Fast unique assembly method !

[rwatson]

oh good - the inventor to talk to. Always good to hear from a seller who is prepared to talk about their inventions.

Re the I550 - I was wondering why there is such a deep keel protruding into the hull, taking up room ?
Did you get it designed by a professional - or did you base it on experience ?

[timber]

I am not the designer. That would be Chris Beckwith. He's got the education.

The i550 started as a micro ton design and has morphed into a sportboat during correspondence between Chris and a young Australian a few years ago. I stumbled on to it in the early days of Sailing Anarchy. A bit more correspondence and I own the design going on four years now. 400 hundred sets of plans, a couple dozen completed kits and lots of full size template boats are sailing or near sailing in the next six months.

The keel is a retractable arrangement for trailering purposes so you can take the boat home or down the road easily. It can accommodate "camping" style weekends but it is just 18 feet (5.5 meters). Most use is as a daysailer.

Now the guys who are building these are a creative lot: They have not changed anything of the hull/keel/rig geometry but there are variations of the deck layouts. So the i550 has matured (evolved?) into six plan supported deck configurations. Which are in the final stages of review right now so we get everything right. We'll take a deep breath soon and make the announcement.

we are hoping that the i550 becomes an "evergreen" design along the lines of the Snipe, Lightning, and maybe the Star. Simple, Cheap to build (hull $3,000) fast as a stepped on cat and plenty of fun. We have found that the sails cost more than the hulls.

More later.

[timber]

I think you are in the neighborhood of some i550 builds in Tassie. we've a map of the world at i550sportboat.com
T

[rwatson]

Originally Posted by timber

I think you are in the neighborhood of some i550 builds in Tassie. we've a map of the world at i550sportboat.com
T

Cant see any builders or boats in Tassie. Melbourne has one, but we are an island quite a bit south of there.

I must say, your plans and pattern prices are very reasonable.

Can you supply CNC cutting files for a price as well ?

[timber]

We do not sell the DXF CNC files individually any longer. To ensure a good result we have made commitments with a shop in Australlia. You can contact them about availability of cut kits. Trailawayboats.com.

T

[timber]

If you go to the map of plans at i550.org and double clickie to zoom in on Tasmania you'll see 8 plan sets there. Two are in build as far as we know, every once in a while some one will send a note saying "Hey I love this thing we've been sailing the heck out of it this season.
Tassie Numbers: 044, 083, 327, 336, 356, 367, 374, 379, another one soon?
T