Scimitar 21ft Saro one design

Carina

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Hi all!
I just got a Saro Scimitar 21, registered in year 1964. Still needs some work on the surfaces, but I hope to have it ready to sail the Solent as soon as possible.
Is there any owner of one of these that can share experience with the boat?

cheers!
 

Saraband

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Great boats and absolutely bulletproof.....affectionally known as "A Skip" in some Welsh clubs......originally designed with a fractional rig but changed to masthead for the class launch as it was felt to look more modern, given it was early 1960's.

One owner re-rigged his as the original fractional rig and it was actually a very nice boat, recognising that the masthead version had a big spinnaker for typical family crews....I think the class also dropped the 150% genoa for the same reason, it was a nightmare short-tacking a beach!

There used to be strong fleets on the Menai Straits with most of them then moving down to Royal Dart.
 

1937rogerdon

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Hi all!
I just got a Saro Scimitar 21, registered in year 1964. Still needs some work on the surfaces, but I hope to have it ready to sail the Solent as soon as possible.
Is there any owner of one of these that can share experience with the boat?

cheers!
Hi all!
I just got a Saro Scimitar 21, registered in year 1964. Still needs some work on the surfaces, but I hope to have it ready to sail the Solent as soon as possible.
Is there any owner of one of these that can share experience with the boat?

cheers!
If you PM me I can send you a lot of information and plans for the Saro.
 

1937rogerdon

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Hi all!
I just got a Saro Scimitar 21, registered in year 1964. Still needs some work on the surfaces, but I hope to have it ready to sail the Solent as soon as possible.
Is there any owner of one of these that can share experience with the boat?

cheers!
Hi all!
I just got a Saro Scimitar 21, registered in year 1964. Still needs some work on the surfaces, but I hope to have it ready to sail the Solent as soon as possible.
Is there any owner of one of these that can share experience with the boat?

cheers!
P.m. me for further information.
 

TSB240

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I can probably tell you anything you need to know about them. My father had No 9 Anina.She was based in the Menai Strait for most of the 60s. The class was doing well with fleets growing there, Abersoch, River Crouch, and River Dart. She was designed as a plastic XBoat replacement. They were made in the now long closed Saunders Roe (Saro) flying boat servicing facility near Beaumaris with the exception of a couple moulded by Ferranti in Bangor after the moulds had been sold to them or Dickies.
Dickies decided to churn out plastic copies of the very pretty local Conwy fife ODs and this effectively killed the local class off. There were some attempts to revive the class at Port Dinorwic sailing club but these were short lived. My brother still has No 53 Tryphena stored in a garage and she has been fully restored.
He designed and I built a four wheeled drop chassis design trailer for trailing this boat for which he still has cad designs and box section steel cutting plans.
The boat was the wettest boat I have ever had the displeasure to sail. Racing in any wind against tide meant continuous use of a pump and or extensive bailing with a bucket. If the boat had any water in it the lack of any forward bulkhead meant any return leg down wind was fraught with potential of driving the boat under any boat stopping waves! I know there is one still lost in a big hole near Gallows Point Beamaris!
I have never seen any of the original sail plans with a three quarter rig other than one developed much much later in the class history by a lone voice owner. The huge cost of replacing mast and sails was more than enough to encourage more potential owners of a plastic Conwy Fife and the eventual demise of the class at the RAYC.

The substantial mast head rig was virtually indestructible. It was well supported by twin backstays and dual lowers and there was very limited potential for encouraging any mast bend or sail flattening. In our first year of ownership we had only a standard main , a storm jib, a huge balloon spinney and a Genoa that had so much overlap in it that even the helm couldn't see behind even from the aft helm position. Totally impractical for short tacking or racing in any fleet especially with a family crew. I know the Spinnaker was cut down in size to about a third of it's original area. The big Genoa was banned even though the performance off wind on a reach was astounding!
The boat was offered with a cuddy for Cruising that could have provided some respite for any forward crew who were affectionately christened the sponges.

There was indeed a sailing school at Holyhead and also one at Gibralter that used these boats for training.

When we were refurbishing no 53 we kept an eye out for second hand bargains and an old HH sailing school boat came up for sale complete with trailer on E Bay.
The boat was a wreck the trailer was just about road worthy. I am sorry to say the hull was beyond repair and was cut up. The lead keel was sold off at a very good price! The scrap man had never seen 3/4 of a ton of lead in one single compact lump.

In our ownership the only major problem was the total loss of a rudder. The original build incorporated a galvanized steel tubular rudder shaft encapsulated in the gf blade.I was at the helm when the steel tube finally gave in to corrosion with the tube shearing off just below the hull at the top of the rudder. I dont know if later boats had the same design but ours had a new rudder moulded and fitted using a solid phosphor bronze shaft.

In our ownership we have enjoyed hours of safe sailing in sheltered waters. It can be driven easily by a 3hp ob using the factory option side mount bracket. We were also quite profficient at using a single sweep oar on calm days. It also came in very useful for pushing off after running aground! The keel has a large flat area on its bottom and the boat will dry out upright on it unless encouraged to lean over. LEGS could be fitted using the rowlock holes in the side deck coaming. it is important that the rowlock holes are bunged should you ever deliberately leave the boat to dry out on her side. The small diameter hole allows a very large amount of water to ingress whilst the boat lifts off its side on a returning tide.

I recently had a casual conversation with a visitor passing my boat in Port Dinorwic marina. It turned out that he was the Manager of Ferranti the GF builders of many small dinghies based in Bangor. He remembered the day that two members of the then Class association from the Dart came to view the hull and deck moulds with a view to having more boats moulded. The moulds had been carefully preserved and were offered at a very very low price to the CA. The bosses also told them there would be no negotiation on the price. They mistakenly thought that returning after a long lunch they would be able to take away the moulds for their own use at their bargain offer of £1.00 .The manager had them ready for them but cut up in to pieces to reflect the value they had offered.

Steve
 

1937rogerdon

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Hi all!
I just got a Saro Scimitar 21, registered in year 1964. Still needs some work on the surfaces, but I hope to have it ready to sail the Solent as soon as possible.
Is there any owner of one of these that can share experience with the boat?

cheers!
Hi.
I also have a lot of drawings of the Scimitar, If you PM me I can arrange for you to have the various drawings etc.
 

norwester

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There was a Sailing School at Holyhead in the early 1970's that had one of these for tuition.
They had quite a few of them. The school was called 'The Scimitar Sailing School' I don't think they went down that well as training boats tho. (Off topic but may be of interest,)
In the 70s, they also ran cruising courses using a Golden Hind yacht called Clipperau. PBO featured her in a series of articles about safety at sea. In a sad twist of fate ,she was later lost with the loss of all hands on a return trip from their winter base at Gibraltar.
 

veedub1955@

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Hi, stumbled across this whilst looking for the same information, just bought one of these fine looking vessels and look forward to sailing it, it has only managed to move 30 miles from where it was born
 

veedub1955@

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Hi Steve I would love to be able to meet up as we are only based in Denbigh. We have just bought boat number 25 and needs work but nothing major and would be fantastic to meet a fellow owner
 

veedub1955@

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Hi Roger

I'm a new member so cannot PM on here yet, but as soon as I can will it be OK to message you about the plans you have?

Thanks
Nick
 
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Hello to all Scimitar people,

I own Sunshine, serial number 7, hull number 5, sail number 4. Don't ask me to explain why, but this is not the only Scimitar with different numbers. Sunshine is unusual since she was converted to gaff rig with a bowsprit in the early eighties by Chris Libby. He cut away the coaming and replaced the moulded part with wood, moved the mast step forward and also extended the front of the keel and moved the rudder further back. So she's quite a bit different from the standard boats. She's lived on St Michael's Mount, the Dart, Holland, the Norfolk Broads, and now on the river Erdre just north of Nantes in France. I sail her a lot, and have been getting very good results in classic boat regattas. As Chris said, she's a witch.

I have put together a spreadsheet of all the Scimitars I've found trace of. I've added 25 and 53 Tryphena, but without any details, so please let me have any photos, drawings or other bits of their history. I'm not trying to take over the class history, since others may have already done this, it just felt like a useful basis.

If anyone is near here any time, do get in touch and come for a sail. If you want to bring your boat as well, I can offer bed and board, and the use of the club's crane to get you afloat.

Very happy to have found this new thread with people who are interested.

David
 

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veedub1955@

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David that is a very kind offer thank you! The list is fantastic and can see a few boats near here too which is a bonus if we can find the owners, we possibly may know of at least one more, possibly 2 not on your list so will update you. Also we are trying to trace the history and update some more details once we know
 
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Hi all!
I just got a Saro Scimitar 21, registered in year 1964. Still needs some work on the surfaces, but I hope to have it ready to sail the Solent as soon as possible.
Is there any owner of one of these that can share experience with the boat?

cheers!
Hello Carina,
Do let us see some photos of your boat. What's her name ? Does she have a builder's plate with the numbers ? Tell us more please.
Thanks
David
 
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