17 Facts About Herbert Hasler

In December 1942, during the Second World War, Hasler led a small commando raid against Axis shipping in Bordeaux.

Herbert Hasler was responsible for many of the concepts which ultimately led to the formation of the Special Boat Service.

Herbert Hasler was born in Dublin on 27 February 1914, the youngest son of Lieutenant Arthur Thomas Herbert Hasler, and his wife, Annie Georgina.

Herbert Hasler's father died after the troopship Transylvania was torpedoed on 4 May 1917.

Herbert Hasler was sent to Wellington College, where he was a keen sportsman.

Herbert Hasler was commissioned into the Royal Marines on 1 September 1932.

In 1940, Herbert Hasler served as fleet landing officer in Scapa Flow, and was then sent to Narvik in support of the French Foreign Legion in the Norwegian campaign, for which duties he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, mentioned in despatches, and awarded the French Croix de guerre.

At the age of 28 in 1942, Major Herbert Hasler planned and personally led Operation Frankton, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Herbert Hasler was recommended for the Victoria Cross, but was not eligible because his actions were not "in the face of the enemy" as required for that decoration.

Herbert Hasler is known as the father of single-handed sailing, owing to his invention of the first practical self-steering gear for yachts: many sailing vessels continue to rely on systems substantially based on Herbert Hasler's work.

In 1960, Herbert Hasler competed in the first Observer Single-handed Transatlantic Race, from Plymouth to New York.

The race, originated solely by Herbert Hasler, did not include any "half a crown" bet as the myth suggests with Sir Francis Chichester the fourth of the five competitors to enter the race.

Herbert Hasler himself sailed one of the smallest boats in the race, his heavily modified Nordic Folkboat Jester, and finished second in 48 days to Chichester's much larger Gipsy Moth III.

Herbert Hasler had Jester built some years prior to the first trans-Atlantic race, specifying that a fully enclosed deck, with two circular hatches in the cabin top rather than a conventional cockpit, be built on the standard hull.

Herbert Hasler used the boat as a floating laboratory to develop his self-steering system, and pioneered the use of a Chinese-style junk rig on a western yacht, to avoid the physical effort and potentially dangerous deck-work, required to handle a conventional rig single-handed.

The junk rig allowed all sail handling to be done from the safety of the central control hatch, and Herbert Hasler claimed he could sail Jester across the Atlantic without ever leaving the cabin.

On his return Herbert Hasler, who was becoming disenchanted with what he perceived as the race's commercialisation, and the increasing size, complexity and expense of the yachts brought about by sponsorship, sold Jester to Mike Richey.