Improbable

[northernrainbow]

Just stumbled on this thread. Only a few days ago I posted on another thread about influential boats that started with praising Ganbere (Doug Peterson) as the greatest. I had posted Red Rooster and Improbable as my picks. Fun to read about both of them here.

 

[JBE]

Yes, great thread, getting subscribed.

Our boat is a 45 ft Davidson designed in 74 and influenced by the Mull designs of the period.Kauri cold moulded too. I walk past Tequila every time I go to the boat and I cruised with a Whiting on another Whiting 47 last year, so quite a lot of the thread resonates with me. Thanks for the thread and love the input.

I could look back through the old sea sprays for an article if you'd like too.

 

[P_Wop]

Can't resist another Robin story...

As you may know, much of the revenue for Robin's clinic was from cosmetic surgery.  At some point "Tits by Tats" was a battle flag created by the crew.  This is one of the reasons (in addition to being a known brilliant sailor) for his familiarity with many of the Rich & Famous, who would go on "vacation" in the BVI and visit Robin's clinic while there.

Anyhow, after one of the races in the 02 Classic Week, we were on Diva rafted next to a big schooner belonging to a friend of Robin's. 1.5 ft of freeboard next to 5ft...  A thinly clad beautiful and well-endowed young female crew member was washing off the extensive varnish work.  

Standing on the deck of Diva in our soaked foulies, we couldn't avoid a moment of mutually admiring the view on the schooner.  That's when Robin looked over to me (and down, being about a foot taller) and stated "You know...not even I can make them that nice"

Thanks for that memory!

Robin's surgery/hotel, the Bougainvillea Clinic, aka "The Purple Palace" in Tortola was apparently constructed by a pair of "friends" who thought it would make a lovely secluded Caribbean retreat for their own special type of clientele.  This worked just fine until both men fell in love with the same waiter at a local Road Town hostelry, and as a result broke up with considerable acrimony. 

Robin bought the place for a song, and history was made.

Back to Improbable.

 

[Rasputin22]

Lets spin off a Tattersall thread. But then we would have to do one for Joel Byerly...

    That might just take us down the rabbit hole!

 

[P_Wop]

Lets spin off a Tattersall thread. But then we would have to do one for Joel Byerly...

    That might just take us down the rabbit hole!

Yes indeed. Birds of a feather.  Such happy days.

I was wrong about Robin's leeward steering technique.  Push toe gently on tiller for weather helm and if you had to, bear away.  The bit of string on the tiller (no block) was for tacking.

 

[sledracr]

Have some projects planned already however will be assessing how far the renovation will go. 

Apropos of nothing... if you're looking for bodies to pitch in with the renovation, count me in.  I have a day job, so I can't commit full-time, but I'm only an hour or so from Betts and would love to contribute some weekend time to Improbable's rebirth, if I can...

 

[Haji]

Apropos of nothing... if you're looking for bodies to pitch in with the renovation, count me in.  I have a day job, so I can't commit full-time, but I'm only an hour or so from Betts and would love to contribute some weekend time to Improbable's rebirth, if I can...

Sledracr, you have a deal.  I'll be in Birch Bay on the 15th and getting Improbable to Anacortes soon after.  Will track you down and coordinate.

 

[Haji]

I forget what year it was that my dad let me do our first rudder modification.  perhaps 79, or could have been early 80's. I cut off some of the heavy stainless internal welded frame, and moved the CE of the rudder closer to the shaft in an effort to make it less unbalanced.  Later on we added a "nose" sticking fwd under the sked, trying to balance it some more.  At this point (if at all po$$ible) it's time to just replace the whole rudder.  Pic attached shows my enthusiasm at reducing the weight.  Time to finish the job...

 

[Great Red Shark]

In my case, I'm gravitationally challenged...not heavy enough to have any meaningful effect on the righting moment!  So yes, I've thought of adding water ballast tanks.

But I know that would probably be crossing too far the over the line into "mod" territory...so I do draw the line at certain points!

Built-in 'water ballast'  yes,  that would be a bit far.  Nice strong racks where you might mount some containers of fresh water in various locations, however...

 Great pic,  great thread, GREAT opportunity for someone in that area to partner with one of America's best sailors.  Holy Moses but could the right guy (or girl) get an educational boating experience.  Best luck finding a good core crew that can look after things while you're away - I'm confident you'll figure it out. 

 

[RKoch]

Built-in 'water ballast'  yes,  that would be a bit far.  Nice strong racks where you might mount some containers of fresh water in various locations, however...

 Great pic,  great thread, GREAT opportunity for someone in that area to partner with one of America's best sailors.  Holy Moses but could the right guy (or girl) get an educational boating experience.  Best luck finding a good core crew that can look after things while you're away - I'm confident you'll figure it out. 

No. Just no. 10-5gal water jugs is about 400lbs...not enough to even barely affect stability on a boat that size.  But if they come loose in a knockdown they're gonna hurt someone.  The boat is not a daggerboard-era internally ballast IOR boat...stability should be perfectly fine.

 

[Haji]

The boat does have 8500lb of Pb poured into the steel keel case.  So plenty of ballast for crewed racing.

Only in extensive shorthanded sailing would the artificial crew (in the form of H2O) be greatly beneficial.  Having sailed with water ballast a lot (twice around) I'm very fond of it.  However almost certainly not the answer for Improbable.  Just a(nother) fantasy....

 

[P_Wop]

Bruce, in my opinion, this is such an iconic yacht that it would be a shame to butcher her too much.  Certainly some deck and running rigging enhancements, and it would be wonderful to see a modern rig on her.  But for the rest, less is more.

Any thoughts of a new transom-hung rudder?  Now that would be most cool.  My old mate Hugh Welbourn would be delighted to help on that, as I believe he sailed on her back in the beginning in the Solent a couple of times.

YMMV.

 

[Haji]

Bruce, in my opinion, this is such an iconic yacht that it would be a shame to butcher her too much.  Certainly some deck and running rigging enhancements, and it would be wonderful to see a modern rig on her.  But for the rest, less is more.

Any thoughts of a new transom-hung rudder?  Now that would be most cool.  My old mate Hugh Welbourn would be delighted to help on that, as I believe he sailed on her back in the beginning in the Solent a couple of times.

YMMV.

We'll, agreed, although the rudder iterations were never quite right, even the iconic transom one.  The angle of the transom and unbalanced design made the 2-driver mode necessary when powered up.

 

[Haji]

Yes, great thread, getting subscribed.

Our boat is a 45 ft Davidson designed in 74 and influenced by the Mull designs of the period.Kauri cold moulded too. I walk past Tequila every time I go to the boat and I cruised with a Whiting on another Whiting 47 last year, so quite a lot of the thread resonates with me. Thanks for the thread and love the input.

I could look back through the old sea sprays for an article if you'd like too.

Ahoy JBE,

Have a pic or two of your cold-molded Davidson?  Not many kauri boats on this side of the Pacific! 

 

[P_Wop]

Ahoy JBE,

Have a pic or two of your cold-molded Davidson?  Not many kauri boats on this side of the Pacific! 

The only other one I know of is the old Farr 53 Zamazaan on SF Bay.  Still racing, and giving a lot of people a lot of fun.

 

[sledracr]

other one

Pendragon? (the 34)

Still going strong as "Violetta" down in Newport Beach.

 

[Raz'r]

The only other one I know of is the old Farr 53 Zamazaan on SF Bay.  Still racing, and giving a lot of people a lot of fun.

Zamazaan's a woody? Who knew!

 

[Haji]

Zamazaan's a woody? Who knew!

I think I once knew that, but had forgotten.  Don't know the planking config.  FWIW, on Improbable there are two 1/4" diagonal skins on the inside (well, outside of the longitudinal stringers), and one 1/2" fore/aft skin on the outside.  If it had been me, would have put the diagonals on the outside....but it is what it is.

Speaking of Zamazaan, I do remember one of the Singlehanded Farallone races where I got first on elapsed time in the little carbon Azzura 310 sportboat, after Zamazaan got DQ'd for motoring part of the way in at night....

 

[P_Wop]

Zamazaan's a woody? Who knew!

Kauri through and through.  The wood's worth more than the boat, I'd think.

 

[JBE]

Ahoy JBE,

Have a pic or two of your cold-molded Davidson?  Not many kauri boats on this side of the Pacific! 

Hi Haji, hundreds... but in the meantime I snapped this one of Tequila for you  walking past on sunday ,as her name came up earlier as a great competitor of your boat earlier in the thread.



 after the last refit they did a proper job of the boarding platform/ scoop , and she's still in the Whiting family. I don't actually know what Tequila is made of come to think of it

 The darker boat here is Taranui III owned by Tony Whiting. She was ex Neeleen and is cold moulded to  1 1/4 in, Tony worked on her  in build when he was 18  beside other Whitings and Keith Eade. Keith Eade is  a very well known boat bulider who built all the  Mull 40 and 42's here, there's agreat link with  Mull designs and Kiwi boats in all sorts of ways. . She is different to Tequila. Tequila wasn't built to IOR and is quite firm in the quarters, but Neeleen/ Taranui was ( you see it in the transom particularly) and she became the plug for the rest of the Whiting 47's. She had a life cruising the pacific for 30 odd years  before Tony bought her a few years ago and started racking up Pacific miles himself. Tahiti next I believe , and then South America.



 Our hollowed out kauri log, Riada sailing in Fiji last year.



 Quality  cold moulded boatbuilders  names of that time who jump out at me are Atkinson, Brin Wilson and   our boats builders, Donald brothers.( amongst others) Fantastic materials and even better skills.

and a reference here to Gary Mull as part of the brief for Riada's design.



We still have lots of cold moulded boats here but they aren't valued very highly in general( apart from a few people like myself), which I believe is wrong.