I’m sure I’ve seen pictures (But can’t find the thread or pictures) of early wood tales being modified to take on some of the changes adopted by later variants - I’d love to know if these produced real (Read noticable) benefits and if the owners felt that the cost was worthwhile?

Just out of interest.....

Thanks

I don't know of any early CTs that have been chopped about. It would mean a lot of work, and may even be unecessary. There was an article in the magazine a year or so ago and i'm sure part of the thinking behind the bow drops was because the weight at the ends had reduced so much with carbon rigs and then material changes. This meant that the bow floated higher than the designer intended.

Certainly i noticed it was harder to get the bow in the water in my Winder mk1 that it was in my all wooden Turner CT

To do the work to a composite boat should be no harder than a Winder hull. However a wooden boat would be considerably more difficult, a lot of work and therefore i would think very expensive.

Hey Intheworks and Chris M.
The Winder boats which have superceeded wooden Canterbury Tales have been part of a gradual development over time. Most of the recent changes have been in the rig. The epoxy hulls have improved a little by being stiffer, lighter in the ends and able to support the more complex rig controls. However, a few dedicated experts have managed to integrate new rigs and fittings into wooden hulls and frighten the rich boys. Check out the Silver Tiller and Inland Champs results for the past few years! The Merlin Rocket is a restricted development class wherein it is still possible to do well if YOU are good enough at sailing and engineering.

a bit of dedication over christmas has made sure the bows are at least as low as the designer intended! hoping to get lighter in the ends as the season warms up....

Is that you or the boat John? Lighter in the ends I mean!

Mike Calvert had the bow modified on 3626 so it is possible to change a wood hull, but is probably quite an expensive operation.  With an older boat it would probably just make more sense to put the money towards upgrading.  

That said, one change which is fairly simple and cheap is to tweak the shape of the bilge rails.  Older wood boats often have squarish section rails, whilst the later Winders and Easy Rollers have much more streamlined "blisters".  Would it make a noticeable difference?  Maybe, maybe not, but I did feel that my old Winder Mk1 planed a little earlier after the Kev Driver modified the bilge rails.

I thought one of the Driver boats had been modified in the run, possibly Storm Cloud, but to take it closer to the Gangsta Paradise/Unfinished Business shape.  And the nose job on Business as Usual 3626 was definitely to get the boat to the shape it was meant to be from the start which was very like 3549.

Stiletto was subjected to surgery twice.

After Hours 3585 (one of the other Heaven Sent designs) had some unsuccessful hull modifications but possibly illegal ones with plastic padding.

What is likely to be very expensive and difficult in a wooden boat is doing something substantial to the rocker line as that will mean scarfing in a new bit of keel and hog.  The modifications that are easier will be pulling in the hull by putting darts in the planks.

Andrew 3511

I am sure Storm Cloud has seen more filler in the rear end than Jordans top lip.  There is no way that run is hollow any more.

Storm Cloud (my boat) was changed to a flat run rather than a hollow one, very similar to Taxi and Mike Calvert's boats now. The bow section is identical to a standard Let it Ride, there was only the hollow at the back that was differant from the others. Glen wanted to change it so the chisels came out.

From what I remember of the boat when it was first painted at Scotty's it wasn't all that hollow in the first place.

Just a thought.  If you do decide to alter your hull shape, the Measurement Rules now require you to have the hull remeasured.

Know its not exactly the question you asked but it in a way the situation is not too disimilar.

Quite a few years ago now I spent a lot of time, effort & money doing up a NSM IV over a winter. The next season the difference in performance was difficult to gauge ie not much. The following winter a new boat was purchased & much less time was spent finishing it off however the increase in performance was then very noticable...

If your only goal is to improve performance my advice would be to think very carefully before embarking on what will almost certainly be a more time consuming & expensive job than you first thought. If you gain satisfaction from renovating a boat & owning a pretty one then that is a different story...

Also, think am right in saying that the original "Canterbury Tails" & "Gnome" were renovated at great cost to their owners both in terms of money & time but as far as I am aware their performance was not improved either...

However the refurbished Charge of the Light Brigade has ruffled a few Winder owning feathers.

Having done some tweaking to our fine ship which made a significant difference to performance, but this was to allow for a modern rig, rather than modifying the hull. Changing to a deck-stepped carbon stick and having brand new rags in 2008 gave us a measurable performance boost against the boats we were previously racing with. That said, it doesn't stop you going the wrong way nor fluffing the start. Our priory for 2009 season is to improve boat handling (keeping the thing flat), getting decent starts and going the right way. I still want to tweak the hull, but until we can do the other things right first, what would be the point?