Lock Crowther Biography

In the above post it gives a reference to Stu Bloomfields website.
That website no longer makes any reference to the availability of Lock Crowthers sailboat plans. Also I have not been able to raise Stu at that phone number.

 

28 plans

Thats a shame. The 28 sounds like the perfect boat for a small family weekender or coastal cruiser.

 

Are you sure about that?

http://www.bloomfieldinnovation.com/Multihull-Sailboats.html

 

Old things

Some "old things" aren't really old, just forgotten. I've got quite a few. One of the shotguns i hunt with is a winchester model "1912" 20 guage. Most folks don't know the first model 12 was the 1912 and only in 20 guage. Uncle gave it to me when I was 11 years old. I don't really hunt anymore but when I take the grandson thats what I use. Two cars over 40 years old, hell my wife is even older than me. If she reads this I'm a goner.

Anyway it sounds like Mr Crowther was one of a kind. I've already ordered the 24 plans. If anyone has the 28 or the smaller kraken plans I would like a copy of them too. If for nothing else historys sake.

One of the museums on a AFB base I was stationed at threw away hundreds of old photographs from the 40's to the 70's. I saved a few of em.

I have a picture postcard from my Great Grandfather of the Wright flyer, you could take a ride on for 5 cents, 10 if you had a postcard made with you in it. He splurged. Only worth anything to me, and its priceless.

I like old stuff. Old stuff that works is even better.

 

Sabahcat.
I presume you are referring to this line "In addition to the extensive range of plans for Crowther multihull sailboats we sell,"
As far as Brett Crowther is concerned Stu doesn't have any more of Locks plans -----and if he does have some left over he is welcome to sell them.
I can't raise Stu to ask him. Has anyone had more luck.?

 

If I see Stu at the next meeting of MYCV I'll see what plans he has to sell. He is a busy man these days with a lot of projects on the go and Stu and his wife have recently welcomed twins into the world he was looking somewhat frazzled last time I saw him, not surprisingly. Most of the club have been away at the Multihull nationals at Wangi so with that out of the way we should have a meeting fairly soon.

 

Be warned, we sent Stuart Bloomfield several thousand dollars for plans 1 1/2 years ago and got nothing but promisses " by the end of the week you'll have them". and this from the first of November, this year.

"The rudder calculations are complete; I was working on the drawing today, but have not quite completed it. If you give me until tomorrow, I think I can get it to you."



His stuff is now off our site, 1 1/2 years is enough, I don't care how busy you are, don't lie. He has a crew on hold because of this and now we have to get another designer to design our rudder, etc., for the cat he started to design.

I'll let you know if we get our money back, everyone hold your breath. He does get the Trophy though, he's the first designer who did this to us in our 36 years of building composite custom multihulls.

Everything on our site promoting him has been removed and we are warning all clients interested in new cats, don't send money to this one.

 

Helo Buckster
I just found stumbled onto this thread and your boat. I own the one at tri4sale.net. When I bought her 10 year ago I was told she was a tempist. The Austrian tiltle listed her as 33ft but she measures 37'. I can see where she was extended. I think the extension helped the lines a bit. I am glad your work greatly improved her windward performance. As you describe it , it sails now about as mine does. Not a problem to run pretty close. She only draws about 1 meter. Maybe a little more with rather short fixed keel boards on each hull. Frankly, sails better to wind than I expected. Apparently yours was a bit overloaded. Mine seem to handle the load we carry quiet well. In fact, when the breeze gets above 15 knots, I tend to reduce sail. At that wind level, the waves start to get a bit steep in the shallow part of the Adriatic I often sail in, and the boat runs upwind fairly quickly and it gets a bit rougher than I enjoy. Although I admit, I have never seen any signs of flexing. I agree - best boat I have ever sailed. Lloyd Simonson

 

The Tempest was a first generation Crowther design.
She was superseded by the much more successful Buccaneer 33.
Nevertheless, she was a good boat though.

 

Tempest 33

Thanks for the info. Interesting. I certainly like mine. We have sailed her a lot the North Adriatic and into the Croatian Islandshere we often get sudden wind and very strong wind shifts. And my firstg mate is a bit skiterish. But Wellenlaufer has never failed to do anything but reassure my lady.
I will do some looking for the Buccineer. Again thanks. Lloyd

 

Tempest 33

Lloyd,

I want to thank you for all of the pictures of your boat on the internet. My Tempest 33 was a bare hull when I bought her, and I copied your pictures. We now have a full galley, running water, awning, ect. I am very curious as to how fast you are able to sail at different points of sail. I have been sailing hard, and I have noticed the performance has been dropping off. I can now average about 7-8 knots in about 15-20 knots of wind. I feel like my sails are too streatched.

Buck

 

Searching for Photos

Does any one have a photo of Lock Crowther's 40' racing cat called "John West"

How about a photo of his 46' cruising design, "Vehia" or "Odara"

 

Note the marriage proposal on the sail

More memorabilia here http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.196205457063735.56608.196203187063962

 

Interesting (old) stuff.
I've sailed extensively on a couple of UK built Bucaneer 40's (Running Scared and Ruffian) they were both significantly slower than Manu Moana (Kraken 40) on which I crewed, with Lock and Logan, on the Sydney/Aukland delivery trip. Certainly Running Scared was an overweight build, even with a taller rig it was nothing like Manu Moana. Maybe Manu Moana was an especially quick Kraken 40? Hard to forget 20+ knots under spinnaker at night in the Tasman a speed we never even approached on the Bucaneers; the reaching blast down from North Cape to Aukland was also memorable. It was a pretty quick boat back then!
I thought the centre board design on the Bucaneer 40 was pretty naff, but it was designed as a cruiser. The original rudder left something to be desired too.
I talked later with Lock about the Kraken 40 float failure: I recall Lock saying some kind of miscalculation/build error had occurred, the hull wall thickness/stiffness was too low. I think this was rectified on later K40 builds?
Great boats, great designer.
Dave Walsh