I can take it a bit further.
I bought the moulds for $200 which were stored at Lewis' boatyard at Taren Point in the early 1990's ( cant remember the exact year). I built a couple, one for myself called Last Brass Razoo which I last saw moored near Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury about 10 years ago. It had a flop moulded Supersonic keel filled with scrap lead and resin/sand mix. Other hull went out Dubbo way, moulded without a keel. Buyer was going to fit it out as a motor cruiser. The mould was such that it had a complete bottom, and you had to cut out the keel slot to take whatever keel footprint you wanted. He was going to put some sort of big cabin on it. He had never had a boat before, so it might still in a barn somewhere...I have certainly never heard of it again.
I gave the moulds Away for free to someone I never met when the land I was storing them on had to be sold. Dunno what happened to them after that. I also had the Highlander 25 moulds, a Doug Chalmers "design" based on a scaled up Tempest. I only had room to store 1 set of moulds, and the Highlander won! That would have been around 1995 at a bit of a guess.
Now Im an old fart I wish I had kept the T22 moulds as I wouldnt mind a trailer sailer version. I Find my Highlander a bit of a handful singlehanded in a blow! And Tempests need a big forrard hand, which I no longer have.
Bob Holmes was involved in the design, but I think mainly as to the rig and foils as I recall it. Holmsie had a business making high end foils. I still have a Holmes Bros rudder on one of my Tempests that Jim Hardy campaigned back in the day.
The T22 is actually 21'3" or 4"; but had a waterline length of something over 19'. The T22 was flop moulded NOT off the trekka design ( John Guzwell's little boat that he sailed around the world in) but an English design that had been around since the late 1950's. The lines plan is reproduced in Illingworth's "Further Offshore", and it was called a Finette so far as I can recall. I can't find my copy of Further Offshore, so I cannot be categorical , but I am pretty sure that was the name. It had a more flush deck, and the blister cabin was added when the T22'was moulded. It was only ever a light flop mould, reinforced with 1" water pipe. The mould was so light you could float the finished boat out by using a garden hose and giving the mould a good twist! Downside was it had a lot of spiderweb cracks and defects that took forever to fill with plasticene before applying the gelcoat...it wasnt a real good mould!
if anyone looks in Further Offshore they will see the exact lines.
Seacraft had the plans for the cold moulded timber boat for sale from about 1959. Most of the old plans catalogues from the late 50's and early 60's list the plans.
T22 had a long waterline length for its day. The first T22 hit the water at Botany Bay yacht club in about 1968 or maybe early 1969-,shortly after the first Highlander , Skye, was launched. I sailed on both around that time as a kid. The T22 was faster than its competition...Endeavour 24's and Southerly 23's., and Primaats. A bit later the Mauaider 24 f( flop moulded by Doug in one day at Endeavour Boatshed off a brand new Hood 23 hull he was supposed to antifoul for Its first owner!!!- with a better keel , skeg hung rudder and trim tab...I digress...) gave the T22 stiff competition but the T22 was still faster downwind and in a blow.The trim tab allowed the maurauder to level peg with the T22 upwind under about 15-18 knots. The Beam carried aft never seemed to disadvantage the T22, and gave it considerable form stability . Further, T22s sailed best flat ( obviously) but didnt develop the hull form induced weather helm that most contemporary yachts developed when heeled, due to the beam carried aft. Also it had the waterline length closer to a 26 foot boat. When the Endeavour 26's hit the scene in the early 70's, they were generally a bit faster upwind ( heeled waterline length was greater as the stubby T22'had no aft overhang) but the T22s flew reaching and running in over 15 knots. A real giant killer..
It would be nice to build one nice and light in modern materials. Back in the day they had to be built heavy due to the relatively flat aft underwater surfaces....I used end grain balsa in my own one and iso resin, but these days I would do an epoxy vacuum bag job on decent foam.
I hope,that clears things up a bit. They were a very under-rated boat, but not by any who raced against them!!!
If anyone knows where the moulds are I would be interested in knocking up a hull.
Also, I remember Summerwine. I used to see it on Port Hacking, and raced against it occasionally from bbyc. In more recent years I saw it at Lake Macquarie . It sold cheaply maybe 5 years ago and has either been repainted or is no longer on the Lake ( where I now live).
Cheers, Keith.
also,G'day Chris..havent spoken to you in yonks.
vandermoeler
> 9 months ago, 9 Mar 2021
