Javelin 38, Bill Tripp

[Tanbark Spanker]

Yeow, that's a pretty boat!

[Tanbark Spanker]

www.javelin38.com Tripp's Seafarer 31 with the older 'dog house' coach roof is another beautiful boat.

[Figment]

I haven't communicated with the owner recently, but as of a few months ago, this (project) boat is for sale to the right owner.

[Tanbark Spanker]

A 38' boat is a lot of project.

[paladin]

I almost bought that boat.....I flew in from Spain/Morocco in the late 70's to visit Brian Acworth and to look it over...I still have some very nice watercolors by his wife, who did most, if not all of the company brochures..

[Javelin38]

The Javelin 38 is still awaiting better conditions (family, financial and so forth) to get back to the restoration. I had offered her for free to someone qualified to do the project right, and had no takers. So I'll be patient and get back to it when I can.

[Figment]

Good news!

[MiddleAgesMan]

I know Bill Tripp's Hinckley (40?) was a huge success--classic looks and a fast sailer if the stories are to be believed.

But many years ago I spent several days on one of his other 40 foot designs, an old Columbia 40. We had to motorsail out of Wassau Sound in very light conditions and I was totally shocked when she started burying her bow in the gentle swell. That boat had absolutely no reserve bouyancy in the bow.

Was this a Tripp fluke or a weakness?

[rbgarr]

Bermuda 40... fast?? I wouldn't say that's the major hallmark of Tripp's designs except perhaps one of the Ondines.

[JimConlin]

Fast is relative.
They are well-mannered.

[sv Lorelei]

Err.....The Columbia 40 wasn't a Tripp boat, it was a Morgan design as a production version of Sabre a CCA keel centerboarder from the early 60's. That boat had a very fine entry and as a cruiser is tight quartered in the bow for a 40 footer. I would expect she might tend to dig in with a lot of jib. Tripp did the Columbia 39 which was a flush deck boat with a bubble top, and the 41 which was a trunk cabin motor sailer, amongst others in the early to mid seventies.




I know Bill Tripp's Hinckley (40?) was a huge success--classic looks and a fast sailer if the stories are to be believed.

But many years ago I spent several days on one of his other 40 foot designs, an old Columbia 40. We had to motorsail out of Wassau Sound in very light conditions and I was totally shocked when she started burying her bow in the gentle swell. That boat had absolutely no reserve bouyancy in the bow.

Was this a Tripp fluke or a weakness?

[MiddleAgesMan]

Bermuda 40--yes.

The boat that dipped its nose had a trunk cabin, not flush decked with bubble. I don't recall a centerboard but it has been 25 years or so. I just recall the owner's son telling me it was a Tripp design but maybe he lied or maybe he didn't know. The name of the boat was Geechee, BTW, and it was based here at the local yacht club.

[rbgarr]

Geechee was a Columbia 40 keel centerboarder, owned by David Johnson and some others in Savannah afaik. They won the 1966 Miami-Nassau Race (see below).

http://i27.tinypic.com/fy1rms.jpg

(David's daughter is my wife's best friend.)

[MiddleAgesMan]

That's the boat alright. I believe there were either 4 or 6 owners at the time I sailed on her. I didn't know the Johnsons but knew one of the other owners and his son.

So is that a Morgan or Tripp design? Did you ever sail on her?

[rbgarr]

Morgan, as mentioned earlier. No, I only met my wife in '74.

[sv Lorelei]

The C40 was an interesting boat for it's time. As with Morgan's Paper Tiger and Sabre, They used a steel backbone with transverse steel ribs where the shrouds tied in so they could tension the rig more without flexing the hull which meant less sag on the forestay. All of the C40's were keel centerboarder's although they also used the same mold for the C38 which they adapted to a full keel version, but I don't think many were made. A lot of people never used the centerboard, though it did make a significant improvement in the boat's pointing ability when down. That said I think the boats were meant to be driven hard and go fast rather than be comfy.

The Tripp design boats he did for Columbia all had oodles of freeboard due to the flush decks on most of them and if you were burying the bow in a light sea in one of them, I'd say you were in trouble.

[paladin]

Are you sure it was a Columbia.....as I seem to remember the Columbia line had trunk cabins, and the Coronado line was the flush decked bubble cockpit boats......I sailed a Coronado in a race in San Francisco bay and tore loose a bulkhead by pushing a bit hard....

[MiddleAgesMan]

I'm fairly certain there was no centerboard trunk in Geechee but with a little prompting from the posts above I believe I now recall she did have a board that fit totally within the keel when up and did not require a trunk. Not having to look at it nor maneuver around it in the cabin made it very easy to forget.

[Uncle Duke]

Bill Tripp also designed the lovely Pearson Invicta (37'). The Invicta "Burgoo" was the first fiberglass boat to win the Bermuda Race, and was for sale some years back in Norfolk, VA (if I recall correctly) but the owner at that time had, uhmmm... "improved" the interior. Sad.

His prettiest boat, to my eye, was the Columbia 57 - the 'flush deck with bubble-turret deckhouse' worked very nicely on the larger boat - though the Columbia 50 is also mighty pretty.

[sv Lorelei]

Are you sure it was a Columbia.....as I seem to remember the Columbia line had trunk cabins, and the Coronado line was the flush decked bubble cockpit boats......I sailed a Coronado in a race in San Francisco bay and tore loose a bulkhead by pushing a bit hard....

Quite sure, Chuck. Tripp designed a bunch of bubble tops for Columbia (which at the time also owned Coronado, thus the cross-overs) Off the top of my head the C26 (Tripp version, the same hull with a trunk cabin was released as the Coronado 27) , C30 (with a trunk cabin), C34 (hull was also used for the center cockpit Coronado 35), C39, C41 center cockpit motorsailer, C43, C45 center cockpit motorsailor, C50, C52, C56 and C57 all came off his board (there was some collaboration on the C41) Unless otherwise noted above they were all flush deck bubbletops, although some of the bigger boats were sold as bare hull "kit" boats under the Sailcrafter name.

I don't know all the Coronado counterparts. The builds could vary all over the board depending on the era. I have a 1968 C28 (Bill Crealock design) and when we got her some of the tabbing on a couple of the Starboard bulkheads was letting loose.

[rbgarr]

Bill Tripp also designed the lovely Pearson Invicta (37'). The Invicta "Burgoo" was the first fiberglass boat to win the Bermuda Race....

Burgoo was also the smallest to ever win that race.

[sv Lorelei]

I'm fairly certain there was no centerboard trunk in Geechee but with a little prompting from the posts above I believe I now recall she did have a board that fit totally within the keel when up and did not require a trunk. Not having to look at it nor maneuver around it in the cabin made it very easy to forget.

There was no centerboard trunk. The board was housed in the keel and lowered via a long hydraulic cylinder attached to a cable that lived in the bilge and could be pressurized or de-pressurized from the cockpit. They work okay until the cylinder starts to rust out.

[Figment]

His prettiest boat, to my eye, was the Columbia 57 - the 'flush deck with bubble-turret deckhouse' worked very nicely on the larger boat - though the Columbia 50 is also mighty pretty.

Mercer 44, hands down. :D
http://newimages.yachtworld.com/1/7/0/1/1/1701118_1.jpg

[rbgarr]

Recent history of C 40 Geechee: http://tinyurl.com/25a8br