A friend of mine just acquired this boat from an elderly hobby shop owner who has been storing it in his basement for the past 20-25 years. The hull looks a lot like a Santa Barbara to me, but the keel is different--almost like a CR-914 (only bigger--but with the ballast aft of the keel fin).

Any ideas what it is? The bird logo on the sail rang no bells for me either. The hull is fiberglass, but has no identification inside it at all...

Thanks!
Andy

I think I can name that tune in 1 note... (if anyone can remember THAT far back)

Your boat is a Half-Meter. It's a long story... but suffice to say... that a guy on the East Coast *(Maryland) took a Santa Barbara, and made a knock off plug from it... took the transom off and put on a flat deck... and there you have it. There are about 60 of them out there. It is a wonderful boat, and the late Jerry Dolis who was S/B Class Sec. for more than 20 years even allowed it to race with the S/B's which I thought was a incredibly generous thing to do.

I can say this because when I bought the molds from John Reynolds estate in 1981, the mold for the Half-Meter came along with it. John did NOT make the mold, it came from someone else... (name witheld) but when they decided to get out of it... the mold ended up with John in Orlando. I still have the mold, it was well made... and quite a bit better than some of the molds I have purchased in the last 20+ years... it makes a wonderful boat and it sails exactly like a Santa Barbara... which technically it is... minus about a 5" off the transom.

Now.. the bulb keel is something I have not seen done to the Half-Meter before... but *is* something we are doing to the Santa Barbara. It is called the "Santa Barbara Magnum" which includes taller mast, and more than double the sail area and a bolt on bulb keel. The S/B is an awesome boat that was designed for open water in the Gulf or on the coast...and when you get it on an inland pond with little wind... the boat suffers. SO... we fixed it. We gave it enough righting moment to support the spars and sails... and it becomes a light air monster. By contrast, the Half-Meter was my first platform for the genoa winch and it performs magnificently.

Everything is bolt-on... so you can switch back and forth from one boat to the other in minutes. Needless to say, the Magnum is *NOT* Class legal.... but sometimes you just want to show the other guys at the pond that you can get it done in light air too.

If you look inside the hull and come up with any markings I would be very interested to learn what you find. Scratch around and you may find something you missed before.

I have all the parts and pieces to the boat if you need any help with it, and can still manufacture it... but there really isn't much demand for it when the S/B is available from the mold sitting right next to it.

Larry

Larry,
The boat actually doesn't belong to me, but rather a friend in my local club. I have passed along the info you supplied though. The boat is in really pristine condition--literally being stored in a basement untouched for over 20 years. It has a unique traveler system for the main and jib consisting of some brass towers and 2 wooden pulley blocks for each boom. The boat has never had a radio installed, but has beautiful mahogany deck planking. I'm thinking that an Ozmun winch might work for it, and I have a used one that may just work for him.

Sounds like he'll be more than a match for my Infinity 54, though it's no slouch! Might be a fun match race some day with our club.

Andy

Yes... he will have some waterline on you... but you are most likely lighter and will accelerate faster... the classic conudrum.

It looks like a wonderful boat, I do hope that he gets it out on the water and can share some pictures of it sailing. I don't recall if you mentioned... where is the boat located? I see them popping up all the time in New England and down the East coast, which is where they were made. The Ozman winch is more than enough for it, the Futaba 5801 is another choice as well. That is what I use in mine.

That bulb keel will increase the performance dramatically.

The boat is located in Wichita Kansas. The elderly hobby store owner that he got it from was often given boats as prototypes and/or just out of kindness. Unfortunately due to his age and health problems, he doesn't remember a lot about who gave it to him. The boat was assembled by a local RC plane enthusiast who is quite the craftsman, but I believe he just assembled it for the hobby store owner, but didn't own it himself.

He intends to get it up and running. The I-54 is considerably lighter (15 lbs.), but I believe has less sail area though (1012 sq. inches for the I54, don't know how much for this boat).

Either way, it should be fun!

Andy

Typically the HM was setup with between 1100 and 1200 and from the pictures that appears to be fairly close.