You want to talk project boats

[Fr J Hackett]

I thought the health and safety lot would have loved the bit bringing the fuel tank down the ladder…

There's a few other bits that would raise an eyebrow or two as well.

 

[flaming]

There's a few other bits that would raise an eyebrow or two as well.

makes you wonder what happens when the camera is off....

 

[Mark-1]

Name rings a bell. Should I/we know who he is?

 

[flaming]

Name rings a bell. Should I/we know who he is?

John Corby of Corby yachts...

Successful IRC designer turned refit expert.
https://www.corby-yachts.com/index.html

 

[Frogmogman]

John Corby of Corby yachts...

Successful IRC designer turned refit expert.
https://www.corby-yachts.com/index.html

Any relation to the trouser press ?

 

[mrming]

Any relation to the trouser press ?

Yes, as far as I have heard. Father or grandfather possibly of trouser press fame.

Edit - his father sold the trouser press business in the late 70s, apparently.

 

[14K478]

In the first episode he trucks it from Shotley to Hamble. Why?

 

[Mark-1]

In the first episode he trucks it from Shotley to Hamble. Why?

If you mean why didn't he sail it I think the wood cores were rotten and the rudder was on its last legs for a start. So my guess is he had a pretty shrewd idea it wasn't seaworthy.

It has to be said the previous owner basically won the lottery. Finding a stinking rich buyer who had a 45yo personal attachment to the boat who also had the desire and capability to completely rebuild it. Without that he'd have been paying to scrap it.

I watched five minutes in November and gave up. Today I'm finding it addictive. Love the guy, love the boat, love the project.

 

[14K478]

If you mean why didn't he sail it I think the wood cores were rotten and the rudder was on its last legs for a start. So my guess is he had a pretty shrewd idea it wasn't seaworthy.

It has to be said the previous owner basically won the lottery. Finding a stinking rich buyer who had a 45yo personal attachment to the boat who also had the desire and capability to completely rebuild it. Without that he'd have been paying to scrap it.

I watched five minutes in November and gave up. Today I'm finding it addictive. Love the guy, love the boat, love the project.

Thanks. That’s helpful. With my background of gentling along old boats and my lack of ££, I would have sailed her, carefully, thinking that most mid-seventies rudders are iffy. But he can afford to truck her, so fair enough.

I’m also starting to like it.

 

[14K478]

I have now watched four episodes, and I’m addicted. After all, I have a boat of that age. I can see what he is doing, and why.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I have now watched four episodes, and I’m addicted. After all, I have a boat of that age. I can see what he is doing, and why.

You and he are braver men than I Gunga Din

 

[Mark-1]

You and he are braver men than I Gunga Din

Yeah.

It's like books on mountaineering or warfare. I am deeply enthusiastic about reading about the exploits. Less so about taking part in them myself.

 

[14K478]

I am going in the other direction; starting with a boat that was arranged to keep twelve fit men and women very busy (and had every item of gear apart from a single winch handle removed!) and intending to finish with a boat that can be single handed. She had a massive rebuild around the year 2000 with new everything, including the bulkheads, so I don’t have huge structural worries.

 

[Mark-1]

I am going in the other direction; starting with a boat that was arranged to keep twelve fit men and women very busy

I sailed on "Racer" with her new owner just after the military sold her. 3 up, all of us either pushing 40 or in our 40s. "This is knackering" I thought to myself. Then it hit me it was intended to be that way. Lifting the foresail out of the massive sail locker was a two man job. Just coiling the mooring lines was a workout. Cracking boat, though. IIRC about a third of the interior space was sail locker which can only be a good thing.

 

[doug748]

You and he are braver men than I Gunga Din

Thing is he does boats for a living has the dosh, the workspace, the contacts, the equipment. If you make your living by working on boats what better than to work on one of your own, and your own vision? Be fascinating to see how it performs as a racer.

 

[14K478]

I sailed on "Racer" with her new owner just after the military sold her. 3 up, all of us either pushing 40 or in our 40s. "This is knackering" I thought to myself. Then it hit me it was intended to be that way. Lifting the foresail out of the massive sail locker was a two man job. Just coiling the mooring lines was a workout. Cracking boat, though. IIRC about a third of the interior space was sail locker which can only be a good thing.

This is my friend Simon’s “Chaser”, poodling around the Windies singlehanded. He’s done a first class job on her, but it probably helps to be an ex RN superyacht chief engineer!

My approach is “copy Simon a year or two later when he knows what he has done and/or fitted works as it should!”

 

[Wansworth]

Poodling around the windies with open anchorages but more constricted European waters might be a problem?

 

[Frogmogman]

This is my friend Simon’s “Chaser”, poodling around the Windies singlehanded. He’s done a first class job on her, but it probably helps to be an ex RN superyacht chief engineer!View attachment 209749View attachment 209750

My approach is “copy Simon a year or two later when he knows what he has done and/or fitted works as it should!”

I had the very good fortune to do a week’s sail training on HMSTY Chaser in the late 70s. The skipper was a CPO called Dave Butcher.

As Mark-1 points out, nothing about these boats was designed with la dolce vita in mind.

I recall Dave Butcher telling me about a sergeant major in the Royal Marines who had been sent on a week’s sail training after suggesting to his officer that booties swanning off for a week on a yacht was a waste of everybody’s time. Dave and the weather in the channel conspired to make sure that he had such a miserable time that on return to his unit he became an evangelist for the benefits of sail training

 

[14K478]

Poodling around the windies with open anchorages but more constricted European waters might be a problem?

A little known secret of the Nic 55 is that while she will heave to like a pilot cutter, unlike a pilot cutter she can also spin on a sixpence, and, in the hands of an expert, which I am not, she can travel backwards under power in full control…

Ray Wall was a great designer!

 

[Stemar]

Yeah.

It's like books on mountaineering or warfare. I am deeply enthusiastic about reading about the exploits. Less so about taking part in them myself.

Yep. I watch Leo Samson, Acorn to Arabella and the like to remind me that, while I love the idea, at my age, I don't want to be doing anything like that.