Herbert Hasler

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Herbert George "Blondie" Hasler DSO , OBE (born February 27, 1914 in Dublin , † May 5, 1987 in Glasgow ) was a British military and well-known single-handed sailor .

Second World War

In 1940 Hasler initially served as an officer in the Royal Marines in Scapa Flow and was then sent to Narvik to support the French Foreign Legion . For his work in Norway he was appointed officer of the Order of the British Empire and awarded the French Croix de Guerre.

After the war, Lieutenant Colonel Hasler became known to the public primarily through Operation Frankton , which he planned and personally led in December 1942 , for which he received the Distinguished Service Order . Set down in the sea by a submarine off the Gironde , the command consisting of ten soldiers in five Cockle Mark 2 folding boats attacked German ships in the port of Bordeaux using sticky mines. Six ships were damaged; only two soldiers of the British command survived the mission, including Hasler. Six other soldiers were executed by the German military after their arrest.

Hasler and a comrade escaped to Spain via the Pyrenees with the support of the French Resistance . It was not until the beginning of April 1943 that he returned to Great Britain via Gibraltar .

One-handed sailing

As a sailor, "Blondie" Hasler was interested in new types of sails and single-handed long-haul sailing after the war. Together with Francis Chichester , he initiated the first single-handed Atlantic crossing OSTAR in 1960 and took part in this regatta, which received a lot of public attention. In his converted folk boat Jester he was defeated by Francis Chichester and his significantly larger Gipsy Moth III , but a wind control system developed by him was taken over and further developed by many one-handed sailors in the following years. During the second OSTAR regatta in 1964, Hasler-based control systems were the standard. In his book about the OSTAR regatta from 1964, Éric Tabarly describes Hasler as an unconventional tinkerer with a penchant for secrecy. The Jester, which he sailed in 1960 and 1964, with a continuously closed deck and junk sails, was regarded as the most unusual regatta participant.

Works

  • HG Hasler, JK McLeod: Practical Junk Rig: Design, Aerodynamics & Handling . Adlard Coles Nautical, London 1988.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ewen Southby-Daily Tour: Blondie: A life of Lieutenant-Colonel HG Hasler, DSO, OBE, Croix de Guerre, Royal Marines . Leo Cooper, London 1998.
  2. ↑ Shown u. a. in the film The Cockleshell Heroes , UK 1955.
  3. ↑ Quentin Rees: Cockleshell Heros. The final witness . Amberley Publishing, Stroud / Gloucestershire 2010.
  4. ↑ Eric Tabarly: One-handed to victory. Atlantic race 1964 . Delius, Klasing & Co. Bielefeld, Berlin 1965, p. 45.
  5. ↑ Eric Tabarly: One-handed to victory. Atlantic race 1964 . Delius, Klasing & Co. Bielefeld, Berlin 1965, pp. 247f.
personal data
SURNAME Hasler, Herbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hasler, Herbert George (full name); Hasler, Blondie (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British military and single-handed sailor
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH May 5th 1987
Place of death Glasgow