1969 P0rn

[Ted Hoppe]

Look familiar?

[Ted Hoppe]

Re: 1969 P0rn

Several America cup sailors aboard including a future AC skipper. Securing the Perpetual Trophy (Now the Rolex Big Boat Series) and nearly taking SORC Crown.

[John B]

Re: 1969 P0rn

Quite big rudders on Gary Mull boats in that period. ....perhaps one of the reasons they were so successful.
He had a big influence here with his designs, as we've discussed before.

[Ted Hoppe]

Re: 1969 P0rn

Yeah - that boat of mine is/was remarkable. I was stuck and lost but that photo made me feel I should return to her restoration. No doubt she sails like the witch that Gary Mull designed her to be.

[Gerarddm]

Re: 1969 P0rn

Sad that the SORC is dead as a dodo. All those famous IOR boats from that period, where are they now?

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

Re: 1969 P0rn

Sad that the SORC is dead as a dodo. All those famous IOR boats from that period, where are they now?

I think the later IOR boats gave them all a bad name, designed around rules more than seaworthiness.

[purri]

Re: 1969 P0rn

C J Marchaj has some words on the subject

[webishop14]

Re: 1969 P0rn

C J Marchaj has some words on the 0subject

Boy and how!

[SchoonerRat]

Re: 1969 P0rn

My experience with Mull boats was not nearly so pleasant!

It was, however, a number of years later, when the rule beater NAs were designing big beam, pinched in ends, with lots of tumblehome. I worked at Jensen Marine at the time and our Ranger line had a Mull boat or two. As service manager, it was part of my job to spend some time sailing on and familiarizing myself with our boats. It was tough, but it was part of my job.

IIRC, the Ranger 29 pre-dated the Ranger 28 by a few years, and was a pretty decent boat.

I was having lunch with the sales managers for Ranger, Cal, and Oday one afternoon. Ranger's guy was complaining about having to move the first Ranger 28 off the line, from its slip in Newport Beach to our dealer in Marina del Rey. Pull the rig, haul the boat, pack it up, put it on a truck, drive it the 50 some odd miles to MDR, take it off the truck, un-pack it, launch her, re-rig and re-step the mast.

The Cal Boats guy piped up,"Its a sailboat for criminey sakes, sail it."

"You gonna help me?"

"Not me."

"How about you?" looking at the Oday guy.

"Well I have uh... and my wife, she's... and oooh, my kids..."

He looked at me with a face that knew my answer would be no. He was almost disappointed when it wasn't. I was always ready to go sailing at the drop of a hat; and this was the hot new, first off the line, that had only been in the water for a couple of weeks, from one of the hottest NAs around racing machine with a cruising interior.

"You supply the beer and the sammitches, buy me a lobster dinner in MDR, and get me back to my car and you've got a delivery crew."

We got an early start. There's never any wind in Newport, we're gonna be in Huntington Beach before there's any hope of wind. We should be off Long Beach noon o'clock or a bit later. That's when we'll be able to kill the mill and get some rags up. We motored well offshore so we could crack off onto a nice reach around Point Vicente and into Santa Monica bay. The Ranger guy had been driving all morning. The occasional white horse began to show itself. I was just about ready to suggest sailing when he suggested that I take the helm so he can break out lunch and then hoist the sails.

I love sailing. I hate motoring. He's done all the work for the last 4 hours. Now it's time to sail and he wants me to take over. How much better can life be? Let me give you a hint. The boat had no reef points, a single headsail - 150%, and being the first boat off the production line, she was the tall rig version.

I'm sure things would have been better if we didn't have gale force winds in excess of 14kts.. I fought that biatch for about 20 miles. And she fought back! In the end, I won, but she certainly got her licks in.

To be fair, I sailed a lot of IOR boats back then. Even the best of them were godawful --- including a Swan 41 designed by German Frers. It might have been the worst of the bunch. At least she did the best job of taking what should have been dream sailing conditions and turning them into a hard fought ordeal.