Bowman Yachts

Back from the dead, eh.

I regret I can't shed any light on the history of Bowman Yachts but I remember this thread well.

The boat in the video is not slamming but hobby-horsing. This is a condition of wind and sea where the yacht pecks away in the same hole to windward getting nowhere. Slamming is what happens when you do it in a different boat to the Bowman shown
 
tomgsails said:
the history of the 40, 42, 45 and 48 seem well documented, but the 36, 44 'Corsair', 46, etc are a bit unknown.. any info would be gratefully received. the 44, is just a glorious looking boat, but there is little written about it.
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I LOVE the 44 Corsair - stunning craft. There's an amazing one for sale in the Netherlands currently. And then there's the 57 which is just beautiful beyond words....
 
I raced on a Bowman 46 yawl in Clyde week in 1973, a beautiful yacht and saw another one in Kalamos a few years ago. The yawl version features in The Proper Yacht by Arthur Besier, a few pages about it.
 
sniffyjenkins said:
I LOVE the 44 Corsair - stunning craft. There's an amazing one for sale in the Netherlands currently. And then there's the 57 which is just beautiful beyond words....
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That Corsair is stunning but you shouldn't be looking at other boats after your refit, well not just yet.:cool:
 
I have a new arch on my 485 with a pair of 400 watt panels and a couple of domes - I have to say I havent noticed any difference in the upwind characteristics in up to 45 knots of wind.
 
doug748 said:
Back from the dead, eh.

The boat in the video is not slamming but hobby-horsing. This is a condition of wind and sea where the yacht pecks away in the same hole to windward getting nowhere. Slamming is what happens when you do it in a different boat to the Bowman shown
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My 38ft gaff cutter - a very lovely boat - would hobby-horse sometimes. The theoretical, or racing yachtsman's, answer is to get all the weight out of the ends. The cruising yachtsman's answer is to bear off a point.
 
I sailed on a Holman & Pye designed Bowman 45 of circa 1980. Had the Holman rolls really bad & to be honest it was a bit of a slowcoach. Certainly was nothing special, although finish etc was first class. Got the impression that the owner was not overly impressed either. He sold it after a few years ( from new) for a one off design. If that was a typical Bowman then you can keep them
 
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doug748 said:
Back from the dead, eh.

I regret I can't shed any light on the history of Bowman Yachts but I remember this thread well.

The boat in the video is not slamming but hobby-horsing. This is a condition of wind and sea where the yacht pecks away in the same hole to windward getting nowhere. Slamming is what happens when you do it in a different boat to the Bowman shown
Click to expand...
The boat I was on, see earlier post, was a Bowman 40. She was not hobby horsing but definately slamming. We were hard on the wind going around Finesterre in bottom end of Force 7, making steady and dry progress to windward, but she came off waves with a bang! It didn't seem to make much difference if we bore off down the face of the wave. If we had reduced sail and speed we would then have hobby horsed and made little forward progress.
This is not to say she was anything other than a really nice, well built yacht, No boat is perfect.
 
tomgsails said:
Hey guys, this is my first post on this forum and I've joing because i'm interested in learning the history of the RIval Bowman yachts. I've even been in touch with Rustler who don't really know a lot about the older yachts. there doesn't seem to be a lot out there any i wondered if you guys had any knowledge that could fill the wholes in my knowledge.

the history of the 40, 42, 45 and 48 seem well documented, but the 36, 44 'Corsair', 46, etc are a bit unknown.. any info would be gratefully received. the 44, is just a glorious looking boat, but there is little written about it.
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Hi Tomgsails,

I run the Rival Owners Association Facebook page and we have opened the closed group to owners of Rival Bowman yachts and we have a few now. On the members page of the ROA website there is quite a history of the relationship between Rival Yachts and Bowman which was later bought by Rustler. A recent posting on the Fb page from a member who was involved in building Rivals stated that - In around the mid/late 80’s rival yachts (southern boat building company) took over bowman incorporating the 49’ & 57’ in the range (Holman & Pye design). The company became Rival Bowman. The bowman 40,42,48 were added later designed by Chuck Paine. The owners of Rival Bowman (Keith Crossley and Charles Maunder) sold the company around 1992 and only a couple of years later it went bust along with Sadler starlight and westerly. Rustler took over from there.

It wouldn't be right to post the full history from the members website but of course you are free to join to gain access to the full history of Rival yachts and Rival Bowman.

Regards,

Andy
 
KellysEye said:
>I didn't know that even a Bowman slams!!

Bowmans and all long distance boats don't slam only flat bottom boats do - AWB's, from experience.
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When heeled, a Bowman bow (and many others) effectively is flat-bottomed. If they meet a wave at the right (or perhaps that should be wrong?) angle, they slam. For precisely the same reason, the Rival I had for a decade did it, too. A good helmsman might avoid such waves, but no automatic steering can.
 
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