one for the "what were you thinking department"

[neilf39]

Seajet,

Afraid I can't remember the wingsail, but I have seen the story of Admiral Percy Gick.

Bluefin used to live just past where the footpath from Slipper Mill comes into EYH in my day.

 

[emsworthy]

Bluefin

As far as I know Bluefin is still around the Emsworth/Thorney area. I last saw her at Thornham Marina a few months back but she's also been up to the pontoons at our club so must be a member involved somewhere.

As I recall the aft deck is rotten as a pear but she was being sailed like that with a very odd wheel and pulley system attached to the aft rail controlling her rudders which could only have meant standing backwards to steer or steering with your hands behind your back!

Local folklore suggests she was designed and built by an aircraft engineer for a fast trans-Atlantic hence the cockpit and fuselage look, not sure how true that is though. Seajet??

 

[Fantasie 19]

As far as I know Bluefin is still around the Emsworth/Thorney area. I last saw her at Thornham Marina a few months back but she's also been up to the pontoons at our club so must be a member involved somewhere.

As I recall the aft deck is rotten as a pear but she was being sailed like that with a very odd wheel and pulley system attached to the aft rail controlling her rudders which could only have meant standing backwards to steer or steering with your hands behind your back!

Local folklore suggests she was designed and built by an aircraft engineer for a fast trans-Atlantic hence the cockpit and fuselage look, not sure how true that is though. Seajet??

http://blog.thornhammarina.com/2008/05/bluefin-project-at-thornham-marina.html

 

[emsworthy]

All makes sense now!

The Blake and the Porter families are both members of our club.

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Back to the OP, I would add the Westerly Consort Duo and its bigger sister, the Riviera, as examples of why boat designs should be put through some form of Planning Approval process as with buildings.

 

[Fantasie 19]

Back to the OP, I would add the Westerly Consort Duo and its bigger sister, the Riviera, as examples of why boat designs should be put through some form of Planning Approval process as with buildings.

You may have a point...

 

[Seajet]

Fantasie 19,

thanks for the info on ' Bluefin ', I must have seen her in pottering around Emsworth over the years.

I'm sure I saw the prototype Walker Wingsail ashore at EYH, about where the chandlery - different company - used to be briefly; maybe I dreamed it but I think it was real, a big long slender plywood thing ( the idea was a then radical wing mast, ie vertical aerofoil ) , might have been worth preserving in a museum if anyone had the space and ability to transport it.

As for planning permission and certain designs I'm not sure who to call for, the Geneva Convention or someone with a bazooka.

 

[DanTribe]

Back to the OP, I would add the Westerly Consort Duo and its bigger sister, the Riviera, as examples of why boat designs should be put through some form of Planning Approval process as with buildings.

I bid the Westerly Vulcan
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4592351954274096&pid=1.7&w=172&h=145&c=7&rs=1

 

[Twister_Ken]

I see your Westerly Vulcan and raise you an Oyster 39

 

[DanTribe]

I see your Westerly Vulcan and raise you an Oyster 39

An unflattering picture, they don't look quite so bad in real life. But a Holman & Pye design, WHAT were they thinking!

 

[Gwylan]

Oooh! That is ugly.....a real 'robber's horse' of a boat

 

[Greenheart]

I know it's a rotten picture...but the boat was very tiny in the original, so I photographed the photo...I saw this at Looe, last week...

View attachment 34779

It looks like an illegitimate cousin of the Buckler ketch...a sort of Popemobile version.

 

[jwilson]

http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/cat.jpg

 

[JumbleDuck]

http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/cat.jpg

I hope that boat is called "Marvin", after the paranoid android. It has a rather unhappy look.

 

[Greenheart]

I think Lagoon catamarans are my least favourite. Unsubtle verticals and right angles; all that space but they barely make room for one curve. And such a quantity of white plastic!

View attachment 34785

They're so artless. All the styling of a mobile classroom. Much worse than the Buckler ketch - which is only really a weird, exaggerated throwback to historic sheerlines.

 

[Bajansailor]

I know it's a rotten picture...but the boat was very tiny in the original, so I photographed the photo...I saw this at Looe, last week...

View attachment 34779

It looks like an illegitimate cousin of the Buckler ketch...a sort of Popemobile version.

Dan, your Popey Bucklerette is a Tamar 24 - here is one for sale, altho' that asking price of GBP 16k seems to be a bit ambitious.....
http://www.theyachtmarket.com/boats_for_sale/776235/

Another one for sale here, for GBP8.5k - http://www.boatshed.com/tamar_24-boat-155060.html

Re Bucklers, there is a VERY long thread / discussion about them on the American Boat Design Forum - I can see that they would appear 'quaint' to folk in the New World.
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/motorsailers/buckler-23-24-information-sought-23635.html

 

[onesea]

I am the only one here who can see the appeal to some in both the Buckler and the Tamar.

Infact I kind of like the Tamar, strikes me as the sort of boat that could be good for knocking round the UK Coast solo or as a couple on a budget.

I hasten to add not boats I have choose to buy when in the market

 

[Greenheart]

Dan, your Popey Bucklerette is a Tamar 24...

Well identified, Bajansailor. Thanks for that.

Onesea, yes, if I'm honest, I photographed the Tamar 24, thinking how odd it looked, but I don't dislike it. Quite cute, and definitely not boring. Much prettier than numerous AWBs.

 

[Bluefin 1961]

Apologies if this is poor etiquette to bump up an older thread, however I found this when looking for info, and thought I should reply!

Fantasie 19,

I saw that off Emsworth last week; difficult to make out which way it's going, maybe the skipper should hoist a cone in the nominated front and start a flashing light, like the chain ferries !

If the owner is reading, apologies and can we have details please ?

Certainly! I've personally not had an issue mistaking which end is which though

Bluefin was designed in the late '50s, construction started in 1959 (when the hulls & frames were completed), and was launched in 1961. I gather that she is the oldest GRP offshore catamaran, and I have yet to find any information to the contrary. Designed with wave piercing bows, a wing section front crossbeam and aerodynamic bridgedeck. When first launched, she also had adjustable water ballast and a wing mast (she could be sailed using her mast alone) but these last two features were too advanced for the time though, and didn't last long, especially as the materials of the day didn't have a sufficient strength to weight ratio.

Yup - spotted one this weekend in the Emsworth channel ... on the plus side .. it looks fast!

Fast enough to give time on handicap to an Iroquois in MOCRA racing when twenty years old (PY of 91 vs 99 for the Iroquois). Not too shabby for a late '50s design.

There was one of those at Dolphin Quay boat yard years ago being 'restored' (inside looked like a rubbish tip) so it may well be the one Seajet refers to.

'There is only the one - her make, model and name are all simply 'Bluefin'. She was built as a prototype intended for production but that never happened. Apparently there was a lot of interest in the Med (she was built in Malta), but none in the UK where her creator wanted to build them. If she was at Dolphin Quay in late 2005 or early 2006, then that would be shortly after a fitting on her mooring broke, and she ended up on the sea wall at the end of King Street.

That was a one-off that was the subject of a PBO article a few years back - Bluefin I tihnk her name is. Being restored by a couple of "bloody nice chaps" by the name of Olly, Charlie or somesuch...

Yes, featured in PBO a while back. Sadly an attempt was made to 'modernise' the way she looks, which didn't really work out in my opinion.

When I did my paper delivery round when I was 14 (41 years ago) I used to go past Bluefin every day when she sat ashore in Emsworth Yacht Harbour in a bit of dilapidated state. It was very enamoured as she looked fast and a bit like a space ship. I had dreams at the time of buying her when I had a bit of money and doing her up, but never did of course. It was fantastic when I saw the article in PBO and then saw her again done up and actually on the water. I had assumed she had been broken up.

In '72 she would have just been laid up, but it is surprising how quickly a boat can look unloved. A lot of thought went into the construction, which explains her longevity - full width Onazote cored ring frames to which the moulded hull halves (split on the centrelines) were attached. When recently being chocked up, as one stern was lifted, the other lifted immediately so the structure is still very stiff. That strength saved her when she went on the sea wall in a storm in November 2005.

Bluefin

As far as I know Bluefin is still around the Emsworth/Thorney area. I last saw her at Thornham Marina a few months back but she's also been up to the pontoons at our club so must be a member involved somewhere.

As I recall the aft deck is rotten as a pear but she was being sailed like that with a very odd wheel and pulley system attached to the aft rail controlling her rudders which could only have meant standing backwards to steer or steering with your hands behind your back!

Local folklore suggests she was designed and built by an aircraft engineer for a fast trans-Atlantic hence the cockpit and fuselage look, not sure how true that is though. Seajet??

Her designer & builder (the late Tom Dowling), was an ex-RN submarine officer. The design of the fully balanced rudders is apparently borrowed from the vessels he served on. There is no record in the paperwork of any trans-Atlantic sailing - plenty of Channel crossings, and also up the west coast to Scotland, in addition to the voyage from Malta to the UK, via the Canal du Midi.

The wheel and cable system for the rudders is the original configuration. The usual helming position is alongside the wheel, either sitting on the cockpit sole, or up on the aft crossbeam, and steering with one hand. Keeps the cockpit clear, and also positions the helm right next to the outboard motor.

Anyhow, I hope that has answered everything!

 

[sarabande]

By one of those little numerical freaks, it is 2345 days since the previous last post in the thread.

And tks to Bluefin for the update on a rather special boat.