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Mar 26, 2020 22:55:59 GMT
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This is one of the reasons I have not been posting on here for quite a long time, and which has also usurped my Amazon (currently on sabbatical) in terms of soaking up cash... Designed in the late 1950s, and launched in 1961, this is apparently the oldest GRP offshore catamaran built. Intended as a prototype for production, however she remained a one-off & consequently is known simply by her name, rather than by a make or model. Originally built with a wing mast and adjustable water ballast, the rig was soon converted back to a conventional mast as the materials of the day couldn't provide the required strength to weight ratio. Her designer & builder was an ex RN submarine officer, who constructed her in the chapel of the Dragonara Palace in Malta, before then sailing her back to the UK. LOA is 31', with a beam of 14', and draft of 2' 2" centre board up, or 5' 2" with the board down. The pic below shows her at some point between 1975 and 1982, when owned by my late grandparents who bought her from her creator. Whilst also used for family holidays, my grandfather & uncle raced her, and even at 20 years old, she was still very competative in MOCRA offshore multihull racing, even giving time under handicap to the similar length but younger Iroquois cruiser-racer catamarans. We have known all her owners since my grandparents sold her (grandfather still had a partial share until about 2000) and we bought her back a few years ago when she was languishing ashore at the back of a local marina, in an area that I refer to as the catamaran graveyard. If anyone on here reads PBO, you might recognise her from a couple of articles in about 2008 which covered a (semi) refit and return to the water following a very unfortunate incident involving a sea wall when a fixture on her mooring broke during a storm in late 2005. This essentially consisted of repairing the structural damage, and a half-hearted attempt at modernising the outward appearance (including binning most of the teak trim & almost all the period correct fittings, and ripping out the interior) along with a coat of grey paint all over. However the correct colours (which are very 1961...) are white hull with light blue deck, and this is what she will go back to. In the meantime, this is what she looked like when bought three years ago.
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Last Edit: Mar 26, 2020 23:01:52 GMT by Paul H
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hopeso
Part of things
Posts: 340
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Bookmarked!
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Needs a bigger turbo!
What are your plans for all the fittings etc that were binned? Are the available still off the shelf or are you going to sub them out for whatever you can find of appropriate vintage?
Are you going to race it again?
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Frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death
Posts: 3,875
Club RR Member Number: 15
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1961 hole(s) in the water...Frankenhealey
@frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member 15
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Mar 27, 2020 12:57:34 GMT
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Boat-tastic and bookmarked. Reminds me of all those years reading Practical Boat Owner while my dad worried about which yacht he'd never buy.
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Tales of the Volcano Lair hereFrankenBug - Vulcan Power hereThe Frankenhealey here
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Mar 27, 2020 14:16:51 GMT
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can no one else see they are sat on the boot of an austin montego thats been made into a boat
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Frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death
Posts: 3,875
Club RR Member Number: 15
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1961 hole(s) in the water...Frankenhealey
@frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member 15
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Mar 27, 2020 15:16:34 GMT
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can no one else see they are sat on the boot of an austin montego thats been made into a boat I can now
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Tales of the Volcano Lair hereFrankenBug - Vulcan Power hereThe Frankenhealey here
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Mar 27, 2020 22:09:59 GMT
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can no one else see they are sat on the boot of an austin montego thats been made into a boat Its appearance has been described by others in many ways, usually comparisons to being either two submarines or aircraft fuselages strapped together, but that is a new one. I'm guessing it's to do with the shape of the roof around rear glazing? If so, that look was done by GM much earlier than Austin Rover clicky at pretty much the same time as she was being designed & built. Here's the only decent pic I have from astern when fully intact Needs a bigger turbo! What are your plans for all the fittings etc that were binned? Are the available still off the shelf or are you going to sub them out for whatever you can find of appropriate vintage? Are you going to race it again? The tufnol blocks etc such as those pictured here are what should be fitted - most has been replaced with modern stuff. Completely unnecessary, as it's all still available off the shelf & for similar money. Some more specialist fittings are not as easily sourced, but can still be found. All the modern stuff looks as out of place as torx head fittings on a vintage car... Fortunately the original through mast boom furling gear survived, as has the main winch.
No turbo, or bigger rig I'm afraid - lifting a hull would most definately be brown trousers time, but she's quick enough already under sail - will do 10 knots easily, and apparently can do 15. The plan further down the line would probably be to refit a kite but the triple forestays (one central for the jib / genoa, & then one to each bow) would make for slightly awkward handling of the spinnaker pole. As for racing, we'd quite like to do the Round the Island race, and perhaps see if we can wrangle an entry into some of the classic yacht events. Not intending to do any offshore racing though. A few more pics - Frankenhealey, I think you might recognise the location of the first two!! And some of the regular crew (all three pics from Sept 1978). A few more - the next one is in Scotland a year earlier, and shows the centreboard set up quite well 1979, East Head in Chichester Harbour 1976. Not sure where, but looks like the Channel Islands, possibly Alderney. The small keels deliberately sit her bows down when dried out, to protect the fully balanced rudders.
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Last Edit: Mar 27, 2020 22:16:01 GMT by Paul H
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jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 656
Club RR Member Number: 18
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1961 hole(s) in the water...jpr1977
@jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member 18
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Paul HLet me know if you need any fibreglass supplies/advice, we (Jago's) are only down the road in Chichester and we love to help out on the weird and wonderful and the old guard all cut their teeth on boats in the local yards in the 60's/70's...
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Last Edit: Apr 1, 2020 22:54:54 GMT by jpr1977
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Thank you - very appreciated & I will certainly bear that in mind! Interestingly, the fibreglass (frames & hulls) has turned out to be in pretty good shape, and with no osmosis in the underbody. This is despite being sixty years old & for much of that time, kept afloat all year round. However and as we were to find out later on (there's quite a lot that I need to post to bring everything fully up to date!), it was some of the marine ply areas on the bridgedeck that were in need of serious attention...
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hopeso
Part of things
Posts: 340
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Looking forward to the next set of instalments.
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,886
Club RR Member Number: 71
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1961 hole(s) in the water...bstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
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God that is fugly at first glance but I like it - the nice lines grow on you
Never was a huge fan of cats - they always seem really compromised for living accommodation unless they have a really fat mid section and then they look like greenhouses on pontoons
Good luck with the rescue it's a worth cause
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,886
Club RR Member Number: 71
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1961 hole(s) in the water...bstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
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Boat-tastic and bookmarked. Reminds me of all those years reading Practical Boat Owner while my dad worried about which yacht he'd never buy. Ha ha ha ha I had the opposite problem reading PBO and finding my dad had put the current boat up for sale and was looking onto the next project I was fine with it for most of them as I grew up until he sold the Rival 32 (loved that boat would soak up everything the weather threw at it and just laugh) Similar to Dad's old one www.theyachtmarket.com/en/boat-for-sale/1814009/ Actually way too similar I'll have to ask the old chap if it is!!!! Anyway it wasn't until he bought a Landfall class boat that he'd got back to something I could call a bloody good sea boat then he sold that It's up for sale again - I can't afford it still!!! www.bhboatsales.com/boats-for-sale/1972-holman-40-landfall-ketch-beaulieu-hampshire-7206929/
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What a fabulous looking thing, looking forward to this 👍
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Bicycle x1 Alfa Giulietta (now wife's) Alfa 156 BMW 630i
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Just spotted this.
Looking forward to seeing how it progresses, will you be painting or going gelcoat?
Not so sure on the Tufnol blocks though, kind of like drum brakes on a car, they're obsolete for good reason!
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,886
Club RR Member Number: 71
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1961 hole(s) in the water...bstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
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Jun 10, 2020 19:25:36 GMT
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Not so sure on the Tufnol blocks though, kind of like drum brakes on a car, they're obsolete for good reason! I kinda see where you are coming from but would you put disk brakes on a proper old vintage car it would just look wrong Tufnol blocks have been around for years and are very reliable - they also (to my eye) look good and compared to cheap grade stainless fixtures that rust quite quickly are relatively low maintenance. On my racing firefly I only went away from the original tufnol blocks for weight reduction, I went to a cantilever kicker to be able to tune the rig more (well bend the mast and boom) on a one of cat from the 60's I think I'd go Tufnol just for the period look - the weight impact is going to be negligable PS There is nothing wrong with drum brakes and they are far from obsolete a lot of modern cars still aren't discs all round so still have drums at least at one end
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Frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death
Posts: 3,875
Club RR Member Number: 15
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1961 hole(s) in the water...Frankenhealey
@frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member 15
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Jun 10, 2020 20:21:27 GMT
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Tales of the Volcano Lair hereFrankenBug - Vulcan Power hereThe Frankenhealey here
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Not so sure on the Tufnol blocks though, kind of like drum brakes on a car, they're obsolete for good reason! PS There is nothing wrong with drum brakes and they are far from obsolete a lot of modern cars still aren't discs all round so still have drums at least at one end The unimportant end though . And this is your project not mine so its not for me to criticise.
The name eludes me, but I seem to recall there was a company that did classic blocks but with modern internals, so you could have the look you're after but with modern ball bearings and sheaves. If I remember I'll be sure to post a link.
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Frankenhealey, I think you might recognise the location of the first two!! Oi get that fat cat 'orf my river That's but an ickle cat - now this is a fat cat, and in pretty much the same spot (yes, that is me up the mast fixing something electrical...). This was what my late grandfather had next until he passed away the other year & used to be kept just downstream at Ridge Wharf.
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