Bart Senior wrote:
Lots of people trick out older Etchells and then can't
sell them. I've seen many good deals on a non-competitive
Etchells.

That's true in a lot of one-designs, largely because most of the people
that undertake the task don't pay enough attention to what it takes to
make the boat truly competitive, or their craftsmanship is not quite up
to it.

There *is* such a thing as craftsmanship working with fiberglass, it is
best displayed by building (or re-building) stuff that is strong & light
rather than fancy-looking.

... You still get a blazing fast boat for a monohull.


Yeah but why pay money for a boat that will only get waxed at regattas
no matter how well you sail? Been there, done that, spent years fighting
back. It's actually more work rebuilding a class boat than it would be
to build from scratch, although you can do a lot of things a stock
builder would not.

Last few times we raced the Lightning, people were sure I'd done a lot
of illegal stuff to it. I did pull a few tricks, but nothing forbidden
by the class rules. And there's more in the bag, it's tempting to buy an
old Lightning and start over.

An Etchells is a big powerful complicated boat, it would be quite a
challenge to stiffen an old boat without making it heavy, and add the
rigging it would need. Not sure I want to go there, it's cheaper to just
buy a race-worthy boat in the first place.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King