Mister JollyRodger...It's kewl you mention Geoff Perry...he was my Dad's (Geoff Dobbs) partner running SailCraft of Canada in Montreal back during the '70s. Lots of childhood memories of Mr. Perry & his family.
Things to watch out for on older T's...
1. The centerboard trunks tend to develop cracks at the upper ends on the slots at the deck. These are due to the high shear forces in that area of the deck.
2. Soft hulls & decks. Early '70's boats commonly used balsa wood cores in the decks/hulls...so water intrusion would turn them to mush pretty quick. Can be remedied if caught early and resin injected...but on a +35 year old hull, it's likely past worth saving.
3. Check beams for dimpling where the bolts pass through. This typcally happens on boats where the bolts were over-torqued.
4. Check beams for stress cracks & signs of fatigue & corrosion. Esp. around mast step, dolphin striker strap & post and near the inside gunwales.
5. Tramp tracks are regular leak points. Typically these are just rivetted into the outer skin of the deck and over time they round out the holes and leak.
As others have said, if you find a good example, not too early in the development cycle, you'll have a great fast boat with or without a spinny retrofit.
Please join us over on the yahoo TornadoCat discussion group if you need more specifics...
Mike (Dobbs)
Tornado CAN 99
go for it. once you get involved your own data will start to kick in.
my family was deep into tornados in the 70's. i sailed in many a race that Geoff Perry, the Sailcraft of canada guy, competed in. i even sailed in a club race as crew in England with Rodney March designer of the the tornado and the dart. we ended up forgetting the bungs as he called them. i suspect the dart has no bungs as a result of this and other similar incidents.
the tornadoes were first plywood(60's) then plywood or glass/polyester(70's), then glass/vinylester or cedar/epoxy(80's), then honeycomb/epoxy prepreg or wood.(80's-presentday) the boats have always been strong. the stiffness of the overall platform has gotten better over the years. sun weakens polyester and other resins, so an old boat that has been in the sun the whole time would be somewhat weaker than when it was new.
the fellow with the spi on an old panthercraft is pushing the envelope, but if that works, then any tornado made should handle a spi at least in moderate wind.
