Manfred Curry

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Dr. Manfred Curry M.D. (December 11, 1899 – 1953) was born in Germany by US citizens as parents who immigrated to Germany. His mother Adele died when he was seven years old by giving birth to her third child. His Grandmother Mary Abby brought up Manfred Curry and his Sister Marion in Riederau at Lake Ammersee.

Although he was born in Munich and always lived in Germany, he never took German citizenship. This might be as he was always treated as a "Zugereister", meaning someone coming from abroad, mostly from other parts off Germany. This is why he started for the USA at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

He was one of the first people to study sailboat design scientifically, including the wind-tunnel testing of numerous rig configurations. A number of inventions or developments of his are in widespread use today, including the fully battened mainsail, the Genoa jib (so called because he first used it competitively in a regatta at Genoa) and the cam cleat, known in German as the Curryklemme.

He wrote an influential book on yacht aerodynamics and yacht racing tactics which was published in several editions and several languages^[1]. The book describes two of his extremely successful racing dinghies, and innovations used on an America's Cup defender. One of his dinghies, Aero, has recently been found and restored (photos). Note that the sailplan in the photos is not quite as illustrated in the book, and the trapeze is a modern addition!

He sailed in around 1400 races and won more than 1000 of them.

In later life he claimed that he had discovered "geomagnetic lines" that are named after him.

He was a close friend of the Irish patriot Roger Casement who lived nearby in Riederau during 1915-16.

[edit] See also

• Earth radiation

[edit] References