Wanted old (& young) QB2 sailors. We are proposing to have a re-union in December 2010. We would like to get together with as many QB2, QB3 sailors as can manage to get to McCrae in Victoria. If anyone still has a QB2 to show off that would be great. Please respond with interest to [email protected].
St

Hi Storm

Are there any young QB2 sailors?

I doubt if many ex QB2 sailors come here. There are a few lurking on catsailor.net.

Hope all is well


Phil E.

Right, I'll bite. W.T.F. is a QB2? Some kind of Australian cat?

From here -

The Q stands for Quest, the B is B-Class, but the 2 I have no idea!

catsailor.net is broken, when you make anew post its blank. the owner does not seem interested in fixing it.

Never owned one, but got a ride as a student on one at Elwood Beach, Melbourne. Went down there with no wetsuit but had a great ride on a smooth boat. Mark's photo is missing the usual jib. Lindsay Cunningham design I think. Flattish ply sides with moulded glass curve for undersides. About the same speed as the Stingray. Bit of rivalry in the day.

QB2 fitted the B2 class.. This was probably started by Neil Fowler in Darin with his Black Witch class. The class rules were 18x8x225

QB2 was a modified A hull. Cunningham had an old Proctor built Cunningham A class platform. After work Cunningham and Proctor took the deck off the A tweeked the bows and put on new beams. Bruce Proctor still around with lots of info.. He says his recollection B2 because it was like a B class but you couldn't call the class B2/3!!
Brian Cronin from Supreme Sails sailmaker. Bruce was the main builder and has all the numbers and names in his files.


The first boat was sailed by Bruce Proctor/Barry Marmion? at the one of a kind regatta Frankston. Dry land tuned and won her first regatta.

I believe the stingray class is a B2.

Goodonya Storm - you know you're getting old when you start organising reunions of long since dead boats. I'm lunching with a couple of prospects tomorrow and I'll get you some phone numbers!

For those outside AUS who don't know what a QB2 is - don't feel bad. It's the same as mentioning Stealth or Dart in AUS. All just regional boats.

Perfectly right about the Stingray Stewart 18x8x225. Just checked the measurement schedule - easier than going to the shed.

just think the QB2s and Stingrays (18x8x225)had a min of 130 kg fully rigged.. Ok didnt have a kite..
the "modern" F18 is 18x8.5x220 for the light crews. or 227ish for the heavies.. hull weight is set at 130kg!! then you add the rigging to make the sailing platform to 180kg!!

So asking have we progressed really at all?????

The photo is of a QB2 located in Melbourne some years back. Conversion to a QB3 included relocating the centreboard cases towards the stern,a new fuller mainsail and from memory, the option to have curved decks instead of flat.

The QB2 and a number of other two and three beamed cats were defeated by the Tornado for Olympic selection in the 1960's.

Anyone interested in seeing some Quest cat QB2 & 3 images go to the qb2 folder in the image gallery.

Lessons learned from trying to renovate a QB.
A six inch grinder is not a precision tool for sanding and hull fairing.

Yes a "Cunningham" went to UK for Olympic trials. BUT it wasn't a "builders" boat but a privateer, who in his wisdom decided to take the slower low aspect rig. The T was a tortured ply design the Quest was glass bottom with ply sides. The thinking was the T could be home built the Quest could not. So the T was selected and all is history. However when Bruce was sailing the quest he apparently spend many happy hours scalping the local Ts.

Now the thinking (or lack of) is the Olympic boats should be smod...

I believe the difference between the QB2 and QB3 is the same as the difference between Stingray Mk1 and Stingray Mk2...

Mast upgraded to Wingmast (mostly Superwing.. same section used by F16 today!), and extension by 2-3ft, Increase in sail area from ~200sq/ft to 225sq/ft

I suspect these boats had no minimum rigged weight, just platform weight, the stingray was 88.5kg... I think the QB was lighter!