Improbable

SloopJonB

SloopJonB

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Peterson crewed the Tahiti race on Improbable with Holland. They spent the whole trip talking about their design ideas that they wanted to implement - pre Ganbare and Eygthene.

 
A

AlR

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SloopJonB said:
Peterson crewed the Tahiti race on Improbable with Holland. They spent the whole trip talking about their design ideas that they wanted to implement - pre Ganbare and Eygthene.
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Holland and Peterson sailed together to Tahiti on Spirit.  Spirit was a 33 foot  S&S bay racer owned by George Kiskaddon.  Improbable was not built yet.

 
SloopJohnB

SloopJohnB

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P_Wop said:
Dave Wahle was a piece of work, and a great player.  Didn't you guys come to David Carne's DCAC party afterwards in Falmouth?  A major event. Half way through, some of the helicopter crews from Culdrose came leaping via ladder over the back garden wall carrying cases of beer, and wearing special T-Shirts they'd knocked up in St Ives that day with "Fastnet 1979 - Aircrew" on the front.  They'd spent the previous night fishing people out of the Western Approaches and needed to unwind - great lads. 

Carney's other half was not impressed next morning - all her ornamental goldfish in the pond had finished their careers on the grill.  

Happy days.
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It must have been something in the air in the mid 70's , at a few get togethers down here, where the contents of fish bowls were consumed. :p

 
Haji

Haji

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With Mt. Baker in the background....

IMG_20180708_202654831.jpg

 
Haji

Haji

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FWIW, will be back onboard Improbable on Aug 15th, prepping for a sail to Anacortes to go on the hard at Betts Enterprises.   Have some projects planned already however will be assessing how far the renovation will go.  Have just started putting out feelers, however seems there may be others willing to join in. 

Have started fantasizing about PacCup 2020, but that would take some serious commitments to be competitive.

 
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armchairadmiral

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Thanks for this. Fascinating reading how it really was. I followed Improbables progress  all the time,from afar .Would have given my left arm to have sailed on her.  Of course the Sailing magazines never filled us in on the antics but  you could read between the lines. Makes you realise what a dowdy fun killing PC world we have now. The PC brigade have taken over mores the pity. But I'm doing my best to grow old disgracefully. Great waking up in the morning feeling good and staying that way all day but the mind still yearns for yesteryears morning after effects !

 
Haji

Haji

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At the very least will get Improbable fully operational in her present config.  Then hope to get all the remaining crew that I know from her glory days out for a sail...Commodore, Skip, Ron Holland,Tom Wylie,, Dave Wahle, Kim Desenberg are those I have contact info for.  They can help me track down others.  Perhaps offer the opportunity to some of those who wanted to but who never got the chance.

The next level (letting my dreams take over, but depending on how things go $-wise} would be taking all that I have learned from my lifetime of sailing and working on boats to bring Improbable to an even higher level of performance than ever before.  To be an effective uncluttered racer cruiser that is as light as originally intended.  So she would be rather spartan, however fully functional with a robust energy system, new electronics, etc.

As a rigger for much of my life, I've always wanted to modernize her rigging layout to save weight.  She still has wire halyards and dad added a heavy furler.  That could be 100 lbs out of the rig right there. Most of the deck hardware could be much lighter, using fewer winches, synthetic deck loops, floating leads, etc.  So all of the bolted-on aluminum railings & tracks (and hundreds of associated bolts) could go away.  

The rudder is massively heavy, and has a skeg.  For about 30 years I've wanted to put in a carbon rudder/shaft and do away with the skeg. There's another 150-200lbs or more. The autopilot dad installed is a massive commercial fishing boat system that could be replaced by something for a fraction of the weight.

A lightweight transom scoop in tandem with the diet plan would eliminate the washing-machine effect she's had in the back, and provide a nice swim platform.

And yes SloopJonB...could paint her red again, with white bottom & deck.

See how bad I get?  This could mean not finishing my house for another decade...

 
Haji

Haji

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Woolwich, Maine
Well, hopefully the "Improbable project" won't be MY priority alone....as there is strength in numbers.  

And I do live in Maine and run a business here, so can only be in WA every now & then.  

 
SloopJonB

SloopJonB

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Haji said:
At the very least will get Improbable fully operational in her present config.  Then hope to get all the remaining crew that I know from her glory days out for a sail...Commodore, Skip, Ron Holland,Tom Wylie,, Dave Wahle, Kim Desenberg are those I have contact info for.  They can help me track down others.  Perhaps offer the opportunity to some of those who wanted to but who never got the chance.

The next level (letting my dreams take over, but depending on how things go $-wise} would be taking all that I have learned from my lifetime of sailing and working on boats to bring Improbable to an even higher level of performance than ever before.  To be an effective uncluttered racer cruiser that is as light as originally intended.  So she would be rather spartan, however fully functional with a robust energy system, new electronics, etc.

As a rigger for much of my life, I've always wanted to modernize her rigging layout to save weight.  She still has wire halyards and dad added a heavy furler.  That could be 100 lbs out of the rig right there. Most of the deck hardware could be much lighter, using fewer winches, synthetic deck loops, floating leads, etc.  So all of the bolted-on aluminum railings & tracks (and hundreds of associated bolts) could go away.  

The rudder is massively heavy, and has a skeg.  For about 30 years I've wanted to put in a carbon rudder/shaft and do away with the skeg. There's another 150-200lbs or more. The autopilot dad installed is a massive commercial fishing boat system that could be replaced by something for a fraction of the weight.

A lightweight transom scoop in tandem with the diet plan would eliminate the washing-machine effect she's had in the back, and provide a nice swim platform.

And yes SloopJonB...could paint her red again, with white bottom & deck.

See how bad I get?  This could mean not finishing my house for another decade...
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She's a classic - don't make her too much of a resto-mod.

As for the house - you can live on the boat but you can't sail the house.

 
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Haji

Haji

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Woolwich, Maine
Understood, but worth doing improvements in line the original intent. Commodore definitely wanted the boat lighter, says she was almost 2000lbs over...and still was a downwind flyer.  Get her closer to that target weight, and...:)

 
Haji

Haji

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Woolwich, Maine
No need to rebuild...can't beat cold-molded kauri hull & deck!  Just upgrade some of the things attached to it...;-)

Original rig not bad either.  Just repaint and upgrade the strings.

 
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