The class celebrated its 90th birthday in this year. The 22 feet binnenjolle was popular class in Hungary. The L-boote didn’t succeed as much even though it was popular with contemporary German sailors. 174 boat was built in the first 15 years by 1929 and 204 was made at all. The 168th boat got into Hungary and Csaba Pálinkás renovated this one for himself. Today it’s the most beautiful 30 feet binnenkieler. The specification of the class was specified by Sonderklasse’s concept in the end of the 19th century.

The main purpose was to build fast skerry boats for three persons which comes in useful on small Bavarian and on Lakes near Berlin.

I couldn’t find the original classification, but there’s the Bodmann’s plot; with the 14th number which was built in 1914.
According to its type this is a sloop, it was registered as 30qm Rennklasse. It was measured: its length (8,09m), its waterline (5,10m), and its width (1,80m), the width of the waterline (1,63m), also its buoyancy (1,10m) and its slant height which was only 0.39m. The weight of the boat was not documented, the plot only contained that it was heavier than 1000kg. The main sail with gaff was rigged up on the boom, and its area was 22.69 square meters meanwhile the jib sail was 7,04 square meters. The sails had to be 29.73 square meters at all so according to the mentioned numbers it was proper. This measurement was verified by J Newe in Berlin.

The original race boat was rigged up without cabin. Many boats are used without cabins nowadays too. Out of the 204 boats were built in 1961; 30 boats are still active today. Their lengths are between 8 and 9 meters; the original 1000kg maybe never could have been reached. The boats which were built in the first years were also 1100kg. In 1921 there was a revolution in the construction of class; the starter was Rasmussen. He thought if he had used up the boat’s maximal length and made longer the waterline he could have built faster and more practical boat. After this innovation the weight of the boat became over 1450kg. At this time the performance of the boat class in different winds became widely differed.
These new models couldn’t beat the previous ones in smaller breeze although in average wind they were better. In this unique and interesting class there were no two similar boats and the greatest German designers were comparing their knowledge. Gaff was removed and Maraconi rig (or Bermuda rig) appeared. They were testing the inflection of the wood mast in different degrees, the results were amazing. The low freeboard carried some danger. It happened that a 30 feet binnenkieler sank. After this time cabins were built onto those boats which retired from racing.
Lady came to Hungary three or four years ago. Its owner was a boat merchant. It was out of kilter so it’s not a surprise that he hardly could sell it. Finally Csaba Pálinkás decided to buy it and renovate it for himself. He started to work on renovating old boats since the ‘90s. His first work was the 30 feet skerry boat called Emese. The point of technology which he used was to keep the original form. Anyone who has their old boats renovated at his workshop can be sure that they will receive the same boat in new design. This boat’s keel was replaced but the planks were the original, it seems if we take a look at the bottom of the boat. The boat got some diagonal layer of 3mm thick veneer cover after the renovation. The last layer is put on in parallel above the waterline. Under the waterline it gets fiberglass cover. The renovated boat won’t be heavier than the original, because it doesn’t soak water. The inflected mast is a real challenge for the sail sewers; on this kind of sails there’s many thing to change but it’s almost perfect.

While we were rigging up, Csaba was talking about so enthusiastically about the boat so I hardly could wait to go. Lady seems a real race boat. We had to cruise in the small Videoton Port, but it didn’t set a problem. It’s easy to turn with the small 30 feet boat and it doesn’t lose its speed. We reached 6-6,5knot speed in Beaufort force 2. This performance is so significant amongst 8-9 meter long boats. It was a little bit hard for me to control the boat mostly when the wind blown windward.

The bigger south-western waves were tuning its bow. You have to feel the boat. I totally adored it.
The fleet is in disappointing condition. The 90th anniversary was celebrated on Lake Constance (Bodensee) on 25th of September. Most of the boats which attended the celebration needed to be renovated. Of course some of them are in very good condition. It’s easy to transport the boat; a mid-range car could tow it easily.

Presumably the Pálinkás-workshop will work on L-boat-s in the future.

Written by Farkas Litkey
Photos taken by László Szekeres