Terrorist restored

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by Tad, Sep 5, 2012.

  1. Tad
    Joined: Mar 2002
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    Tad Boat Designer

    Just heard that Terrorist (aluminum one-ton 1973) is being restored in Texas and will sport a new GMT carbon spar......amazing

    I believe the picture below was taken a year or two ago in the PNW.....

    terrorist.jpg

    terr5.JPG
     
  2. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    If you get any updates please post them. We had a good discussion about the boat and the state it was in over in the Quarter Ton Magic Bus thread.

    The pictures posted then showed the bilgeboard cases had been removed. Is the rebuild replacing them, or is the boat going to be a keelboat now?
     
  3. Tad
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    Tad Boat Designer

    Couldn't say Paul......the info I have says "frame up restoration".........wait and see I guess.....
     
  4. sean9c
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    sean9c Senior Member

    You wonder why anyone would bother? It might have been competitive at a moment in time but other than that just mild curiosity. What do you do with it when you're done? Though interesting to see any project so have fun.
     
  5. daiquiri
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    daiquiri Engineering and Design

  6. Tad
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    Tad Boat Designer

    People love to gossip.......

    Are you also "for the sake of general information" going to link to the hundreds of happy GMT customers?

    I have no interest in re-arguing this old story, I will say that of the half-dozen projects I did with GMT, all turned out well (considering some of it was bleeding edge technology) and they delivered what they promised.
     
  7. Tad
    Joined: Mar 2002
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    Tad Boat Designer

    People are nuts......

    I doubt the owner is restoring her because he thinks she'll be competitive. She is an historic artifact.


    Go sailing?
     
  8. daiquiri
    Joined: May 2004
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    Location: Italy (Garda Lake) and Croatia (Istria)

    daiquiri Engineering and Design

    You are correct Tad. Someone who reads my previous post might think that I have an agenda here, but I don't. I didn't even know who GMT Composites are up until now. For sure they have many happy customers or otherwise they'd be out of business by now, while (as I am learning now) they are well alive and kicking.
    That bad story has come nearly on top of the Google search page about GMT masts, so for anyone not introduced to the level of their craftsmanship, that story looks big like a house.
    Cheers
     
  9. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    I guess someone had a good memory of the boat and wanted it, sort of like the people who do vintage cars and the like.

    It would be a pretty expensive hobby to restore that boat in a "frame up" rebuild. It would be less expensive to get the original plans and build anew. But then you wouldn't have the original.

    The bigger question is, "Why didn't you inquire about Wide Load when you saw it sitting in a field?" You could probably have rebuilt that for the price of 1.5 Melges 24s!
     
  10. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    I have never dealt with GMT, nor seen any of their work up close. But I did take a look at the comments by the owner. Some of his complaints show he has no idea about sparbuilding.

    While some other comments seem to indicate there was poor workmanship present, I'm not ready to accept his comments at face value due to the inaccuracies I see in some of his complaints.

    I believe if there was a real case to be made he would have been in court. No One walks away from that amount of money. I think everyone I know who has worked in the industry can give accounts of customers like this one.

    I have heard he was trying to sell that mast sometime after all this occurred. If the thing was so bad, why would he be dropping it on the head of the next guy?
     
  11. sean9c
    Joined: Jan 2011
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    sean9c Senior Member




    Well, by that time it was too rotten to save but even if it hadn't been I wouldn't have seen the point. It's pretty easy to form opinions on a boat by reading a few articles or seeing it on the water it's another thing to have dreamed it, built it, sailed it. You see things differently
     
  12. tullospaul
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    tullospaul Junior Member

    i rebuilt terrorist for the same reason i would rebuild a 56 chevy nomads or a 84 ferrari testarossa. i build choppers that aren't the fastest bike around but i still enjoy riding them.

    some of you astound me.
     
  13. Gary Baigent
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    Gary Baigent Senior Member

    The rebuild is perfectly understandable and congratulations to the new owner; Terrorist is a famous boat ahead of its time and appreciated by those who admire outside the square yachting developments; Terrorist was the first with twin lifting asymmetrical dagger boards ... and frightened conventional thought of the day.
     

  14. Submarine Tom

    Submarine Tom Previous Member

    Accept for today, 9/11!
     
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