Twister 28

[Twister_Ken]

"Family cruising - unless your wife was a girl guide and still likes camping then the answer is no."

Madame resents that remark. She hates camping. Loves the Twister. Would love it even more if it had a shower and hot water!

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

They are also unfeasibly expensive with most being up at 16-20k which is alot of money for that sort of boat, when other folkboat derivatives are around 10-12k. I have an elizabethan 29 which apart from a counter stern and a fraction less beam seems to be the same boat but nearly half the price.

The Elizabethan 29 also designed by Kim Holman, another superb little boat for the money. I sail one several times a year now I am 'parked up' near a pal who has one and it is a joy to sail.
Very light on the tiller with less 'feel' than the Twister. You can have a great deal of weather helm and not feel too uncomfortable, yet my Twister speaks through the tiller and is asking to be balanced quite soon.
Inside, unless you'r fairly short, there is not a lot of headroom whereas the Twisters can have from around 6foot at the stern end of the sole to a bit less nearer the central bulkheads. Elizabethans have relatively little storage space in comparison due to the saloon and topsides being that much lower. Seating, in the one I sail, is less spacious in the height between the base cushion and the head room where the deck walkway moulding appears, but this may be a one off.
They do pick up extremely quickly in a breeze and feel a little more sensitive in a gust, both possibly as they carry less keel than the Twister..
A bit more like sailing a big dinghy than the Twister.
Just like a Twister they are a 'wet boat' but even more so when close hauled in a chop. However, they both have the characteristics of feeling safe in a blow and push on through the chop with the Elizabethan needing to reef that little bit sooner.
They are both easy to sail single handed yet as ridgy says, the Elizabethan fetches far less money and have been seen recently for way less than £10k.
Twisters are one of the hulls built by Tylers and seem Osmosis free.
Jason must have very delicate women in his life. My wife as per Kens' lady will not camp yet finds our boat a joy of comfort for the two of us. We had 4 of us aboard this year for a week and although we can sleep 5 in comfort, the problems start if you all want to move around at the same time.

Q...."but would be hopeless speedwise nowadays in comparison with a modern 28."

Well if meaning hopeless in a comparison in a F5 to F7 I would have to disagree.
3 years ago, I sailed from Weymouth to Yarmouth with Westerly F5 going to F7 single handed.
I had 3 reefs in the main and reefed to 1/3rd of a genoa. The yacht club at Weymouth, who provided me with up to the minute weather info, had cancelled all their racing for the day but I felt that in those conditions we would not only be fast, but we would be safe. I didn't feel a hero for doing it, just very confident in the boat.

 

[bromleybysea]

Isnt the rustler 31 just a bigger twister? Same designer??
Rob

Same designer. The Rustler 31 is, I believe, the GRP version of the North Sea 24 which is a slightly earlier design than the Twister, though the Rustler and the Twister are similar in looks. I would endorse all the comments above, which mostly apply to the Rustler as well, as far as sea-keeping, handling etc goes. As a Rustler owner I would conceed that the Twister is a prettier boat, just something about Twisters, a felicity of line that stands them out. I think they might be a bit faster in the right hands as well, though I do have a particulary heavy Rustler. Where the Rustler does score is in internal volume, storage space and slightly better headroom, particularly forward. As to all Twister owners being loopy- absolutely true in my experience. Why, a good froend of mine sold his Twister and bought a Rival 32!

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

Tyler hulls had a very bad reputation in the 70's which nobody now seems to remember .... they were turning out hulls which got osmosis problems in a couple of years from launch!

 

[martinb]

Twister - undoubtedly the best yacht ever built, in my unbiased opinion.

Picture coming of keel - proper job, encapsulated, 2 tons of lead, nothing to fall off. Close to a 50% ballast ratio, not worth calculating the STIX, it'll be higher than almost anything else built in the last 30 years.


Interesting comments, I seem to remember you not making the YBW cruise to Cherbourg a couple of years ago because the weather was a bit rough, so perhaps not as good as sentiment would have us believe?

 

[Twister_Ken]

"Interesting comments, I seem to remember you not making the YBW cruise to Cherbourg a couple of years ago because the weather was a bit rough, so perhaps not as good as sentiment would have us believe?"

Harrumph. Actually coz my crew didn't turn up, I had a stab at singlehanding but with the wind on the nose and no autopilot, I got about 15 miles off of the Nab, was making slow progress and decided it'd be unwise to continue coz I couldn't guarantee staying awake. My problem, not the boat's. Incidentally, I set out again later in the day on someone else's Sigma 33 and they gave up in just about the same place.

 

[Athene V30]

They are also unfeasibly expensive with most being up at 16-20k which is alot of money for that sort of boat, when other folkboat derivatives are around 10-12k. I have an elizabethan 29 which apart from a counter stern and a fraction less beam seems to be the same boat but nearly half the price.

Twisters look pretty similar to me to the Cutlass 27 - a Cutlass will sell for £5k upwards if you want a low cost entry. I am currently upgarding mine to singlehand her to the Azores with the Jesters in 2012. The boat has I understand already done the trip with a previous owner so knows the way.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Tyler hulls had a very bad reputation in the 70's which nobody now seems to remember .... they were turning out hulls which got osmosis problems in a couple of years from launch!

Hi Frank
I don't recall any Twister owner mentioning anything about osmosis. If it had been a serious problem the Twister forum would be full of questions from concerned owners over the years and some, if not all of the magazine articles written involving Twisters, would surely have mentioned it.

I would be interested though as to which Tyler moulds were the problem. I believe that Tufglass or somebody did some of the 'Tyler work' after Tylers had closed but I'm not sure.
Boats like the Trintilla/Seacracker 33 may have been of that era and may have been moulded by one of these firms. Do you know what other hulls were laid up by Tylers that may have suffered from the big 'O'?