hello everyone, I own the front half of 3081 which I have discovered to be a bad company called Humble Pie. Can someone please let me know who built her, how old she is and details of previous history.we have owned her for a couple of seasons mucking aboutand putting up with useless fittings,sails etc but since i discoveredthat old rockets are handicaped more favourably than modern ones we have decided to get her going again.

Another candidate for the batt tuning guide.

Also have a look at Dan Alsop's article on setting up high tank boats.

Humble Pie was first registered in 1977 and was built by the Rowsell Brothers

Where would the half way value point be on a merlin? Probably not half way.  My guess would be the back of the mast (depending on whether its carbon or not)

idle friday

And what about the implications of the front half suddenly realising that it's in bad company?

Perhaps the crew has just realised that he is in Bad Company in this shot!!

http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/gallery/view_photo.asp?folder=gallery/humour&file=bowman.jpg

3081 Humble Pie was originally owned by Chris Ingis, brother of Rob who designed Bad Company.  It was the second Bad Company to be built (Rob's own was the first!)

I have just bought this boat. Could anyone point me to the best way to get this boat setup it has a proctar mast with quadrant levers and eagle hooks? Should I be looking at fitting a space frame to stiffen the boat up given that it has got a high bow tank?

Bad Company carried weight well, they were terrific to winward and in lighter winds but do not plane as quickly as the more modern flatter boats.
It really depends on how much you are prepared to spend , a full space frame is not light and if you are to put it in then you might as well deck step. followed by a nwer mast, newer sails, re rigging etc. Then a newer boat would become more economic.
So I would suggest tidy it up, enjoy it for what it is and sail it.

Thanks Rob for your reply, Are there any tips for setting up the rig on a bad company with a proctor mast to best exploit abilities?

I had a Winder Bad Company, 3218, a modified Maximum beam one, it had to carry about 28st but was kept fairly standard.
I had a Superspar mast with Batt Mylar Sails, with quadrant leavers too.
Set it with just a little rake but then tightened up the Jib ( had a multi purchase on the haliard) until the boat just started to flex, I did put a wire strop down from the foredeck bulkhead to the front of the mast foot track to try and help stop the mast going through the bottom, this is where a space frame might have helped.
It was a great club boat inland as we didnt get much high speed spinnaker reaching but as I said earlier went upwind very well and ran quite quick too.

Thanks Rob, You dont happen to have a picture or a drawing of how you fitted this strop as this sounds like a relatively straight forward mod? 

Could similar stops be fitted from the mast base and secured at base of the shrouds as well? I also wondered whether fixing an aluminium pole on each side between the shroud base and joined just in front of the mast (below deck level)would help resist the hull from closing. My front decks have big cutouts at the cockpit end so there is not much lateral stiffness there.

Thanks again.

All depends how far you want to go and by the time you have added various strops and the eyes to attach them + some alloy poles you have almost done a space-frame.  Do read Dan Alsop's article - the key is that with an older boat the original rig worked by loads of mainsheet tension to keep the jib luff straight rather than the modern stiff shroud base, high shroud tension approach.  If it ain't broke...

There is some merit in strops between deck and hog as well as between shroud attachment and mast step to oppose the shroud tension, but as Newton showed, the forces will all end up being opposed somewhere and if you do this you will add to compression across the boat and will probably need the aluminium poles.  If you are one of the John Dalby's of this world and enjoy doing all of this just as much as going sailing then carry on, but otherwise I can think of little that has improved my performance sailing the boat as much as actually sailing it!  I think myself you either fit a properly engineered (and so also complex and probably quite expensive in fittings) solution like a full spaceframe and new deck-stepped rig, or you enjoy sailing what you have and consider upgrading to a boat with a more modern rig when funds allow.

Sorry sold the boat 15 years ago and unfortunately didnt take any pics

Here's the article Dan wrote years ago, about getting the best from the old style rig. Worth a read even if you do feel the urge to bimble just for the sake of it!

My 3245 does have a low bow tank, but you can still see the gunwhales come closer together when you crank the rig tension on.

Since I love a good bimble, I pondered a deck-step conversion which had:
a) wooden king post
b) ally poles between shroud base and mast gate
c) wires between shroud base and hog
I even managed to work out how to make the whole thing removable, so I could go back to hog-stepped within 5 minutes! Never did finish making it though.

On 2717 Bob Long partially deck stepped, i.e it is deck stepped but without lowers and when i bought the boat he told me not to put too much rig tension on! instead of a space frame there is an old piece of mast from the hog to the underneath of the mast track at deck level, i don't know if she was converted to a low tank or was orginally built with one but that,s what the boats got. hope you understand my ramblings.