Building a Thistle

I'm strongly considering building a Thistle this would be the first boat I've built. I'm also studying to become a yacht design and will be starting the Westlawn program in the spring. So I was hoping that someone in this form has either built one before or knows anyone that has that would be able to give me some pointers. Please let me know. Thanks.

 

A Thistle is of a very sophisticated construction. It is a job for a professional with a well equiped shop. Also, the class restrictions are quite strict, so even if it looks like one it won't be. What made you choose a Thistle?

 

Unless something's changed in the last few years, new wooden Thistles are pretty much forbidden by class rules. The concern is that new wooden boats might be faster, or perceived as faster -- so anyone competing at high levels would feel the need to buy one, driving up the costs of racing. Plus it would devalue the current, mostly fiberglass fleet. New fiberglass boats have to be built from class-licensed molds. I don't know if any are being built currently.

The beauty of the Thistle class is that it offers very low cost racing. Competitive boats are relatively cheap, plus there are restrictions on new sails, hardware, etc. Most Thistlers want to keep it that way.

I certainly understand the appeal of building a new Thistle though. Everyone who has sailed them has probably dreamed of how beautiful a new wooden boat would be. But in the end we all agree it's probably better to leave the fleet as it is, to preserve Thistle racing as we know it.

 

Wooden Thistles

The above post gave me a bit of a smile, I must admit.

I grew up at a yacht club that had large and active fleets of both Thistles and Lightnings. (110's and 210's as well)

I well remember the difficulties encountered with the class associations when each of these was introduced in GRP.

Class rules had to be changed, and as with any change, these changes met with resistance.

You see, the Class Associations feared that the GRP boats "might be faster, or perceived as faster."

Eventually, of course, fiberglass boats were allowed. (And the apocalypse failed to materialize.)

Where have I heard these words before?



Robert

 

Yes building a Thistle out of wood is one of my thoughts , I currently own a fiberglass Thistle but also bought a wooden one that had rotted away and all that was left were the mast,sails,hardware,etc. Now I'm considering using the lines of the fiberglass boat to build the wooden one. The plumb bow has a interesting appeal and would make a great wood project. Of course it is understood that it would not be a class racing boat because of the problems with getting it registered by the Thistle Racing Assoc. But as a woodworker that enjoys building boats and using lots of beautiful woods it would be great as a private use craft.

 

Build any boat you truly desire. There are not enough people like you who boat today. If you have the money, do it. My best wishes to you.

 

Yes, a boat manufacturing shop in Portland , Oregon has the name NW One Design and they are a qualified Thistle builder, I believe they have a web site.