Afternoon

Im just in the process of refitting 3425 "heart of darkness" the last registered NSM 1 - 

It already has an aluminium deck step space frame conversion that I'm going to modify further to give more support - I've got access to a spray booth and have boxes of fittings and paint ready to go! I'm really looking forward to taking the time out to do complete the work :)

My question is with a reasonably good condition hull which is down to weight how competitive would an NSM1 be in the current fleet if it was fitted with the latest rig set up ? Or would I be better off getting it back on the water in a good state and selling on -  spending the extra money on upgrading boats?

Many thanks and hope to be ready for open meetings early next year !

Conor

It depends on where you intend to sail it really.

On the sea or open water you will have problems. On restricted water or rivers where going the right way is more important than raw boatspeed you stand as much of a chance as anyone.

Well if you are going to enjoy the work I say do it anyway!

Doing the work to the hull regardless ! :)

Just dont want to get carried away with the rig if there is no real benafit because the hull shape is the true limitation.

C

Truth of it is rig design has moved on in the last 29years since the NSM was designed. When NSM's ruled carbon masts & kevlar sails were not about and hull design was like a river in flood! Logically a carbon rig with all the updates will make her faster than she was but it's also logical that the latest rig a newer hull will be faster than the older NSM. Another downside is that putting approx £2000 of new kit on an old boat wont add the same amount of value to it and when the time comes to sell. A prospective buyer just might prefer to buy a newer design with old sails knowing he/she can upgrade later.
Interestingly I have an NSM 3236 with Kevlar sails & Carbon 'bits' whilst all the improvments do indeed appear make her quicker theres nothing we can do about the hull shape, we also have 3503 a Joe Richards flat bottomed sledge which has an alloy rig & dacron sails and off the wind it is just simply quicker. 
So yes she'll be quicker than she was but not over 10 knots at sea, than a later generation design.
Should you do it? unless you can stump up £5000-£8000 for a newer yacht why not, all you have to lose is money!!!!   And get you club sec to adopt the PY age allowences then at club level it's up to you.
Regards Barry.

If my experience with the deck-stepped carbonfibre NSM2 Elusive is anything to go by you would be very competitive upwind and totally blown away on the reaches, not starting to plane as early and not going nearly as quickly once you were despite doing everything else possible.  The trend in hull design over the last 20 years has been to try to make a flatter fuller hull perform in the lighter stuff because the speed advantages in stronger winds are considerable.  Very interesting to read the latest mag about altering hull shapes as all the changes have been to flatten rocker and narrow the forward waterlines.

Thanks for the responses - 

See you on the water

Conor

If you can slice and dice a modern boat to improve performance, why not an older one?  What could you do with, say, an NSM 4 to improve the planing performance?

Now there's a question.  IO'm going to start a new thread.....