Bob Seidelmann
Good question. The topic is a little touchy (or sketchy) and I won't go far into it. I've always respected Bob Seidelmann and even when he had that VERY square crewcut hairstyle back in the long-haired '70s there was always something about his attitude– serious, no-frills, competitive but not Neandrathal– that I admired. Bob is an old-school dinghy sailor from Cooper River, the little creek that runs between Camden and Pennsauken on its way to the Delaware. Some of the best one-design sailors on the East Coast come out of that drainage ditch. You will not beat Bob on a race course unless you are very, very good at playing very minor wind shifts and current changes. It is my understanding that it was Bob whom Hunter originally called, and Bob in turn contacted my dad. They did work very closely together in the Hunter 25 but I got the feeling Bob was doing a lot more learning than my dad was! –maybe more than me! But it was all respectful and my dad was so free with what he knew he'd've given it away to anyone. It was the science and art that he loved, not the politics– and he had NO understanding of economics! Bob learned a lot from his mentor and by about 1975 was designing his own boats. I have no doubt he used as much of my dad's influence as he felt appropriate and we never begrudged him a nickel for showing his emulation in that way. My dad knew where it had come from. But Bob was much more into stuff like the IOR than my dad ever was. The Seidelmann 25 which debuted around 1976(?) seemed to be the ultimate IOR boat– narrow pinched transom, wide beam, high-aspect main and I think 3/4 rig. The topsides came out of the water at about a 45-degree angle. There was one in Riverside painted dark green and named 'Salad Bowl' which we all thought was a riot because viewed from astern it looked exactly like one of my mom's salad dishes. It sat out of the water about a year and got known as a landmark ('just steer straight for the big green salad bowl and turn 20 yards from the bulkhead'). Being such an aesthete, my dad tended to scoff at rule-beating boats and I never knew him to draw one except as an exercise. You can't expect a guy who insisted on designing with a slide rule to be very forward-thinking about the latest and greatest race rules (the only copy of the IOR book I knew him to have was the 1974 and once read it was rarely consulted again). But remember too that he knew something better– that sensible, pretty, well-rounded sailboats and IOR-beaters were mutually exclusive. Seidelmann is still doing business, having bought the remnant of something like Pacemaker and going into a shop in Berlin NJ, but I don't know what sort of boat he builds now. I have not heard from him in a long while but I believe he still sails on the River. Bob would be about 55-60 now– he is a good 20 years out of my father's generation and I don't know how much history they share racing together or as direct rivals, but I know they were both aware of each other's reputation before the Hunter 25 project. Rumour has it Bob still has the crewcut. JC
