History
She’s in Seloy near Bergen. She was designed and built by Johan Anker in 1914, but that’s not the story. The story is about the Hassel family in Norway and the record Quinta holds today (and forever on) as the only Int. 8-Metre in the world to be owned by the same family for more than 100 years.It all started back in 1918 when Kaspar Frederik Hassel bought Quinta from Johan Anker. Little would he know that this would be the start of love affair that would last 3 generations. Kaspar Hassel raced and sailed her hard for the rest of his life until he passed away in 1962. With his passing the tiller was passed on his son, Knud Hassel and he too sailed her with his family for the rest of his life and, when Knud passed away, Quinta’s tiller was passed on his sons Arne and Frode Hassel. That’s the quick and dirty version of a long and beautiful story, but hey, I think it’s a pretty good start !How about that, 110 years in the same family? To my mind that’s certainly more than just extraordinary. As for Quinta herself, she was built to compete in Europe Week 1914, her designated sailnumber was 5, hence the name Quinta. Mr. Anker took full advantage of the Rule and drew a very narrow and super slippery boat, she had just 2,13m/7ft beam and carried a whopping 119,5m2 sailarea upwind . She was a sensation and a real state of the art race boat, belonging to the first generation 8-Metres with a modern marconi rig. With Kaspar Hassel at the tiller she won lots of silver but when the new generation of boats came, she retired to a more quiet life at the family summer house in Seløy. Until this very day, she sails from her mooring on that remote island, living a happy life happily making other people happy. She is kept in very original condition, she still has her original mast built by Anker in 1914 and she never had an engine, never will.
