Soling

The search was for four classes:

• A companion class for the Finn
• A complementary class to the Star
• A complementary class to the 5.5 Metre and Dragon
• A catamaran

After the announcement, Yachting started to gather design sketches for a three persons keelboat to be used in a presentation at the November IYRU meeting. Specs were not explicitly given however the boat should be a "wholesome boat capable of being sailed from port to port in open water". What IYRU wants is a nice compromise between maximum speed and maximum seaworthiness stated Yachting. The design of the Soling was made.

After Jan Herman Linge and Finn Ferner were satisfied with the prototype (in wood) it was transformed into a plug to create a mould for production in fiberglass. At the IYRU November meeting trials for a new 3 persons keelboat were scheduled for 1966. During the winter of 1965/66 the first five fiberglass Soling's were built by Linge.

Spring was used to test the five Solings. The trials were set for Kiel specially to test and compare the entries in heavy weather. The most races were won by a wooden Shillalah. After the trials two entries were recommended by the judges, The Shillalah and, shorter than all other competitor, the Soling. In November the IYRU decided that further trials would be held in Travemünde the following year.

Some sixty boats were produced, sold and sailed in Scandinavia as a local class even before the trials took place. Trials were held with some new boats, a fiberglass Shillalah II and the Soling plus a Dragon and 5.5 Metre for speed reference. After the trials the Soling alone was recommended to the IYRU. This passed through IYRY unanimously in November and the Soling became an International class. In 1974 Shillalah II also got the International class status. Licensed builders were attracted. The International Soling Association (ISA) was established. The first president of the ISA became Eggert Benzon from Denmark.

The Olympic status for the Soling arrived after the 1968 Olympics. IYRU decided that the 5.5 Metre had to make place for the Soling in the 1972 Olympics. Meanwhile, over 300 Solings were built in Norway, Denmark, the United States and Canada and more countries would follow. The first Soling European Championship was held in Skovshoved, Denmark and won by the team of Per Spelling from Norway.[8] 75 sailors in 25 Solings did compete.

In this period the first Soling World Championship, 261 sailors in 87 Solings did compete, was won, off the coast of Copenhagen, by the team of Paul Elvstrøm, Niels Jensen and Poul Mik-Meyer.[8] The team had put a lot of systems and hiking gear into their boat to make it sail faster. One of the techniques was the installation of a double bottom. This in combination with bailers made the boat self-bailing. This construction however was not legal. Before the first race of the Worlds holes had to be made into the raised floor to take away the unfair advantage. Later that year changes were made to the class rules so that racing floors/double bottoms, or as they are called officially "Cockpit Soles" became legal. The first winners of an Olympic Soling gold medal,[10] Buddy Melges, Bill Allen and Bill Bentsen[11] from the United States made the boat "Simple" by putting a lot of the systems below deck and removing the winches and shroud tracks. Also the first North American Championship was held on Lake Michigan in front of Milwaukee. 108 sailors in 38 Solings did compete. This event was won by the team of John Dane III, Mark LeBlanc and John Cerise.[8] At the 1972 November meeting of the IYRU the Soling was appointed as Olympic class for the 1976 Olympics.

Early 1972 Jack van Dyke from the United States became president of the ISA and he made sure that the Soling construction became under control. Then improvements were introduced one by one like hiking vests, mast steps rudders watertight compartments. The Soling became even more a one-design class. 1973 was crucial for the Soling in this respect. Poul Richard Høj Jensen, Valdemar Bandolowski and Erik Hansen from Denmark[12] took the Gold medal during the 1976 Olympics in Kingston, Ontario.[13] Over 2000 boats were built worldwide. Also due to the progression of the Soling the class was appointed as the Olympic three persons boat for the 1980 Olympics.

The Numbers of build Solings stayed high under the presidency of Geert Bakker, the Netherlands. Due to the high level of National and local competition the Battle for Olympic selection became more and more intense. This meant that rules were implemented for World and continental championships to keep the large fleet events fair. The introduction of gate starts, and black flag procedures were lined out, tested and implemented. Ken Berkeley introduced match racing in the Soling. Poul Richard Høj Jensen, Valdemar Bandolowski and Erik Hansen,[14] this time sailing under the flag of the IOC, became the 1980 Olympic Champions.[15] The 1980 Summer Olympics were heavily hit by the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. The Soling was prolongated as the Olympic three persons boat for the 1984 Olympics.

Ken Berkeley, Australia took the role as ISA president in 1980. Most new boats were now built by Abbott Boats and Elvstrøm/Borresens Baadebyggeri with a few but fast exceptions from Bianchi & Cecchi and Bootswerft Leonard Mader. Major champions were held in North America, Europe and Australia. The level of competition remained very high. In 1983 Karl Haist from Germany became president of the ISA. The 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles,[16] United States were won by the team of Robbie Haines, Ed Trevelyan and Rod Davis[17] from the United States. This event was struck by the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott. Again, the Soling kept its Olympic status for the 1988 Olympics.

Karl Haist had two major objectives for his presidency: First he wanted a large Soling event in Eastern Europe. He succeeded in this by having the 1985 Soling European Championship held in Balatonfüred, Hungary and the 1986 Europeans in Warnemünde, East-Germany. The second objective, bringing the operational cost of the Soling down by reducing the number of sails during a championship, took more time. This rule was effectuated in March 1989.[18] This rule change reduced the number of mainsails from 2 to 1 and the number of large spinnakers also back from 2 to 1. Shroud tracks were re-introduced on Solings. The 1988 Olympics were held in Busan, Korea.[19] The Gold medals were won by the East Germany team of Jochen Schümann, Thomas Flach and Bernd Jäkel.[20] The Soling status was prolonged as for the 1992 Olympics as the Fleet/Match racing class. In 1987 Sam Merrick became president of the ISA. In this period much was dune to make the Soling more unsinkable by Uli Strohschneider from Austria.

This period started with a failed World Championship. This was sailed in Balatonfüred, Hungary. On the first day there were heavy winds (up to 100 km/h), specially during the starting procedure. Out of 73 starters 43 made it to the first mark and only 29 boats made it to the finish! Many masts broke. NO BOATS SUNK!!!! in these extreme conditions. The next days there was hardly any wind. Only 4 races were completed, five are needed to constitute a championship.[21] Sam Merrick was elected president in 1987. He made sure that although Match racing was introduced for the 1992 Olympics Fleet racing remained paramount so the Fleet/Match race was introduced at the 1992 Olympics. Gold was won by the Danish team of Jesper Bank, Jesper Seier and Steen Secher.[22] This Fleet/Match race event was successful and so the Soling remained an Olympic class for another 4 years. Stuart Walker became president in 1991.

The Soling made the choice to introduce the "Pumping rule"[23] as safety measure. This meant in general that the spinnaker guy could be pumped unlimited. President Stuart H. Walker did a lot of work to keep the number of teams in the Match race phase of the Olympics to six thus keeping Fleet racing paramount. The German team of Jochen Schüman, Thomas Flach and Bernd Jäkel[24] won their second gold medal in the Soling during the 1996 Olympics. The Olympic status was prolonged to 2000.

György Wossala, Hungary became ISA president in 1995. The 1997 Worlds in Rungsted, Denmark did not produce enough races to constitute a valid championship due to weather conditions. Thunderstorms and large periods with no wind at all made it for the race organization impossible to get five race in. The sail plan of the Soling was modified on two points. The tolerances of the mini spinnaker were enlarged so that a more useful spinnaker could be created. Also, the top batten of the mainsail was lengthened so that profile of the top in the main could be better controlled and the lifetime of the sail was improved. Both improvements were initiated by Paul Davis. ISAF wanted to make Match racing more and more important at the Olympics. So for the 2000 Olympics only 16 Solings were eligible to compete in the Fleet race phase and 12 of them would move on to the Match race phase. The spectacular, popular and many times viewed finals[25] were between the teams of Germany and Denmark. Both teams did barely make it into the Match race phase (resp. 10 and 12 place in the Fleet race phase). Finally the Danish team of Jesper Bank, Henrik Blakskjær and Thomas Jacobsen took the gold medal.[26] During the ISAF 2000 mid-year it was decided that the Fleet/Match race event was prolonged for another four years. However, during the ISAF 2000 November meeting, the Soling was NOT re-elected as an Olympic class. There was no match racing on the Olympic agenda anymore until 2012 Olympics. In 1999 Tony Clare, Great Britain became president of the ISA.

However, despite the publicity that was generated for the Olympic sailing event by the fleet/Match race event it disappeared from the Olympic agenda for 2004. And the Soling had to face the fact that many of her top sailors had disappeared to other Olympic disciplines or had quit sailing in general within a few months. Another setback of the class was that Tony Clare was severely injured during a horseback riding incident. Rose Hoeksema, United States took over as president and did a good job of holding the International and National Soling sailors within the class as well as possible. Worlds and continental events were organized as usual and with sufficient participation. The third disaster struck in 2006 when the Abbott Boats ltd. Sarnia, Canada went up in flames.[27] Borresens Baadebyggeri Denmark however started to build boats in a joint venture in Argentina to build Solings.

Johan Offermans, The Netherlands became president for an unprecedented 7 years. During his presidency he provided stimulation to pick up International travel again. Also, the preparations for the 50th anniversary of the class were started. Jan Herman Linge died at the age of 85 in Asker, Norway.[28] In 2014 Peter Hall took over the presidency. The 50th anniversary of the class was celebrated during the 2015 World Championship in Castiglione della Pescaia, Italy. Over 135 competitors were present from 14 countries and three continents.[29] The first production Soling "N 1" was on display at the harbor site. Soling production was renewed at the Petticrows Boatyard, United Kingdom.

In 2017 Michael Dietzel was elected president of the ISA. In 2017 it became clear that there were no longer vendors of suitable aluminum Soling spars any more word wide. Han van Veen, The Netherlands, created and executed a plan to introduce Carbon spars for the Soling. The objective was that the new masts would be cheaper and not lighter or faster than the aluminum masts. The first masts were produced by Ceilidh[30] in The Netherlands and tested in 2018 they proved to be cheaper and equal to the original masts. The one-design of the Soling remain intact. The new mast were approved by World Sailing in 2019. In 2020 the Carbon boom and spinnaker pole were approved as well.[1][31] In 2020 the Soling North American Championship in Annapolis, United States, the Friendship League Championship in Brazil and many other Soling regatta's word wide were postponed due to COVID-19.[32]