And the fact that the molds are still sitting in the back lot at
Soverel's old plant can be explained by....


wrote:
They aren't unless they recently re-aquired them. In fact, PCX rebuilt
the molds to fix some problems with them out in California.

Well, I've been there and seen them, about 3 years ago.
Of course, it could be that these other builders built new tooling...
kind of unlikely IMHO, but possible...

... The molds
are owned by Tartan or Ericson.


Well, make up your mind.
I think you're confused, Ericson built Olsons for a while.



It's very common for fiberglass boats to have widely varying weights,
differing up to 20% in some cases I know of. It even happens in one-
design classes that are supposed to be more rigidly controlled.

The boats were built differently, Doug, and the weight differences are
rather substantial.

Isn't that what I said?

.... They also used different coring materials, and
some were reinforced with plywood. More evidence that the boats were
not very sturdy as designed and originally built.

Not a bit. Just means that the "new builder" decided to do things
differently, most likely to cut costs when building a boat that has a
good following but was not very profitable.

Plywood is not really a core material. It's a structural element by
itself. It's also rather heavy and not very rigid, plus it wicks water
all thru and rots. But it's cheap.

In other words, to "reinforce" a boat with plywood... especially a
light weight racing boat... is the act of a person who doesn't really
know or care much about the engineering of boats.


.... Tartan did some
pretty major reinforcement to the ones they built.


Or was it Ericson..

The weight ranges from 5200 to 6800 pounds. This IS a one design boat.


Not really. Especially if the weight variation is *that* much. When
was the last Soverel 33 Nationals and how many boats attended?

I've sailed 3 or 4 different Soverel 33s and couple of their other
models... the Soverel Senior 37 ketch is a great boat. I almost
bought a Sov33 year before last... I have heard of the "Tartan models"
but the story according to some Sov33 owners is rather vague and they
seem to like to blame their lack of PHRF success on being hugely
overweight. OTOH two of the guys I sailed with have rebuilt their boat
themselves and know quite a lot about it, and have done very well with
them. There's one that has been extensively rebuilt & rerigged that
races here.

DSK