From what you are telling me, this boat is perfect for me. I have no problems with the rigging time, it just means I need to leave the house earlier. I would prefer a fiberglass boat just because I know how to work with glass... wood boats I'm not so sure about (although, my good friend makes wood boats from scratch). I'm going to go ahead and wait until I get situated in my nice new job before I lay down some doh for a new boat. Perhaps I could afford a new Marstrom sooner than I thought. As far as the parts are concerned, I'm getting pretty damn good at Fiberglass and CF fabrication, and I'd be more than willing to try my hand at some parts for my own boat to save money.

Thanks for all the info!

Somewhere in this thread, I thought I read you were coming to the Washington D.C area. If you are, come check out the West River Catamaran Racing Association (WRCRA). We race every Tuesday night, rain or shine for 26 weeks throught the late spring to early fall and then have a fall frosbite on Sunday for 5 or so weeks. We also co-sponsor a few medium distances races with CRAC. Our website is www.wrcra.org.

There is also Hobie Fleet 196 in D.C. They frequently join us for special events sponsered by CRAC and WRCRA. www.hobiefleet196.org/

Also, there is CRAC which sponsors a full calander of long distance and bouy races. A great accomplishment of late is they have negotiated a beach cat start in a distance race that has been for monohul and large cats. www.geocities.com/sailcrac/

For what it is worth to all of you classic Tornado fans, I have one 1996 Hyde mainsail that was used three times under my bed (it is mint) and a 1998 Ullman Tornado jib that was used in one race. I had four mains and five jibs for the old rig when the class switched and have sold all except for these two. If you are interested in these sails, please contact me at [email][email protected].[/email]

Bob Hodges

buy a classified ad man

Hi,

I've sailed Tornado all my 38 years of age...my Dad used to run the factory in Montreal in the 1970's. I've only ever sailed older boats, even back then! Right now I have an 82 SailCraft of Canada boat with 1971 sails! Actually I just got a set of nearly new sails, but they are cut for the prebend rig. I need to change the diamond hounds & spreader arms over the to modern setup in order to prebend my mast.

Don't let the nasayer's put you off...I'm a living example of tornado ownership on the cheap! Just avoid going to Marstorm for any parts, do your own repairs and a little fabricating here & there and you'll be fine.

Mike

The Tornado is far and away the best boat I have ever sailed..... smooth, stable and very refined not to mention FAST.

I am only fairly new to the Tornado and am currently racing a 15 year old Reg White with a brand new Marstrom mast complemented with new Olympic Sails (as used by Bundy and Forbes), Masrtrom Rudders and rear beam, plus Fredrickson front beam.

This boat set me back AUS$5500 (more realistic price would be about AUS$7000) and spent about AUS$6500 on the new rig conversion. (3 sails, spi pole and fittings/sheets)

The boat has served my needs for the last few seasons and at the last State titles our old dinosaure was peppering Bundy and Forbes in most races on their 10 year old Marstrom. The champs won every race but in most of the races the old Reggy snapped at the heels of the Marstrom, finishing seconds away. PS - Bundy and Forbes have spent a cosiderable amout of time with the Australian T sailors bringing their boats and crew up to speed. Big THANKS guys

Another season or two on the Reggy and we will upgrade to a late modle Marstrom. Whilst an older boat is still great for local racing the Marstrom boats a alot quicker and a far better quality off build.

We should be toying around with the F-18s a fair bit next season, building bigger fleet experience before sailing in Europe, but the Tornado will remain my number one boat.

Hi again,
As far as single-handing with main only, I went out saturday for the first time in light but gusty wind and had no problems at all. I was concerned about weather helm and tacking, but neither was an issue.
For an encore sunday with a steadier breeze, I went solo with main and jib (classic rig 1991 Reg White). What a riot!! This boat is so smooth, you can fly a hull close hauled forever. As far as speed, there were a couple of overloaded (3 people) Hobie 18's out match racing, and the difference in speed is so great it's like you're not even participating in the same sport.
The only problems I've had relate to a broken Frederickson traveler car. We originally ordered a replacement, but the ball bearings were on back-order (coming from Norway?!). I eventually ordered a Harken traveller, but it was 3 mm to large to fit in the in-laid track in the beam, so I subsequently ordered and installed a new Harken track on the beam. The point of this just to illustrate that you can run into unexpected troubles with a boat that's no longer being manufactured.
Having said that, you wouldn't be disappointed with the Tornado.
Al

You can order Frederickson parts directly. This is for broken or replacment parts. Your best bet is to fax customer service with your email address. Once you set up a dialog, it gets easier. There are also a couple of small shops in Denmark, England, and France that take internet orders. These are cheaper if they have the part you need in stock. For small parts shipped to USA it costs $1-$10 and you will get them in a couple of days. Customs has not been a problem. Once they charged me ~$1 and I paid at the post office.

Thanks Carl, unfortunately, I had the problem before I discovered the wealth of information on this site, so I was left to my own devices (and no sailing shop for hundreds of miles). Now that you mention it, it was Denmark. If I break anything else, this will be the first place I check, including Rick's online store of course.
Al

If you have ANY Frederickson parts you want to get rid of let me know. I am always interested in spares. One of the hottest parts is the plastic thing you use to take the travelor off with. Marstrom A's use the same system and we are sharing one here.

If you have something like that let people know. Last years Olympic technology is great for me and my old jib halyard lock was just what a Gougeon Tornado looking for.

I have soft rig sails cheap, to keep old Tornado's on the water. But not to chop up H17 squaretops.

Just had a guy contact me about an old Glass Tornado. Two years ago I was asking about finding plans for one and this fellow just today ran across my name.

The boat is complete, but "may" need new beams and Mast judging from his description and my personal experience with a Tornado of that age. Are inexpensive used beams and masts floating around?

This offer may be too good to pass up (it's close by and cheap...LOL)...the boat is from the early seventies built by " Zygal Boats, St. Peters Road, Whitstable Kent, England" anyone know about the quality of this builder? Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

Bob

MauganH17 -

I have an older Tornado here in Greensboro (definitely needs work) if you're interested in taking a look.

Bernie Smith

Hi Bernie,
Sounds like you finally acquired an older Tornado…but I don’t hear (read) of the enthusiasm that had when you started this post a while back…. Did the dream turn into a nightmare? I would love to have a Tornado but finding an old beater and fixing it up is beginning to look less and less inviting. I would like to hear your opinion on the matter now that you have the first hand experience. I have made no commitment to purchase the boat I have found at this point…and I am leaning towards not getting involved in another project of this expense, both time and money. Is it worth it? Have parts been expensive and hard to come by? How available are old cross beams and Masts?

Bob

Bob - I bought an older Tornado in 1987 and (more or less) refinished it and updated it to the then current specifications (prebent mast). The boat which I mentioned for sale is a second Tornado which I purchased for spare parts with an eye toward restoring it also - but lack of time interferes. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first boat when I have had it on the water - even with the extensive setup time.

Bernie…
Have you ever heard anything about Tornado’s built by Zygal Boats? I had one response on the old forum that warned against buying from this builder…I am looking for a second opinion to either confirm or deny Jay’s warning before writing it off.

Bob

Howdee:

Guess I better say "Hi" and give you my phone number so we can talk about Tcats.

301 208 0828 home
301 975 2626 work
240 876 9510 mobile

There ya go. Call me and I'll rant about Tornadoes as long as you wanna.

-Greg

Concerning Tornado crossbeams;
Most Tornado's are built as a deck. The hulls and the crossbeams are all clamped up in a jig so the hulls are aligned and then the crossbeams and hulls are drilled for the bolts. So a different set of beams will probably misalign the hulls and might not even fit. The easiest thing to do is buy extrusions and match drill to the old beams.

It looks to me like your best bet is a Prindle 19. The 8.5' beam allows you to easily trailer it without standing it on its' ear. You should be able to get an older model which will satisfy your boat rejuvenation hobby. In addition, you can purchase the new MX sails and the new rudders with the money from the sale of your older boat. They greatly improve the performance of this boat. You'll notice that the Portsmith numbers are fairly close to that of the older style of Tornado with one trap and no spinnaker. You won't be sorry.

I figure I'll chime in my "Almost had a T" experience just for kicks.

I'd sold my H16 and was looking for a new, bigger, faster boat. There was a Tornado in sailing condition in St. Pete, sitting on the owner's lawn right by the beach. The ad said $1000 takes it away so I called and said I would check it out Saturday. I didn't have a car yet (I was 16) so my dad had to drive me. That Saturday he didn't feel like going and told me we'd go Sunday instead. "It'll still be there tomorrow" was his 'sage advice'. I called Sunday morning to let them know we were headed up and... no boat. They'd sold it Saturday night.

He ended up missing his favorite two football teams play each other a few Sundays later to drive me up to Dunedin to check out the G-Cat 5.7M, which I ended up buying. I wasn't going to accept his "It'll still be there tomorrow" excuse any more!