New to sailing & need some help with my boom!

[Lakesailor]

Looks like it's not the boat's own mast. The bottom couple of feet look a different colour.
I wonder if it has been a dinghy mast, hog stepped. Mounted on the coachroof in a binnacle the gooseneck ends up rather high up.
It'll make the sailing balance a bit odd. I'd be tempted to shorten the mast and shrouds and get it all a bit lower.
I had a similar gooseneck on an earlier boat and remember the gooseneck could be set at a range of different heights, but that one looks very high.

 

[leefromcanada]

Hi there.

Just wondering if you are by chance still watching this forum. I have just come into possession of a Newbridge Topaz boat, found abandoned in a marina in Canada. I am in the process of refurbishing her. These boats are very hard to find! Any chance you could do a measurement of your total mast length, mail sail luff, and boom length? Do you have any markings indicating the year of manufacture, or whether your boat is a MK1 or MK2? I have no markings anywhere that I can see. I have attached a picture...

Thanks
Lee

 

[Niall1975]

Hi there.

Just wondering if you are by chance still watching this forum. I have just come into possession of a Newbridge Topaz boat, found abandoned in a marina in Canada. I am in the process of refurbishing her. These boats are very hard to find! Any chance you could do a measurement of your total mast length, mail sail luff, and boom length? Do you have any markings indicating the year of manufacture, or whether your boat is a MK1 or MK2? I have no markings anywhere that I can see. I have attached a picture...

Thanks
Lee

Try here http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=5966

or

http://www.sailingjoy.com/sailboat_specs/view/5496/topaz-newbridge

or

http://www.newbridge-owners.org/noa-01.htm

Niall

 

[leefromcanada]

Hi Niall.

Thanks for the links. The three you have identified, plus one other, are basically the only sites I have found on the web with information on my boat. The third site (Newbridge Owners) does not list the model "Topaz", and has not heard of the model. Quite rare indeed - just like the your first link identifies.

Are you skilled with sailing? My boat did not come with sails. Any idea how, exactly, I measure the mast and boom to find out how big the main sail and jib should be?

Lee

 

[peterlpsmith]

Hi Nial

The National Maritime Museum Cornwall has a copy of a 1965 magazine review for the Topaz on their database:

The record from the database is as follows:

3986 Whistance Topaz Dinghy, sailing 18 ft LOA Light Craft 1965/07

They will email a copy to you for a small donation. It is a 3 page article.

Contact library@nmmc.co.uk if you are interested.