crowther international 23

Hi all,

Does anyone have any specs or history on the inter ?

They used to be pretty common but I can find very little online about them. Bit concerned they might be passing from history ?

Anyone owned one ? sailed them? stories or opinions ?

 

The plug for the moulds was built in WA. It was foam/glass and was sold to Ian Shardlow in Carnarvon after the moulds were taken. I remember going for a sail
with Ian around 1977??

Somehow the rights to the moulds ended up in NSW but a set remained in WA at sun yachts in Henderson. The Henderson set was used in a very altered form to make the IMP 29.

 

Imp

And the beginning of a blight on multihulls in WA, Imps, the original Condomaran ? I repaired one that had tried to sail to windward down to Perth, what a piece of junk, layed up with a chopper gun.
The guy has an ugly gin palace trimaran for sale on gum tree, I guess you could call him about the International mould. I think his name is Colin Ayres. Keep your hand on your wallet at all times though.

 

Thank you for the replies.

I found an ad on gumtree uk for one. The owners states the following specs:

Beam 12ft/8ft
draft hulls 1'6" rudders 2'6"
mast 33'
main 222 sqf
jib 97 sqf
radial head spinnaker 485 sqf
built weight 1000 lbs.

It would be interesting to know when they were built from/to and how many, along with things like the hull dimensions layups that sort of thing.

I just thought they had been a significant boat in australia for so long and there is virtually nothing I can find online. The seawind 24's by contrast have always had an enthusiastic following.

Yeah imp cats have never had a great name, but there have been a few dodgy builders around. I am not interested in molds or new hulls. There were some good bare inter hulls in hervey bay a few months back for $1200 and complete boats come up occasionally for about $4k. If you were building from scratch you'd build something more modern like an F1, or Mr Woods Eagle. I'm just interested in the history of multihulls. I think when these boats are gone some will regret not documenting them.

 

Thought there might be something at the old multi.net? site but cant remember my password & no sign in functionality when I looked. There was some great info on there until it "blew up"
Here's a link to it but I cant seem to get very far. http://www.themultihull.com/index.php/photo
The Seawinds do have a greater number & following though the current brand seems to have distanced or denied the actual brand development & history of Chris Williams.. some here if interested http://ken.harponline.de/pdf/Chapter_33.pdf though focuses on a bigger boat, some interesting reading in spots but warning some bohemian concepts.
All the best in your search, there's certainly opportunity for valid research and records of Australian production & semi production vessels. I work in a museum environment & there's definitely no effort going into this that will be/already is our history with plenty lost already with the passing of guys like Reg Gardner from Endeavour yachts & Alan Roper as a couple of examples.

Jeff.

 

Yer, thats funny. About 12 Imp 33 s' were built. Colin went to the London Boat show one year and then rushed back to Aus (Clackline to be precise , hence the name IMP- Inland Marine Plastics)) and started knocking out the 33 s'.

The IMP 29 came latter and was a rehash of the moulds he had lying around the yard. Wings of Fantasy ( Bucc 40) owner( Chris Smith? name escapes me) helped Colin arrange the pieces. Only a couple of the 29 s' were made before they got a full bridgedeck cabin and became the Imp 30. UUUURG

Colin did have some interesting moulds in the yard. The Whiting 32 1/2 tonner and the Bowman 47 to name a few.

Then along came Mr Jensen, but thats another story.

 

Yes it's a pity that resource was lost but it was always a private enterprise. It was when that forum shut down I started reading and posting here. Seems to be the next closest thing.

At least the current seawind company mention the 24 on their site, there is no mention at all of the 31.

Anyway...maybe if another inter comes up for sale in SEQ I'll go take some photos and measurements. It'd be nice to get some sailing/owning impressions from someone who has sailed one or preferably an owner.

Kinda wish I'd bought those hulls in hervey bay now... $1200 was cheap enough...