Any more info on this Osprey.

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Ed
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Post by Ed »

Hi all,

got this email.

I think it is an early Mk1 Osprey.....but decks look kind of funny some how.....

Any thoughts?

cheers

eib

Hello
My name is Pierre-Yves, I am 21 years old, I am French thus excuse I for my English!
I have just had a boat to be restored and according to my searches(researches) I think is an merlin rocket or an opsrey.
Can you say to me if it is an merlin rocket or an osprey or other?
The boat is wooden, it measures 5m of long, 1.60 wide.

The former(ancient) propriaitaire was English, it crossed the sleeve with this boat to come in the Dunkirk, in France

I leave you photos for use!

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/2295/imgp0455ib6.jpg

http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/8117/imgp0458ih5.jpg

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/9587/imgp0461nr8.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6757/imgp0454sv7.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/5973/imgp0456xn1.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/845/imgp0459sv2.jpg

I thank you beforehand,
goodbye
Ed Bremner
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Post by Mark »

There was an early Osprey, sail number 180 I think, at the Sussex Yacht Club in the early '60s and the deck layout was the same, at the same time there was also a later one (3Xx) with the same layout but with built in buoyancy.
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Post by Ed »

Yeah,

I know someone will be able to fill out with details, but I am sure early boats had aft decking....and those with built in buoyancy floated too high after capsize and were liable to turn turtle. Hence Mk 2 deck arrangements. I am sure this one is quite normal, but just somethign at the front of crew area/aft of foredeck did not look quite right. sure it is though....looks very original.

cheers

eib
Ed Bremner
CVRDA


Jollyboat J3
Firefly F2942
IC GBR314 ex S51 - 1970 Slurp
MR 638 - Please come and take it away
Phelps Scull
Bathurst Whiff - looking for someone to love it
Mark
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Post by Mark »

Have looked at the history of the class on their website
http://ospreysailing.org.uk/index.php?o ... 5&Itemid=8
It looks as though the stern tank didn't go until sail number 1000, which was the start of the Mk IIIs, not sure what the difference is between the MkI and the MkII though
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Post by alan williams »

Hi Guys
Boats an early mk1 used to crew 341 (I think thats the right number) Butterfingers and she han the same decking but with the built in stern tank and side tanks I have always thougth that the early Osprets were the same we used to race agains number 19 and she had built in tanks. However the owner was acabinet maker and may have updated her to built in bouyancy.
Cheers Al
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Post by jpa_wfsc »

I owned a 2-digit osprey (6ty something, cant remember what!) in 1975 - 78, which had full built in tanks (definitely from new). Also I have never seen any osprey with a deck stepped mast, and somehow this boat just does not look like an Osprey to me - not enough rise to the floor in the bow, and basically just not big enough. Mine had center main sheeting with a full width traveler (I think most if not all did that).

Has Pierre-Yves got any sails to aid identification, and a definite measurement?
j./

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Post by Mark »

180 was definitely stern sheeted and had a snubbing winch mounted on the centre thwart.
Having said that,5m is a bit on the short side...
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Post by Ed »

I will try and find out more about it.....

but agree.....it just doesn't quite look right....

what else might it be?

cheers

eib
Ed Bremner
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IC GBR314 ex S51 - 1970 Slurp
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Post by alan williams »

Hi Guys if you study image three closely the back of the so called deck stepped mast foot is open, indicating that this is a mast gate not a mast foot for a deck stepped mast.
Cheers Al
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Post by jpa_wfsc »

Hm did not see that but I agree now (open 'step' at the back). My Osprey had the snubbing winch - up at about deck level. But as I said was center main not stern.
j./

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Finn K468 'Captain Scarlet'

British Moth, 630, early 60's 'Pisces'

!!!! Not CVRDA !!!!
Comet Trio - something always ready to sail.
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Post by LASERTOURIST »

Hello...Im the one responsible for the trouble as i had Jean Tves question on a french dinghy forum and directed him to the osprey association.

Mostly a laser (now a radial) sailor i had some knowledge of the deliciously old fashioned british dinghies as i raced a bit back in 1973 when i was a college boy spending summer holydays in England, trying to get to grips with local language (easy one) and local food
(almost impossible one)

I crewed a GP14 at Graftham water and hemed a Enterprise in a club near Cambridge , on a "narrow launch" canal where raced under a system of eliminatory heats because 4 boats at a time was the maximum the canal would allow...Guys there claimed they were the best roll tackers in the british isles ...but i was the best OK dinghy pumper and roll tacker of the upper seine, so could cope:D

Jean Yves boat has obviously been stripped of many fittings for some unfinished restoration ...is it possible that the plywood flanks of the buoyancy tanks have been dismantled???.

He could not make a proper measure as the boat is perched high in a hangar so 5 m is a rough estimate.

a drain bung like round hole in the bottom seems to be for an infamous "telescope tube" self bailer (typical go fast gadget of late fifties early sixties , that hurt your toes if you stepped on it) so i suspect the boat is late fifties.

Apart from the 8 panel 6 chines hull shape what made me suggest it might be an osprey are two details:
1 The tuphnol fairleads on the inner sides of the deck are way astern of the mast step...suggesting a genoa type jib (typical osprey fashion)
2 The round holes in the decks might be a fairlead for a trapeze bungee (and osprey class claims to have re invented the trapeze that had been banned -pre war- by the intl 14 class, enabling the osprey to be sailed with only 2 men instead of 3)....food for thought?

Compliments for your fine site
The article about the vintage finns is a bit british centered...
Lanaverre fraom Bordeaux made many competitive finns (either cold molded wood or GRP and frenc finnist Serge Maury secured some gold cups and the 1972 gold medal in Kiel and Lanaverre finns were replicated by Mader to make a successful mold.

I have a few (very few )info about the fate of finn Number 8 that was from the original batch of the 1952 Helsinki olympics....
Best regards
GGLUCK
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Post by JimC »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by alan williams</i>
<br />Hi Guys if you study image three closely the back of the so called deck stepped mast foot is open, indicating that this is a mast gate not a mast foot for a deck stepped mast.
Cheers Al
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I can't see that at all - and there also seems to be a vertical beam underneath as a mast support. Here's an enlargement where I've mucked about with contrast and brightness to hopefully clarify the image a bit. Image
The planks at the bow seem a tad wide for an Osprey to me, but that could be the angle. I'm struggling to think what else it could be. The overlapping planks and treble chine is very distinctive. If Jean Yves could get up in the roof with a copy of the Osprey rules and a tape measure we could be sure...
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Post by LASERTOURIST »

There is apparently a mast support (with a cleat and maybe a centreboard control block) underneath the mast step..
as the boat was used for cruising - it did make the cross channel trip to Dunkirk long ago- Iwonder if the ex owner may have modified this area.
For a cruising dinghy it is of paramount importance that if a shroud breaks the mast comes gently down...;in one part.

We had the same trouble with the siling school /cruising dinghise called Caravelles.
The wooden ones (single chine , blunt nose, looking like an oversized mirror dinghy) had the mast stepped on a tansversal bench with a strut underneath...in case of shroud trouble the mast went down without trouble.
The plastic ones , with the round chine, had a keel stepped mast,with a hole in the bench to allow the mast to pass...every shroud breakage resulted in a broken or torn apart bench and a hopelessly bent mast...and after that , the guys generally shortened the bent mast and unstalled a plain bench and a strut underneath...

The subtleties of mast bending for de - powering the main are ot important when cruising...you use a good reefng system instead.

Apart from that the hull is pained in a glossy blue lacquer,same as centreboard, in excellent condition...unbder two inches of dust..;

Any ideas where JY could find the missing mast , sails rudder and fittings....heard that somewhere in england there is a shipchandler specialized in old dinghies (installed in a river barge) does that ring a bell or is it top secret info?
Best regards
G GLUCK
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Post by JimC »

If it is an Osprey then masts and sails are readily available new - at new prices. Secondhand possibly via the Osprey association... He'd have to chop the mast down of course. If its a nothing in particular, then I'd see If I copuld blag a cheap 470 rig... He'll probably have to make a rudder stock to match the transom and whatever secondhand blade he can find. The barge is great for antique fittings, but I wouldn't bet on finding class spares there.
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Post by LASERTOURIST »

Thank you ...
I suggested him to buy a rig from a french Jet (equivalent of 470 bit more canvas, as it uses a 505mast but keel stepped with slightly shorter boom) or a french ponant (more or less similar to wayfarer , bur using a 505 sail plan with a less sophisticated mast...
but if he can buy a genuine osprey rig so much the better ...provided this quiz boat is really an oqprey....
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