BYYB Forums

First post on the forum here and I have an idea I want to run buy you guys and get some input.

Ya I know its a krazy idea and I shouldn't fix what aint broke and all that but its just the way I am.  I know it would be cheaper to just buy a boat and sail it and that I will never ever as long as the sun revolves around the earth get my money back out of it, etc, etc.  Being practical has never made me tick. 

I am not a total nube to boat building but I am not expert either.  I have built two canoes and a whitehall sprit rigged sailboat.

Ok now that we have all that out of the way, lets see if we can make this work. ;D

I am wanting a fixed ballasted keel day sailer with a fairly fast hull, shallow draft, SOFT CHINE, boat with lots of wood topside and a traditional rig (either lug or gaff, preferably a gaff rig)

I am thinking about taking one of these
[attachment=1]

And turning it into this
[attachment=2]
I found this boat in a classified that stated it was a modified Cape Dory Typhoon.

My idea is to find a Cape Dory or Victoria 18 that have solid hulls and need work topside.  Totally strip her down to a bare hull and build her back up using Cypress and other woods I can obtain locally.  I am leaning toward the Vitoria due to the fact that they tend to run much less than a Cape Dory in comparable condition and it is easier for me to find a Victoria within a reasonable driving distance.  All the Cape Dory Typhoons seem to be either in TX or on the east coast.

Here are links to specs for both boats
http://www.capedory.org/specs/typhoon.htm

http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=28

Lets start with this.

How would you guys go about designing a rig for this project? 
How much sail area on the main and on the jib?
How tall of a mast?
Where would you place the mast and how much rake?
What can be done in the rig design to help avoid it having too much weather helm?

I probably should add that I realize that I may loose a few degrees sailing into the wind going from the Marconi to the gaff.  Thats OK with me.  My purpose is not to have a race boat but to have a comfortable Large cockpit boat to cruise around the lake on a summer day.  Whatever I loose into the wind I should make up on other points of sail with the larger sail area set lower. 

Ray

Greetings Ray,

I looked at a Typhoon once, but decided the water in the local sailing pond was too thin in places for the full keel, and that launching the boat from a trailer on a ramp would be dicey.

The Typhoon had a backstay, which will not clear a gaff. So you are going to have to either add another set of stays behind the existing stays or move the existing stays astern to balance the forestay. The mast location on a gaff is generally forward of a marconi rig, and moving a deck stepped mast with an underlying compression post is not an easy thing to do. You now need the services of a professional marine architect, and they will right start asking questions like ... "Why can't we just design and build the boat you want from scratch?" ... and they will be right.

Somebody was going to build a new production boat based on the daysailer version of the Typhoon with a centerboard and a gaff rig. Did this ever happen?

Cheers,
Tom

Thanks for the reply Tom

I'm actually thinking of tearing it down to a bare hull, getting rid of the (to small to be practical) cabin and make it an open boat with a sole stepped wooden mast.

Ray

Here is a model of a buzzards Bay sloop.  The hull is very similar to the Cape dory Typhoon.  This is what I would like to take an old Typhoon hull and make it into.
[attachment=1] 

Greetings Ray,

I did a little searching and found that according to the Cape Dory Owners Association, after Cape Dory ceased operations, Merv Harmmatt at Compass Classic Yachts Inc acquired the molds and was planning to build Typhoons with Gaff Rigs and called the boat the Hurricane. But now it looks like Pleasant Bay is building the Hurricane.


http://www.pleasantbayboatandspar.com/hu...-sloop.php

Cheers,
Tom

Exactly Tom,

The second picture in my first post is actually of a Compass Hurricane.

When I first saw the "Hurricane" and Compared it to the "Typhoon" I clued in to the fact that they were basically the same boat.  I am confident that can do anything to the topsides to rebuild and redesign that part.  However,  I don't know enough to redesign the sail rig to make the gaff rig balance with the Typhoon hull.

Do you have any suggestions as to where I should look for help?     

Ray

Greetings Ray,

Like I said, you will need professional help. I would suggest sending our local yacht designer / builder / restorer Paul Riccelli an eMail to discus terms. It will require some detailed design work to do it right. His membership ID is ... http://byyb.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=36

Cheers,
Tom

Small world

Paul and I have already sent a few emails back and forth
I probably will pay Paul for some good help if I can get my hands on one of these next summer.

Ray