SWE The OKWiken Story Pontus Gäbel talks about the fastest growing OK Dinghy fleet in Sweden
D
uring my childhood, I admired a great number of iconic Swedish athletes including the tennis legend Björn Borg, groundbreaking slalom skier Ingemar Stenmark and the most inspiring of all for me personally, Pelle Petterson, whose many merits include winning the San Diego Star worlds in 1969 and building the 12 Metre ‘Sverige’ to sail for the America’s Cup in 1977 and 1980.
During the late 1970s, most Swedish children adored the football players and had to be dragged away from the luscious green football pitch whilst I was drawn to a different world - one of the great never ending blue waves and a constant salty breeze. The Swedish west coast had caught my attention and I was hooked on youth sailing. Just as today, the traditional way to get into sailing was through the Optimist dinghy in the local yacht club. Most of the Optimist dinghies at that time were built by a relative in a garage and handed down from one sibling to the next. As I outgrew the Optimist, I began to envy the older boys who were practicing and racing in all conditions, come rain or shine.
The OK Dinghies looked like real boats with their wave piercing bows. I bought my first OK Dinghy in 1978. It was a Henriksen with a white GRP hull and a wooden deck. It came with a wooden mast, which I quickly replaced with black LJ spar and a matching set of sails. At that time the upgrade looked very high tech and made all the difference in boat handling. After a few years of sailing the OK, I was persuaded to crew on a Snipe, which widened my horizon and opened up international racing. The OK class had come under fierce competition from the Laser dinghy which captivated the next generation of one design dinghy sailors with its brutal simplicity. Coming home Fast forward to the spring of 2019. Throughout my adult life, I had sailed a wide variety of exciting boats, each with its own unique challenges, the last serious one being a Star, which I co-owned with a dear friend. But I was itching to get back into a oneman dinghy. They have a unique selling point that intrigued me and suited my current situation, namely their easy way to get sailing without organising a crew and close engaging competitions. From left to right: Göran Örtegren, Fredrik Ottermo, Per Lindvall, Benjamin Hammerö, Peter Klingberg, Claes Thomasson, Pontus Gäbel, Jonas Langner
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