1960 Carpenter "Sprint" 24

[seapotato]

Anyone ever seen another one of these in person?

I picked one up this summer, needs lots of work, I'm going to drop the keel off it tomorrow, so I can roll it on it's side and start cutting out the rot in the hull.

It's cold molded, with cedar strips under double diagonal mahogany, and it's had fresh water sitting in it, so all along the centre line needs to be cut out.

I used to work at a yard, where we pretty much specialized in wooden boats, so the work itself doesn't bother me, I'm actually looking forward to it.

Guy I bought it from said he'd seen another one on the great lakes, but there aren't many around near as I can tell.

I paid almost nothing for it, came with a Martin 242 rig and a pile of good sails. Plan is to make it a cheap club racer for next year, looks like it should go pretty well, quite light at about 2400lbs rigged and sailing, not bad for a 1960 design...

Vic Carpenter was the designer, haven't managed to find any pics or info of them online, other than some hearsay from the previous owner that it's a scaled up sopranino to some degree.

I'm tempted to change it to a drop keel with a bulb while I'm at it so I can trailer it easier, but we'll see how I feel when I get to that point.

Truth is I initially bought it just for the rig and sails, as I'd planned to build an i550, and figgered the martin mast would work ok when cut down, but I've kindof taken a liking to the old girl and want to fix her up.

cheers,
ryan

[Tad]

hello Ryan,

Neat boat.....there's an article on the Carpenter's, Vic and Hazel, in WoodenBoat #45, with further info in #46 and #50. Their company was called Superior Boats, the shop was a Quonset barn (where they lived with their boats) in Port McNicoll, Ontario. The 45' Golden Goose built for Gorden Lightfoot is one of their more famous design/builds.

Below is one of their later builds that currently sails out of Nanaimo...

[seapotato]

Cool thanks for the info.

I saw that boat out of the water at stones marina over the summer, thought it looked like a carpenter...

I'd looked him up on the interweb, but haven't seen much about his designs. I found a brief word about Steve Van Dam ( Van Dam Woodcraft) building a 24 footer in the 70's but not much info there either.

At any rate, it is a neat old boat, I got the keel off yesterday, so next step is to get it into the shop and on it's side, and see how much fun I'm in for...

I suspect it would have been MUCH easier to just build the i550...

[Sprint]

Hi Ryan

I have been trying to contact you re your boat. We have considerable backgorund and info that might help restoration. Let me know if interested.

We had the original which is still around

Cheers

kirk

[seapotato]

Hi Kirk,

Shoot me an email, seapotato AT shaw.ca


I'd love to see pics and any info you have !

cheers,
ryan