I have been offered a Typhoon dinghy (never seen one of these). A Proctor racer. 14'6" LOA 135 sq ft sail area + 125 sq ft spinny. Trapeze. Aged trailer. Not for me. So over to you lot! Available to view at Taplow Lake SC. Contact Terry Taylor 01628 604968.
email me and I can send a pic+ 1972 spec. jonathan.reubin@ntlworld.com
Typhoon Dinghy
Salut mes amis!
Typhoon - now there is a boat that is an interesting topic! If you use the search facility on the website you'll see that they have featured many times before - for a whole variety of reasons.
In short, this was Ian Proctor's idea for a high performance dinghy to match the growing market for a mid ranged rocketship - an area dominated in those days by the Hornet, 470, Fireball. The word is that IP started with the underwater sections of a Merlin IXb which he then modified to give a stable platform for a trapeze crew. The boat had many 'novel features' - recesses in the decking to take the spinni pole and a shaped foredeck to direct windflow up onto the job.
In the end though - it didn't work. Not a lot wrong with the boat, but it suffered from the same fate as the Ghost. Given a thumping Handicap early on gave it the kiss of death, and the rest, as they say, is history!
I'm one of the few who managed to get a sail in a Typhoon, albeit in almost zero wind, it was uncomfortable and didn't set the world alight for performance. Tim Hockin, then at proctors and a top MR sailor, described the boat as a 'cow to get going! in anything other than a good breeze.
If you want more info I did cover the Typhoon in the first series of articles 'The Lost Classes' for Dinghy Sailing Mag, however, if it's just a picture you want to see then there are some on the website
http://www.bearfacemedia.co.uk
despite the above comments, I'd love to sail one again - I suppose I could always part with Unit 7 (pink sails included)......
D
Typhoon - now there is a boat that is an interesting topic! If you use the search facility on the website you'll see that they have featured many times before - for a whole variety of reasons.
In short, this was Ian Proctor's idea for a high performance dinghy to match the growing market for a mid ranged rocketship - an area dominated in those days by the Hornet, 470, Fireball. The word is that IP started with the underwater sections of a Merlin IXb which he then modified to give a stable platform for a trapeze crew. The boat had many 'novel features' - recesses in the decking to take the spinni pole and a shaped foredeck to direct windflow up onto the job.
In the end though - it didn't work. Not a lot wrong with the boat, but it suffered from the same fate as the Ghost. Given a thumping Handicap early on gave it the kiss of death, and the rest, as they say, is history!
I'm one of the few who managed to get a sail in a Typhoon, albeit in almost zero wind, it was uncomfortable and didn't set the world alight for performance. Tim Hockin, then at proctors and a top MR sailor, described the boat as a 'cow to get going! in anything other than a good breeze.
If you want more info I did cover the Typhoon in the first series of articles 'The Lost Classes' for Dinghy Sailing Mag, however, if it's just a picture you want to see then there are some on the website
http://www.bearfacemedia.co.uk
despite the above comments, I'd love to sail one again - I suppose I could always part with Unit 7 (pink sails included)......
D
David H