paps49
Super Anarchist
Built in 1951????????
Coolboats to admire
- Thread starter Sailbydate
- Start date
Incredible foresight, built as a half-tonner almost 20 years before the IOR came into being!
SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
More likely 1971.
Cabin top traveler should be banned from the earth. Never met a single one that was easy to trim or did it's job. Might as well just go with a single point/barney post type termination for the mainsheet and vang sheet the main.
Its a sailboat. There are lots of lines that can catch on something. Midboom sheeting is for people who don't really want to sail. There, I said it!
Matagi
Super Antichrist
F*cking typo nutsies, both of you.
Elegua
Generalissimo
It's for sale. Interesting blurb.
1959 Classic 36 Controversy 36 C/C Yawl South Freeport, Maine - Gray and Gray Yachts
The following comments were written by Tom MacNaughton as associate editor of Wooden Boat Magazine: “The Controversy 36 is the largest example of the Controversy concept developed by Mount Desert Yacht Yard. The original vessel, Constellation, was launched in 1953 for the owner of the yard, Mr...
www.grayandgrayyachts.com
Controversy 36.
Black Jack
Super Anarchist
1971.
Come on up and try it for yourself. you are welcome to take the boat out for the day and sail the Slot. Let me know what you think and how it did change your mind on all this.
On one of my proven 1/2 tonners winners, her cabin top traveller was designed and installed by Hank Easom when he built the boat; it is brilliant and works extremely well. I can not imagine a better way to handle sheeting the main on my boat - even better when solo or short handing. I can trim or depower effortlessly making this a great old man's racer plus there is no mess in the cockpit or something to trip over.Cabin top traveler should be banned from the earth. Never met a single one that was easy to trim or did it's job. Might as well just go with a single point/barney post type termination for the mainsheet and vang sheet the main.
Its a sailboat. There are lots of lines that can catch on something. Midboom sheeting is for people who don't really want to sail. There, I said it!
Come on up and try it for yourself. you are welcome to take the boat out for the day and sail the Slot. Let me know what you think and how it did change your mind on all this.
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I’d love to come up and sail on one of them! Been jealous of your 1/2 tonners for a long time 😇1971.
On one of my proven 1/2 tonners winners, her cabin top traveller was designed and installed by Hank Easom when he built the boat; it is brilliant and works extremely well. I can not imagine a better way to handle sheeting the main on my boat - even better when solo or short handing. I can trim or depower effortlessly making this a great old man's racer plus there is no mess in the cockpit or something to trip over.
Come on up and try it for yourself. you are welcome to take the boat out for the day and sail the Slot. Let me know what you think and how it did change your mind on all this.
On an IOR boat, with its (relatively) short boom, a cabin top travelled, esp on designed by a guy like Hank for the purpose of racing is probably pretty close to perfect.
Plus I said “mid-boom” so I might escape here with a technicality 😎
Priscilla
Super Anarchist
- 4,482
- 3,189
Is that round stainless cluster thingy in the cockpit a piece of installation art.
Priscilla
Super Anarchist
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Semi,
You've been here I think, longer than I. And in no way was I trying to insult anyone's choice for themselves and their boat. I was being mostly facetious. That said, behind the facetiousness, is a kernel of truth. The optimum traveler placement, from a sail control and performance standpoint, is near the end of the boom. A cabintop, midboom placement is a compromise. It mostly, and certainly on your boat, priorities cockpit openness and freedom of movement over sail control and performance.
The same can be said for the relatively small wheel. A tiller or larger wheel would give better control over the rudder, but at the cost of cockpit openness and freedom of movement.
You and I know every aspect of a sailboats design is a series of compromises. And each one of us has to decide which compromises work best for us. On most boats the size of yours (and most of mine as well), mid-boom cabintop sheeting compromises performance and ease of trim for easier maneuverability in the cockpit. That compromise is neither good, nor bad. It just is.
I'm sure as I age (a spritely 62 now), my compromises will change too...My last boat (a First 310) had a most horrible mid-boom, cabintop traveler. It was the first boat I've owned with such a setup. For now, I will continue to climb over a traveler in the cockpit. I'm sure at some time, that will change...
Again, I really meant the comment to be mostly facetious. And meant no insult to anyone who made a different compromise than I...
Crash
Hukilau
Member
Wow. Your Hunter looks very similar to my Catalina 28. From the window placements to the traveler to the cockpit to the sugar scoop. Close cousins for sure.
Kris Cringle
Super Anarchist
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- 3,101
I totally understand if you prefer a tiller. I did remove the drive ring for the PO's defunct autopilot, and that improved the feel of the wheel quite a lot. I think the boat has a larger rudder than would have been put on a race boat, and that's a great feature.
As you can see, a crew member tending the mainsheet and traveler has a place to stand with the lines easily reachable, and a way to brace himself. Not obvious is that the mechanical advantage of all the sailing controls is fine up to about 15kts. At about that point, the strength requirement of the average crew member is challenged, the boat (which is tender) may be heeled 30 degrees, the shoal wing keel is losing its grip on the water, and everything basically goes to hell, only somewhat moderated by reefing. Fortunately, I sail in WLIS, and this only happens a couple times a season, if that.
I'm not the sail trim specialist, boat speed guru, sort of sailor. My boat is not cluttered with upfuckers, downfuckers, barber haulers, or the like. I don't give commands like "traveler down 5/8" or "mainsheet trim 1 3/8".
Let me describe some other failings of the cockpit. Hunter apparently expected the helmsperson to sit on a butt-busting fiberglass hump decorated by comfortable teak slats directly behind the wheel. That's too low to see much. It's more comfortable to sit in the aft corner of the cockpit, but that's even lower. I find myself sitting on the 2" wide rim of the coaming, which is a bit of a reach to the wheel. My sailmaker suggested a larger wheel, but the reach seem natural to me because I learned to sail in dinghies where you have to sit forward in the middle of the boat and reach back to the tiller and tiller extension.
Forward of the jib winches, the coamings are slanted out at a curiously steep angle making it a not very useful place to sit under any sailing conditions.
Nowhere in the cockpit is there a small niche or cubby hole where a camera or pair of binoculars can be stowed safely.
The Catalina 28 is probably a better boat all around. The Hunter 28 has lots of flaws, but mostly they don't matter much for my use.
Priscilla
Super Anarchist
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One sometimes wonders SemiSalt if any sailors are part of the design team that sign off on production boat runs saying that I have been on quite a few boats that are not massed produced that lack cockpit lockers ,storage for winch handles ,ergonomic seating and most importantly a secure place to accomodate a cup of tea.
Here in the Antipodes it is a fairly rare sight to see a older boat of your length that sports a wheel and a compass binnacle
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