Semi retired sailboat rigging
expert (Commodore Thomkins uses him to consult on his own boat) Fred Hoffman
recently rigged the K-40 of Steve Guilford. (this is written in August of 2007)
While test sailing the boat and experimenting with the spinnaker pole we had a
chance to talk to Fred. He agreed to sit down and have an in depth conversation
with us at a later date for our oral history project as he has a lot of
Kettenburg experience as a rigger and delivery skipper. For example he delivered
K-38 #27 EBONY QUEEN (now named CHELSEA) to San Francisco. Anyway, as a young
man in the late fifties he had occasion to visit with Kenny Watts in his
Torrance shop. Kenny Watts was the owner and exclusive provider of Watts sails
to Kettenburg for many years and most of the PCCs and K-38s came outfitted with
Watts sails.
Fred recounted to us that on the wall in Watts’ shop was a
letter from THE Mr. Dupont (also owner of PCC CYANE). In the letter Mr. Dupont
was explaining the new fabric which his company had just developed and sent
along to Kenny for experimentation as a sailcloth. That material was DACRON
!!