Eygthene 24

jwood

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I'm thinking of buying an Eygthene 24, but would appreciate any comments from readers with experience of these boats - build quality, sailing ability, suggested value for a 1979 boat in decent condition etc
 

30boat

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I know these boats very well indeed.When I was living in Macau in 1994 I helped rebuild one that ran aground and as a result lost its keel along with most of its bottom.This allowed me to know the boat's good and bad points.
For instance look carefully at the floors where the keelbolts pass trough.On the other boat they where rotted due to water ingress.When it came to fitting the floors we placed them between the keelbolts and beefed the laminate under the washers.
The deck was very easy to remove for the simple reason that there was no bedding compound in the hull deck joint, only a foam gasket.We used 5200.
In our boat the bow fitting where the forestay was attached was a flimsy aluminium thing that actualy broke under sail, once .We didn't loose the mast but it was close.Now for the good points.She sails beautifully in most conditions and is very fast especially in light airs.The general building quality is good with strong laminates.She is actually a great little boat.
Hope this helps
 

scottie

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some were home finished so build may vary
but having sailed in one for several years it was good small boat but not much head room

engine was an option some hade outboards /volvo s drive/rca dolphin etc
 
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I'm probably stating the obvious - but in the buying a boat section of this site you can get boat reports going back through the years. When I bought my boat I gave them a call and the person I spoke to was very helpful in picking relevant articles out. I think there's a small charge - but when you think of the investment that you are making you'll want as much info as possible.

MM
 
G

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I posted this message about a month ago in response to a post for advice:

I had an Eygthene 24 as my first boat. It was fantastic. I could never understand why they weren’t more popular. Ron Holland’s first design, he won the Quarter Tonner cup in 73. You can find out more information on Ron Holland’s web-site www.ronhollanddesign.com

An interesting feature of the design is the very wide side decks, this was so that if you had crew out on the rail they provided the maximum amount of righting force. The knock on benefit of this was excellent interior accommodation for a 24 footer.

Despite it’s racing heritage I found it to be an excellent cruiser, I never used my for racing, and I don’t think any previous owner had either. It sails very well without being tender, I sailed it in all conditions, including a cross channel trip, without any problems.

The only negative point with mine was it had an outboard engine mounted on the transom, I would recommend an inboard engine, as the outboard doesn’t work very well in rough conditions.

I sold mine back in the early nineties, I believe a lot of them went to Ireland about then because someone set up a racing series for them over there.

Hope that helps.


In response to Boat30's comment about the forestay fitting,"In our boat the bow fitting where the forestay was attached was a flimsy aluminium thing that actualy broke under sail, once." This is a standard item that can picked up at most chandlers, and was fitted to boats of that size built at that time.

I didn’t have a problem with it, in fact we unfortunately rammed a Moody in the Solent at about 5 knots, which bent it out of shape so it needed replacing, but there was no indication it was going to let go of the mast. Made a big hole in the side of the Moody as well!
 

JT14

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In our boat the bow fitting where the forestay was attached was a flimsy aluminium thing

We bought an Eyghtene 24 last year, and the first job on the refit list was replacing the forestay plate in the bow. I can confirm that it was flimsy, and was throughbolted to a piece of plywood, which the washers had been compressed into over time. You could almost rock the fitting with your hand.. I replaced the backing plate with 6mm stainless steel, an throughbolted to this, Solid as a rock now!
 

vyv_cox

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My son Owen owned one for a while, which I helped him deliver. Fantastic performance being so light, it took off in the slightest gust. He is just under 6 ft tall and sold it because it was very hard on his back, both in the cockpit and below.
 
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