manta trimaran

Mantas were made in Australia copies/derivatives of the 70's telstar 26. I believe they were made in townsville.

One has come up for sale.

What I don't know is how wide they are folded. I wonder if they took the opportunity with the mods to narrow them from the 8'6" width of the telstar.

Does anyone know anything about them ?

I'm asking here because the telstar forum doesn't seem too active and has no mention that I can see of mantas.

Thank you for reading.

 

I suggest you call the seller and ask... I like the old telstar 26 and the huge old 36.

 

I have and he doesn't know, but he's planning to go out and measure it.

The folded beam isn't the only thing I'd like to know though. The question was general. I'd be interested in any background on the boats.

Like you I've always had a soft spot for the telstar and agonised over that slightly too wide folded beam. So many have come up for great prices over the years, mostly in the USA.

I'd heard about the manta, but never seen one for sale before.

There's a fiberglass hartley sparkle for sale at the moment too. If you modfiy the beams to be telstar like they fold below 8'. I've got a set of building plans for the sparkle and always liked the boat. Not fashionable in todays market but they did some impressive things with them many years ago...At $35 it's to dear though, even in glass. Ply ones go for max $15k.

 

Over here "Manta" was used by Jim Brown for a pre Searunner tri. Is it really that hard to get a special trailering permit in OZ?

 

http://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sailing-trimaran/manta-29-trimaran/111858

here is the boat for sale.

Permit requirments differ from state to state. I've read the regs for my state (queensland) but the information was unclear on what exactly it requires and how much it costs. The situation is complicated by my intention to move to NSW as soon as I find someone silly enough to buy my properties here in Brisbane.

Here at least the general rule is to have as little to do with the government as you can. Special permits could open up a world of pain and torment

I've only ever seen one F27 sell here, for about $38k as I recall. F24's ask $50k or so and f82's in foam probably 90ish. There have been a couple of strip F9 nd F82's for about 70 lately. Don't know condition.

Obviously telstars are much cheaper. Even at 42k that boat would be close to market value IF it folds to less than 2.5 meters. Obviously older and heavier than an F boat even so it'd have to compare to an F24 reasonably well.

Then there is this gem in the USA:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Tradewinds-28-Trimaran-/130678503917?pt=Sailboats&hash=item1e6d0bb9ed

Sigh. We NEVER get stuff like that come up.

Thank you for your responses.

 

The Manta is newer than the old Telstars and looks it. Over here though that money would buy at least 2 of the old Telstars......Governments do seem to require lots of forms and hoops.....are the regulations prohibitive on putting one of these American bargains in a container and shipping to Oz?

 

2 problems:

first is the width. The whole point of a telstar/manta is trailerability. If you ditch that there are many boats available here for good prices, like a 36' nicol tri for $38k as just one example. Telstars are too wide to trail without permits here.

Second is the trouble of importing. I don't know if a telstar would fit in a container. I don't know if that tradewinds would fit (it MAY be narrow enough to fit a trailer here, but it is demountable not folding, I have asked the seller for measurements.). Anyway once your past the cost of packing it in the US (remember I'm over here not there) and the $7k or whatever it is for a 40' shipping container, you have 10% GST and probably 5% duty, then quarantine fees. It's nothing like the $ that stopped me buying that cat in new zealand, but your also getting a lot less boat.

 

Yes, governments go to a lot of trouble to keep those dollars spent at home.....

 

The cost of importing from the US is not too bad however if your at the bargain end of the spectrum it might seem onerous. Thanks to the Free Trade Agreement it's much less costly to import from the states than it used to be. Most unforseen costs start to crop up when the boat is landed due to issues with fumigation/quarantine and also different trailer regs between the US and Australia. When I tallied up the cost of importing a boat in a 40' container (the boat was 60,000 US) our initial cost was about $11,000 AUD if there had been more delays in customs/quarantine it could add to that cost.

 

Perhaps a fumigation and customs inspection/seal before departure? The idea being to get people signing off before you ship...

 

I checked that with the Australian custom agents and they said in their experience a fumigation is likely to be requested when the container lands in quarantine even if a fumigation was done in the US before the boat leaves.

It's also very important that the boat is shipped dry if they find any water in the container or the boat look out! Toilets and sewerage tanks, water tanks etc have to be dry.

 

I did a lot of research when I looked into it. Everyone was helpful enough but they make it clear there is lots of room for it to go pear shaped.

If quarantine find any sort of infestation or whatever it gets classified as high risk and the money just goes up like a rocket.

For the fta to have an effect you have to prove the boat origionated in the US, ie USA built. That can be hard for some boats depending on what you buy. I know people who have imported corsairs got documentation but how would you for that '65 tri ? I guess you could swing it on a telstar but weren't the early ones made in the UK ?

Anyway, there needs to be a signifigant saving to make it worthwhile. Even the various $20k F24's are hard to justify.

By the way you only need an import permit if it involves a trailer. If you got say an F24 no trailer and brought it in it's just like a yacht arriving at port. If there is a trailer you need a permit to import a vehicle, and it has to be made to comply. So if you can find a boat at the right price probabaly easier to aquire the trailer here.

Thank you for the comments.

 

Actually all the Telstars 26s were built in the UK, then the factory burned down with the molds. After that the world got the Gemini....Maybe you could persuade them it is a noble act to rescue a Commonwealth craft from the colonials....

 

Chuckles, only we're colonials who are still part of the commonwealth...

The sum total of our revolt was a few hundred cranky miners in the 1800's..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_stockade

We're too relaxed to start a war...

 

Must be the beer....we had more trees to hide behind too.