Old Quarter Tonners -Magic Bus

Gary Baigent - Light Brigade Book

Congratulations Gary. Your book is a fascinating read, especially to people like me trying to learn about our IOR boats' history. A wealth of information that surpasses all the other web information about the Tonners that I have found.

We are renovating a Holland 25 that is not the top competitive yacht types you are concentrating upon, but you explain the pedigree that created production boats like it.

Thank you so much for publishing your book.

Colin
Williamstown Vic, Australia

 

Hi Mychel!
Nice pics of your maroon Cole 26, the bumps makes you nostalgic. Those IOR-pockets/shelfs were ideal to put the ballast lead to windward. The rule-changes in about -80 put a stop to it. The Germans had mastered the art to perfection, but now the lead had to be glassfibered in a booring position.
Maybe this was the beginning of the end for IOR.
Regards,
Booster

 

High booster, not sure of your meaning by
"bumps", do you mean the "tumblehome" in the hull (the wide ballooning profile).

My boat is a 1984, has bolt on lead keel.

Mychael

 

My god, do you mean people were shifting lead to windward in the level-rating events?

I hope you're not serious. I knew about I-Punkt and a few other incidents (Guia, Italian and French quarters and halves, Williwaw and Acadia in the US and Witchdoctor down here) but I assumed they were isolated.

How could anyone ever look at a trophy they won by cheating and not feel that they were, as a person, rotten almost to the core?

 

Thumblehome

Mycheal and C249! No shadow shall fall on you, Mycheal. The thumblehome is nice in some angels. Yes, it was isolated. but, nevertheless, intriguing. Tina-I-Punkt revealed the problem when your crew starts to sail other boats: They start to talk. But don't you agree with me that those bumps is calling to a deeper source in your soul.
Regards,
Booster

 

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Well I certainly think it makes the boat more attractive but then I'd be biased. From a practical point of view it gives me good sized locker space on either side.

Mychael

 

Wow. It looks like someone has put a lot of effort into the upkeep of that old warhorse.

It may have been built around 1984, but I would guess it is out of some older production molds, with a design date more like 1973? After about that time the tumblehome hull shape pretty much changed to a flat area from IOR B up to the shearline.

Of course there were exceptions, like some Mull boats, but for the most part I think IOR tumblehome died around 1974.

 

I would like to hear more details about the movement of ballast (cheating). How was it accomplished during a tack? Having a couple of boys off the rail down below shifting lead ingots would not be any faster than having them sit on the rail, I think.

The IOR measurer should have been noting how the internal ballast was fixed on the second page of the certificate. Ballast should always have been secured.

 

The boat was a bit unloved when I bought her, although the basis of a sound boat was still there. I removed the foil headsail and reverted to hank on headsails. Overhauled all the winches, replaced one, new fuel tank, top overhaul on the engine. Repaint, re-seated the toerails, repaired some cracked stanchions and pullpit. Re-done some of the wiring and improved the ventilation. A rigging replacement is still overdue. The windows still leak.

The original owner (deceased) purchased an unfinished hull and fitted it out himself, I spoke with the guy that did the rigging, he was the one that told me he did the work in 1984, the yr the boat was launched.
The original owner was a keen racer and competed every weekend as well as taking the boat coastal cruising.
It originally had a single cylinder Yanmar 8hp which was later replaced with a 2 cyl 15hp Yanmar.

The mainsail is very tired, the headsails not too bad and there is a 130% laminated Genoa amongst them.

In an early survey report I found reference to the hull being "Stripped" so not sure if it was glass stripped for osmosis or the paint completely stripped off.

As near as I can ascertain the boat has had about 6 previous owners to myself. I've not been able to locate any of them.

I've only sailed a few other boats but based on my limited experiences I would say this one sails nicely. If you overpower her she will round up before dipping the rail, will heave to nicely. In fact the only time I've got her seriously out of sorts was when I tried to heave to in higher wind against tide, then I got water lapping over the rails.

Main complaints is huge prop walk going astern and the way the rudder performs, it's not balanced so although you can have it light it always needs a finger on it for as soon as it deflects it will keep going and slam.

Mychael

 

maori rugby

Mycheal, nice warhorse you have. Paul B, see Ct249 post above regarding documented ballast movement. How it was done? Well, here one only can speculate. Probably the Germans hired a Maori Rugby-team that made bad faces. Neither he owner, nor the measurer dared to enter the cabin. No one had a clue of what was going on, so called externalizing. Needless to say the Maoris "wispered2 to their fellow Kiwis, and the rest is history.
Regards,
Booster

 

Really, if you know any specifics I would like to hear them.

The issues CT mentions that I am aware of were during the rating of the boat. That was usually one person doing the dirty tricks, with the rest of the crew actually sailing the boat not knowing anything about it.

In your example, with ballast being moved during races, well that makes a lot more people culpable.

 

Mea Culpa

Paul B!
Nice latin there Paul. The case of Tina-I-Punkt the owner was banned for one year. This is the only case that I can recall that involved more than one person at the lead-bars. More latin: Mea Culpa, the name of the SORC-boat that followed its low-rating predecessor. The latter boats lead maybe was in the correct position, but other not. But this is boring stuff. What about some more latin:

SI TU VALENS ET EGO VALEO

Regards,
Booster

 

My own quarter tonner which I designed and built, raced in Malmo Sweden. Her name was Maldoror.
I did 5 differents models which we tested in a small tank at the University of Lausanne. We tried to have some scale compensation, and it worked finally pretty well. We had some success and some failures.
In Malmo what a bunch of good boat and good crews coming from all over the world. I was very influenced by the Ron Holland design which I saw in Waymouth at the time. all that was long time ago, I raced between 72 and 74.
I like the IOR rules, I think it was a very good rule. Perhaps some took to much advantage, but the quarter ton allowed top experimente and race with little money. I had a old beaten RangeRover and a rusted trailer, it was enough to trail the boat which was beamier than the legal limit. Never had a problem. Her weight was 1500 kg if I recall correctly.
I cruised after that at lenght in the Mediterrean and it was also a good cruising boat. Never had a engine, inboard or out.
I miss this rule.

 

Malmö -74

dskira!
Yes, the quarter-ton cup in Malmö -74 must have been interesting. I was just 14 years old, so I missed the cup. In -79 I attended it, though. In Malmö Norlin was winning with the Accent, Magnusson in the green boat Kakadu 2:nd. You must have seen the 4 m wide, 8 m long Psyco. I have sailed many races in Malmö in other classes. The current is strong in Öresund (strait between Sweden and Denmark) and local knowledge is worth a lot. The Accent (not skippered by Norlin this time) attended the Corpus Chrisi World’s in -76?. Whitings Magic Bus was winning and the Accent about 15:th. As you said in -74 it was light wind that suited the Accent, in Corpus Chrisi it was more varying conditions. And the "Light weight brigade” had entered the arena (thanks for the book Gary B). I agree with you Dskira, I am missing the IOR as well.
Regards,
Booster

 

I was also in Malmö in -74 as a spectator and did some boatbuilding jobs at some of the boats. I was also a part of the building/sailing team for the Elvström/Kjerulff halftonner Krackemut and raced the similar Elvström/Kjerulff 1/4 tonner aswell in the following years. Quick boats in the light stuff but not so in windy conditions.
Like many of you I also miss the heydays of the IOR, especially the 1/4 ton class.
There is a class offering the same possibility for low budget experimenting, the 2,4mR class, that I have been a part of since the end of the eighties. Take a look at www.24mr.se. There is still plenty of room for experimentation at a resonable cost and no crewproblems.

Regards,

MYD