arnhem. In the Netherlands, he was responsible for supplying weapons to a unit of the Dutch Resistance that fought in the liberation of many Dutch towns. With his 8th Armoured Brigade he then pushed on to Bremen. After the German surrender on May 4th, the area around Bremen was assigned to him as an occupying force. Abeking & Rasmussen’s famous shipyard was in this area in Lemwerder. The yard had come through the war undamaged. Rasmussen himself was originally a Dane and had only minimally participated in the German war industry. Initially after the war, the yard made toys and handcarts. Prior-Palmer saw this and thought it a waste of the craftsmanship available and ordered a yacht from Rasmussen. The pre-war contacts with many American customers possibly also helped, of course, and allowed Rasmussen to restart his yard for the production of (small) pleasure boats with relative ease. He even had a sizeable stock of timber ready which had been hidden underwater during the war. Presumably given the time constraints and to save costs, an existing design was pulled out of the cupboard that in terms of dimensions and appearance looks suspiciously like one of the 100 m2 Seefahrtkreuzers built for the German Navy in the WHISPER 92 93
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