As the Dutchmen, Conrad Culcher and Uus van Essen had their vision in 1952 of bringing a fast hydroplane to the public, they had created something ahead of anything at that time. It did not take long for the FD to reach international class status as well as being recognised as an Olympic class of its own.
Participating at the Olympics for the first time in 1960 and for the final time in 1992, the "Flying Dutchman" was dominated by yachtsmen who in addition to their sailing ability, devoted enormous amounts of time to the technical further development of this sporting yacht for nearly three decades.

Revolutionary forms and new types of material as well as totally new creations such as the window or the endless trapeze were developed in the FD class. In addition to the outstanding Englishman, Rodney Pattison, who like no other put his stamp on the FD class, it was the Germans who again and again played a leading role. It started with the Hamburgers, Rolf Mulka and Ingo von Bredow, who became world champions in 1956 and 1957 and who reached bronze at the first Olympic appearance of the FD in Naples in 1960. From the beginning until the mid sixties, international names such as Fogh, Musto, Melges and others dominated the scene.
Then a new era began in which the Germans again influenced the top of the league. The Hamburgers, Uli Libor and Peter "Lumi" Naumann, won silver and bronze at the Olympic Games in Acapulco in 1968 and in Kiel in 1972 respectively. At this time, the East German crew, Huettner/Gedde (Rostock) and Cochius/Christoph (Berlin) were also at the top of the league.

Then came the year of the yachtsmen in 1974 who trained in Warnemuende. Wolf/Klenke (Berlin), Huettner/Pagenkopf (Rostock) and Steingross/Schramme (Berlin) took first, second and fourth place at the World Championships. Outstanding was also the Olympic gold of the Dietsch brothers in 1972 in Montreal and the double victory of the related brother teams Batzill (first) and Dietsch (second) at the World Championships in 1978.

In the 80s, further names joined them. Toni Schwarz/Peter Froeschl became World Champions in 1982, Markus Wieser and his brother, Franz won second place to the Batzills in 1987 and 1989 at the World Championships. The GDR crews, Ulf Lehman and Stefan Maedicke (Schwerin) and Joern Borowski and Matthias Kroh (Rostock) won silver and bronze in 1989 at the European Championships. The last gold of the Olympic era of the FD was won by Luis Doreste and Domingo Manrique (Spain) ahead of Paul Foerster/Steve Bourdov (USA) and Jorgen and Jens Boysen-Moeller (Denmark).

Die FD- Klasse, die wie keine andere so lange den Fortschritt im Segelsport mitbestimmt hat erlebt gegenwärtig, auch und besonders in Deutschland, eine Renaissance.