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That was also the year that Corny, almost singlehanded, introduced the slim, trim International Class sloops to U.S. waters.
The old Larchmont Interclub boats, he felt, had lost their uniformity and no longer provided fair competition. Corny persuaded a group of fellow enthusiasts to start all over again with a new class: the International One-Design. Built in Norway, all from the same mold,'the Internationals are 33-footers (21½ ft. at the waterline) with 426 sporty sq. ft. of sail. The frames are oak, the planking Oregon pine, the decks canvas-covered spruce, the standing rigging stainless steel. "Whether the wind is 4 knots or 40," says Corny, "they're the loveliest boats in the world to sail. Nobody will ever come up with a better one."
Today, there are about 50 Internationals in U.S. and nine in Bermuda waters, another 50 or so in Norway, all built in the same three-year period. So uniform are they that American, Bermudan and Norwegian skippers can (and do) sail against one another on even terms in borrowed boats, without the expense and fuss of shipping their own to overseas regattas. As a further guarantee of racing equality, the Internationals may not be hauled, i.e., drydocked, more than three times a year, nor refitted with sails more than once in two years. One concession to change: nylon spinnakers, which blossomed on the Internationals this summer.
By constant planning and maneuvering, Corny has managed to make the Internationals the "hottest" of the hot competitive classes in the U.S. Included in the class are Knapp, second only to Corny in national honors, young Emil ("Bus") Mosbacher Jr., defending champion, and Designer Bill Luders, whose boats (Luders 16s and cruising boats) sail all over U.S. waters. Corny likes the competition hot for a sound and simple reason: "I like to beat the best." He plays golf, which he took up 15 years ago, the same way. A mid-80s player now, he says : "Sailing and golf are the only two sports I know [he recently gave up skiing] that a man can enjoy indefinitely, and also where a man is entirely on his own; you have to hit the ball, you have to sail the boat."
Summer & Winter. Corny Shields, who has grown up with the small-boat revolution, approves of it mightily, particularly for children. "It's clean and healthful," Corny says, his eyes lighting up. "Sailing teaches them hard work, self-reliance and good sportsmanship. It's a bug that gets you, and I can't think of a better one."
Sailing is a bug that has bitten Corny Shields thoroughly. Like an old sea dog learning new tricks, he took up ocean racing to Bermuda in 1946. "I'd heard all this guff about it for years," he says. "Now, I wouldn't miss it for the world." For the past four years Corny has been first mate on John Nicholas Brown's 73-ft. Bolero, helping to sail her from Newport, R.I. to Annapolis and Bermuda; in this year's Annapolis race, Bolero came in first. After weighing anchor for eight of nine days during Larchmont Race Week, Corny, who never gets his fill, will hop right on to the Bolero again for the annual New York Yacht Club cruise.