Lock Crowther

Go Torpid Turtle

Hello Parry

Torpid Turtle has a very strong place in my memory. She sat on the beach at Heron Island in 1985 when I was a wide eyed 18 year old. She had her bottom ripped out after an encounter with a reef. I was staying at the research station at Heron and tried to find out her owners. I was going to give up uni and strip plank her bottom and sail away. Many an hour was spent crawled inside and in the cockpit dreaming ( I used to do a lot of that - there was an old Nicol, a nice Searunner 31 that has since died and Verbatim as well)

It is great to hear she is still going strong. We have a few Krakens down here that are fast boats and look awfully sexy.

As an aside John Hitch helped Lock Crowther design the Kraken 33. Hitch owned Bandersnatch, the tri on which Crowthers brother died (along with 3 others) which was lost after coming back from the 1966 multihull Hobart race. They worked on the Kraken 33 which Hitch built and called Manta 2. She was a rocket ship and did over 10 knot average in the 1971 Gladstone Race. No spectra, kevlar or GPS. Manta was a definite evolution of Bandersnatch - bigger and beefier. The hulls look fine now but compared to Bandersnatch they are pretty full. Bandersnatch was like an ice boat.

The gull wing beams are pretty rare. We have one down here with the gull wings - most are the straight box section.

Long live our great tris. We haven't a long history in multihulls but it is a rich and diverse one.

cheers

Phil Thompson

 

Twiggy plans snapped up

Does anyone have study plans for Twiggy? Plans for twiggy sold immediately late last year.