Wanted Triple Crown or Similar

[Colin Davies]

Hi everyone just joined this forum,i am a newbi to the IOM so i would appreciate some guidence in choosing a first IOM,been told a Triple Crown would be a good fit.

Colin

[Hiljoball]

Hi Colin,

Welcome tot he forum and to the IOM class.

You don't say were you plan to sail, or your experience as a builder. Do you want to build from scratch, buy a hull and deck to finish, or buy a used boat.

If you want to build from scratch, there are a number of free plans available on the Internet. The Triple Crown is quite straight forward to build. It is a Chris Dicks design and shares some heritage to the Widget that went on to win the Worlds about 6 years ago.

Since then the class has further evolved into narrower boats with chines. So if you want to build from scratch, then a modern example is the Goth from Frank Russell. It is a bit harder to build that the Triple Crown, especially if you want to use the first hull as a plug to pull off a fiberglass copy, but is quite do-able.

http://frankrusselldesign.com/Plans.htm

There are some excellent build threads on this forum

http://www.rcsailing.net/forum1/forum.php

and lively IOM discussion and for home builders on

http://www.rcgroups.com/sailboats-59/

John

[Colin Davies]

Hi John. Thanks for your reply,i am looking for a ready built one as i suffer with arthritis in my hands and to be frank i dont really enjoy building, i intend to sail a local lake to me and its a registered club with MYA here in the UK,at the moment i am using a seawind model to get started, i also fly model planes at another club in the County,so i would like some advise from sailors who have experience for the IOMs
I have had a chat at the lake with members of the club but they all seem to have different opinions,most suggest triple crown,wedgit and the gadget,so i thought join this forum and gather as much advise as possible.


Colin

[Julian Mascarell]

mp send

[Colin Davies]

Found a Triple Crown and a member stated that he did not think it was a suitable beginner boat,as he stated that unless you get the rig tuned spot on you will come across problems,i must say it is a minefield for a beginner with which to buy and what not to buy,i do find there is a multitude of opinions at the club,and dont want to lay a lot of cash out for my first boat but would go to £500 max for something half decent.

PS I would like to say thank to all for your warm welcome to the forum.

Colin

[David L Alston]

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[David L Alston]

Colin,

It sounds like you are getting the usual clatter trap from the non-contesting pond experts… and boy have I heard it over the years.

There is nothing wrong with most boats and most if not all will be competitive at club level. For the first year or two of sailing you will be the weak link in the chain and will not be competitive.

BUT and this is really where the BUT is…. Most triple crowns were built at home by builders less than skilled in the art in building straight boats or even symmetrical boats.

This goes equally for quite a number of kit boats too… Lintel , Spirit to name but two. These can be and often are fantastic boats and can be competitive however some of the home assembly attempts are very poor and lack the attention to detail required. The difference between an easy boat to sail boat and a dog is attention to detail. I see a lot of boats being a Measurer and lots of dogs covered in strings springs and hooks.

So whatever it is you buy… look at it very carefully as ask yourself:-

• who built it.. is it symmetrical and straight, does the fin fit properly – don’t think you will fix it – the current owned did not.
• does the rig look right
• are the sails crumpled
• Does it have a winch – or is it an old whirlwind that never did actually whirl or an Eurgle you will defiantly replace in 6 mouths.

It is very easy to buy a boat … dam hard to sell an old boat and very expensive to fit new sails these days with a no. 1 suit running at £70. So what may seem a bargain might not be.

And remember old wooden and home built kit glass boats have NO value except to the owner. The value to you is in its completeness and take a $%£%$ scale with you and weigh it.

I do not want to put you off BUT I do recall a first boat that one of our club member bought a year or two ago – well it turned out that it was not even an IOM …it was a cleverly disguised piece of firewood and we never saw him again. Most Triple Crowns are now very old – mostly 10 years plus. Any new ones were built by puritan with nothing better to do.

The week point of these old boats is the hull to deck bond which usually is a piece of balsa or soft wood which by now is rotten. And you cannot replace it…easily.

So Buyer beware - particularly in the UK.

[johnarundell]

Hi everyone just joined this forum,i am a newbi to the IOM so i would appreciate some guidence in choosing a first IOM,been told a Triple Crown would be a good fit.

Colin

Hello Colin,
I have a Triple Crown built in 2006 which needs a new home. I sailed her to 5th place in the 2007 National Championships. If still looking call me on 0127631280 and we can discuss in more detail.
Cheers, John Arundell