During the “Seglertag”-meeting in the state hall of the Vienna Hofburg in October 1927, aside from the big entertainment program, the question of which basis a new class for coastal and offshore racing should have, was discussed very controversially. The only yachts attempting to fulfil this purpose were the “Nationale Kreuzer”-class, but they had proven unfit.
Opposing parties were most of the German sailing clubs under the lead of the NRV and a team of 7 experts deployed by the “Deutscher Seglerverband”. The sailing clubs pleaded for a new so called ‘KR’-formula, similar to the International Rule which put the most important measures of the hull, the rig and the sail area in a mathematical relationship. Resulting from the calculations was a ‘KR’-value instead of ‘mR’-value. The 7 naval architects of the expert committee argued for classes with corresponding limit measures for length, depth, displacement, sail area, etc. Interestingly it was the committee arguing that a mathematical formula would first and foremost serve them as naval architects and not the owners, because these wouldn’t know what they’d get. The committee argued that architects always look for loopholes in the rule, in order to design the fastest yacht possible, the problem being that this leads to extreme designs which only favour speed. In an article written for the “Freundeskreis Klassische Yachten”, Klaus Kramer quotes the chairman of the commission Harry Wustrau: “Every measurement formula practically puts the buyer in the hands of the naval architect. It is wrong to say that the buyer gains the freedom of building whatever he wants. On the contrary, he will have to build what the naval architect wants, because every naval architect must have the ambition to exploit the formula in such a way, that produces the fastest yacht.”