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The Saga of Mark Soverel
The following is a re-print from an article by Jack King in Salior magazine. (November 19, 1985)
Doing things on his own terms.
Febuary, 1982: Marrk Soverel is sitting at the bar inn the Ft. Lauderdale Yacht Club, feeling quite good. His 43-foot IOR design Locura was leading the Southern Ocean Conference (SORC), and it looked as though he was going to have his second fleet win in three races.A SORC official walked up to him and announced that Cascade, the bizarre Jerry Milgram designed cat-Ketch sailed by Russel Long, had just finished and corrected out mere minutes ahead in first place. "Damn!" said Soverel. "How can they let that $#'"%$&! race in the SORC? Hell, it only goes downwind. --It's a rule-beater on one point of sail. I design a boat that goes fast on all points of sail, and they come down on me with jack boots," he continued. "But this thing is still out there, finishing first in one race and last in the next. This is suppose to be high-tech, grand-prix racing! I wish those rule-beaters would decide in advance what they want in a boat and leave the rule alone."
That's Mark Soverel. Brash, dynamic, a young man in a hurry to go fast, his way. At 36, he has established himself among the leaders in a very tough league. How did Mark get there? "I was lucky because my Dad owned a boatbuilding company, so real early I got a lot of experience and had the freedom to experiment," says Soverel.
Soverel started sailing in the mid-fifties when his father, Bill, was in the Navy, stationed in Italy. "My dad bought a 27-foot one-design and we sailed there every chance we could. After, when we moved to Key West, I was always sailing." In 1960, Bill SAoverel retired and moved to the Palm Beach area and started Soverel Marine. As a youngster, Mark sailed the "factory" boats in local regattas, making quite a name for himself in South Florida.
After graduating from college, Mark's attention turned to designing boats as well as sailing them. With his father's encouragement, Mark designed his first IOR boat in 1974. The boat, named Moody Blue, was built in Soverel Marine and raced in the 1975 SORC, where she won Class D. The boat was then chosen as a finalist for the American Admiral's Cup team but was passed over in favor of larger boats. "I wasn't smart enough or old enough to have any political clout," Soverel said. "I should have seen the importence of making the Admirals Cup team and made more of an effort to get there. It would have propelled my design career by leaps and bounds. That was a big year for the little boats, and Moody Blue could have really cleaned up. The American team, which was made up of bigger boats did just terribly. It's kind of like what happened this year."
Even so, the success of Moody Blue help develop Mark's distinctive design philosify. "Moody Blue was a high-rating boat for its length, but I have always gone for boat speed, trying to get more performance for a boat's length. "Soverel explains, "I still believe that is the way to go, even though Moody Blue was a fairly conserviative design by today's standards. I took Doug Peterson's Ganbare design and made it more powerful and stiffer. We had boat speed with the other 30-plus raters. and during SORC that year we always out sailed them during the day. At night, though, Dennis Conner and those guys always got ahead, and in the moring we had to grind them down again. I learned alot following Dennis Conner around."Despite his intial success, Soverel soon left the IOR fold in favor of the Midget Ocean Racing Club (MORC)."For their lenght, MORC designs are much faster than IOR and I was into much fast boats." Soverel's first MORC design, the 26-foot Stewball won the 1975 MORC International regatta. He came back again in 1977 with a 30-footer JB Express, and won it all a second time. "They changed the MORC rule substantially in 1976, and it pretty well wiped out the 26 as a competitive MORC boat," said Soverel, somewhat bitterly. "That's why I designed the 30-footer. We wanted to build a larger boat even though the MORC timetables are heavily weighted to the little boat. The 1977 MORC Internationals turned out to be a light air regatta and we sailed away from the rest of the fleet."
JB Express had an extremely fractional rig, a huge main with no permanent backstay, an offset engine with a tiny fixed prop, and a dagger-board. "We never had any intention of marketing a JB Express-type boat. Our production boats were primarily masthead rigs with fixed keels. But MORC, in an effort to keep older boats competitive, hammered us again with rule changes. What these guys didn't understand is that they wiped out two production lines at Soverel Marine (the 26 and the 30) while trying to save something that could not be saved. No matter what the rulemakers do, a new boat is going to beat an old boat any time. The MORC guys thought that they were closing loopholes in the rule, but every time they messed with the rule, they created new loophiles. The only way I'd do another MORC boat is as a one-off project. But you know, it costs almost as much to design and build a 30-foot custom boat, as it does a 40-footer. With the advent of high-tech materials and techniques, the backyard builder in MORC is a thing of the past."
Soverel left the MORC arena and returned to IOR. In 1980 he received commissions for two new boats, a 39-footer for George de Guardiola and a 43-footer for Bob Lynds. Soverel seemed to be back in the grand prix groove, but his timing was less then perfect. In November of that year, the IOR Committe made adjustments to the rule to take effect in January 1981. Both Soverel boats had taken advantage of a transom overhang allowance that was eliminated in the new rule, and their ratings jumped nearly two feet. The 39-footer Locura which was designed to rate 30.7 came out at 32.4, even after modifications. Remarkably, she stil finished second overall in the SORC, with a little help from several boats that were disqualified for rating infractions.The Lynds boat, Grey Mist was a disater for Soverel. A long litany of difficulties ended with the parties embroiled in a lawsuit. "It was a mess from the start -- and so many compromiises!" Soverel laments. The lawsuit was settled out of court and Lynds had another designer draw a new boat that could use the vital organs from Grey Mist, including the keel and the mast.
Despite the Grey Mist fiasco, Locura's owner believed strongly in Soverel's design ability, and he commissioned Mark to design a boat to win the SORC. A second Locura popped off Soverel's drawing board, this one 43 feet long and very fast. Going into the Nassau Cup, the final race of the Circut. Soverel found himself with a comfortable ten-point lead over Chriss Corlett and the Crew of the Peterson 43, Scarlett O'Hara.It looked like Mark's year at last, but....
The race started with a downwind drag race to the first mark. Scarlet got away clean and Soverel had to jibe away at the start in a port / starboard situation. He never recovered and finished far enough back to allow Scarlet to grab the overall fleet trophy. "We just got stuck in the bottom at the bottom mark. It's one of my greatest disappointments." Soverel said of the race, though selected to the 1983 Admiral's Cup Team eased the pain somewhat. Soverel and Locura had an indifferent Admirals Cup series. "I had a lot of business pressures and really wasn't ready for the Ad Cup. We also had Ted Turner sailing with us. I just wasn't the take charge guy I usually am. We were alsways coming form behind,"
In 1983 Soverel also designed and built a new 56-footer The Shadow, for Richard Rogers. The boat was taken to San Fransico for the Big Boat Series, where they did well. Then it was back to the 1984 SORC where they stormed Class A with five first and a third. Then on to Antigua Race Week, during which The Shadow actually beat the considerbly larger Kialoa boat for boat in one race, in spite of a 25-foot rating difference.In 1985, Soverel returned to the SORC with a new one-tonner, Volition. "New boat blues" plagued them through the series, but Mark and the boys finally got it together in the Nassau Cup, winning the race in class and fleet. "The IOR has stabilized," he comments. "I don't think there will be any more real break-through boats... just little bits of refinement. Just take a look at htis year's Admiral's Cup fleet. There were over 20 designers represented, but the boats all look the same."
Last November, Soverel bought out his father's interest in Soverel Marine and is now actively running the company. His hottest model is the Soverel 33. "this boat was designed to go fast on all points of sail with no regard for any rating rule." he states proudly. "I have more fun with this boat then with anything else! Just think, a boat that goes seven knots upwind and 15 knots off the wind and is a real sailboat, not an ultralight toy!" Soverel also offers a 33 modified for IOR duty and has recently introduced the S 39-RC, a productionversion of his 39-foot one-tonner Volition.
Mark Soverel is is still brash and confident and don't expect him to change. He has more in store for the future. "We want to develop our Marina and boatyard to truely full-service and expand our product line." New products in the wings? "Powerboats" High-speed sport fishing boats are what you need in south Florida if you are in the boat-building business. We wwant to incorporate what we know about building techniques into powerboats."
And what is left for Mark Soverel personally? "I want to win every major regatta in the world." A modest goal by itself. "And spend more time with my family. I have a great wife and a great son." The Soverel saga continues.
