Hurley 18 details

[bodgertim]

I have a Hurley 18 and would like to know and details about them. Any other owners?
Cheers Tim

 

[Lakesailor]

Hi, Probably get more sense from the Hurley Owners Association

 

[VicS]

Google finds thes details for the Hurley owners association but no web site.

Hurley Owners Association. Contact details:. Mrs Audrey Kynaston. 3 The Berkeleys. 22-23 Sunny Bank. South Norwood. London. SE25 4TH

 

[Lakesailor]

Sorry Vic. Try the link I posted. That works.

 

[VicS]

I thought there would be a website but Google dosn't find it, at least not in the first few results.

Trouble with owners associations is that they are always very biassed. You won't find a single word of criticism of the Seawych on our website for example.

I believe the Hurley 18 is a good little boat, the 22 is of course a surperb proper mini yacht but I'm not so sure about the one in between.

 

[boatmike]

The H 18 is a superb little boat designed I believe by Ian Anderson who you may still be able to contact (Dartmouth?) Ian also designed the Hurley 30 which was big brother to the 18 and a very capable boat. A friend of mine had an 18 way back in the early 80s and we sailed it from Helford where he kept it to the Isles of Scilly one year when it performed as a proper little sea boat. They were built in Hurleys works in Plympton near Plymouth and quite a number were sold as kits for home completion. I believe the H 22 and other boats built by them (especially the bilge keelers) were designed by someone else. The long keeled 18 and 30 were thoroughbreds however in comparison and I simply cannot think of another little boat of this size that has such wonderful sea keeping capabilities....
Enjoy your sailing .........!!!!
There is an old saying. The smaller the boat the better the fun.

 

[xeitosaphil]

Hi Tim as a hurley 22 owner myself I can verify that the 22 was designed by Ian anderson as was the 18,the 18 being a scaled down version of the 22 long keel version, and with regard to your other question there is a very active members association and also a very useful online group forum at yahoo which is a fantastic source of information for all hurley owners looking for advice and contacts with other hurley owners all over the world . Ihave included the address below . If you have the sail number and build number they should be able to tell you lots of history just post the question.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hurleyowners/

 

[jerryat]

Hi Boatmike,

I agree with you re the smaller Hurley's, but the 30 was a real dog! I sailed one for a few years, mostly on X-channel cruiser races, and it was the worst balanced boat I've ever been on. It didn't matter how much we 'trimmed' it, the weatherhelm was atrocious.

The H22, one of which I built and sailed for about 5 years, also had this problem. However, because I was building mine, and able to move the mast forward a bit and shorten the foot of the mainsail (both to move the C of E forward) she ended up beautifully balanced.

Oddly, the H18 doesn't seem to have these vices, and a friend of mine has had one for years and sails it like a witch. He's moving up now I think, so the boat is for sale last I heard. Super little boats IMHO, but not the 30!!

 

[boatmike]

Actually Jerry I owned a H 30 for 3 years myself. I recognise your comments being typical of many boats and indeed mine was the same when I got it. After talking to Ian Anderson however the problem became obvious in that the centre of effort of the sail plan was far to far behind the hydrostatic centroid. Decreasing the length of the forestay and moving the mast forwards improved matters, but the real breakthrough was fitting a fully battened mainsail which moved the centre of effort up and forward. After that it sailed like it was on rails and only needed minimal pressure on the tiller when hard pressed. I still say that it, and the Anderson 30 built elsewhere but the same boat essentially were excellent boats. Another problem was that Hurley sold mouldings for home completion and a lot of boats were built with insufficient keel ballast making them very tender. Mine had a lead filled keel. No problem.
In fact the original sail plan that Ian designed was not adopted by Hurley. Instead, driven by IOR rules they did their own thing. This was the root cause of the problem. Always listen to the designer, especially when he is a pretty good Naval Architect.

 

[boatmike]

Of course you are right. I had forgotten the long keeled version of the 22 having seen several bilge keel ones of that size which I think was an entirely different hull form. The 18, 22 long keel, and 30 were very similar in concept although on the 30 the long keel was cut away into a nominal fin and skeg form if I remember correctly. I think the little 18 however was unique and I dont know of another 18 footer that I would go offshore in with the same level of confidence in her sea keeping...