We own our second Nicholson now. Wouldn't want anything else.
What kind of information do you need? On basic information about construction I might help, as most Nics have similar constructions. There used to be an after sales service at C&N's but after the latest change of ownership they stopped this. After that, a volunteer toor over this information servoce for older Nics. I can look up the email adress if you like. Just let me know.
Have owned a Nic 30 Mk11 for 3 years and rate it highly. Good quick sailing boat but don't expect the accomodation that modern designs offer. It's particularly good in heavy weather.
The design dates from about 1972 and there were something like 70 boats built. It probably errs towards the racing side of cruiser/racer. There was another Nic 30 design later which was more a full on 1/2 tonner.
I think they represent good value for money. Main thing to consider expense wise is the engine. I replaced the Volvo MD1 which came with mine with a Yanmar 1GM10.
As per previous post www.kingsyacht.com have a Nic achive.
Good luck
i have just bought one of them and all i have heart is good reports about them mines not ready yet but cant wait p.s do you have a spare head sail you would like to sell
Hi
I was very tempted by one of these boats a couple of years ago, they look as if they would be good boats. There is an interesting photo of one "Grimalkin" in the book Fastnet 79 by L T Gardner.
Does this mean the Ufo 31 was no good?
Dan
Hi.
Forgot to mention we now have a Nic 48. The sails were beyond salvage when we bought her, we now have new ones but even if I had a spare one it wouyld not quite fit, now would it....
The Nich 30 is essentially a cruisy boat and after Nicholson got out of mass boat building I think it was the one that continued as the Halmatic 30.
The 30 foot half tonner is different boat (was it called the 301?) which came from the moulds of Silver Jubilee. Grimalkin was one such that was repeatedly capsized in Fastnet 79 with loss of life. This pretty much stopped sales of this model in their tracks.
I think they also built a cruisy version of this half tonner called the 303.
As a half tonner it wasn't best of the breed at the time - the top production half tonner of the late 70s was probably the Hustler 32, like Xaviera.
The classic 'small' Nich cruiser was the 32, which was built for years and years and appeared in (I think) about ten different marks. It was replaced by the Nich 31 which is a sought after small cruiser with much better accomodation (beamier) and performance (bigger sail area on a lighter hull) than the 31.
As usual Twister Ken is on the ball, if it is Grimalkin you are looking at then she sank in the 79 Fastnet and was then recovered. She is a lovely looking boat from the pics, but personally I was put off by the reported lack of stability that hull shape had in rough seas. Just do a search on Gimalkin and 79 fastnet on the net and you’ll see what I mean.
What does confuse me though is on the face of it the Nic 33 Humphreys design looks very similar just scaled up and a few of thoes reportadley came through the same race un-scathed.
Sorry, last sentence of my "whoa there" post should have read...
...It was replaced by the Nich 31 which is a sought after small cruiser with much better accomodation (beamier) and performance (bigger sail area on a lighter hull) than the 32.
ken, was the repeated capsize down to how it was handled or the design? Reason I ask is I know some boats tried to lie a hull and as such were knocked about.
The Wolfson intitute tests carried out after the race indicated that much of it was down to hull shape and the high centre of gravity.
In some of their later tests that I've seen, when looking at different hull shapes, they always seem to compare the results to two boats- a Contessa 32, as an example of a seaworthy boat, and Grimalkin as an example of a bad design.
Poter
I feel really guilty now.I wasn't trying to suggest that Nich 30's were dodgy, it was just general interest.
If you'r still looking, what about :~ S&S 30, Seamaster 28, Hustler, Carter 30.
Good luck
Dan
Grimalkin wasn't a Nic 30 of the type designed in 1972. As far as I can remember she was a Nic 303 which is a very different design. There were quite a few of those builtl with few problems. If you are judging your purchase of a boat on it's performance in 79 Fastnet you should consider that Grimilkan was one of the smallest boats in the fleet. Because of this she was in the area of worst weather. She stayed afloat after most of the crew abandoned her. In fact the last crewmember who was left in the boat was rescued from it. I doubt that many cruiser/racer designs (Contessa 32 excepted) of the last 24 years would have fared much better. Worth reading 'Fastnet Force 10' to get an idea of what really happened.