dandrews wrote:
Interesting history on this.
“Tim Kurtz recently bought the Critch molds and they are still in Toronto. Getting them to the states hasn’t been a huge priority at this point.”
I didn’t know Tim Kurtz had purchased the Top Gun Marine (Marty Brodeau) critchfield molds.
The original Danny Critchfield molds were also for sale in Atlanta I was told.
“Have you seen the boat that Jim Gardner is in the process of building? He’s currently making a mold to build a 14’ boat.”
I heard a rumor but that is all.
“What ever happened to the Delta molds that were listed on kijiji a few years ago? Thought that was a 12-13 foot boat.”
Those were new splashed delta molds with a motor well delete deck. Thom Waters made the molds and they are still available. Yes they are 12-13 foot delta molds.
“There will be an opportunity to develop boats for the small 4 stroke engines. The price for a Povvat is 8700 Euros and you still have to get it here. From an economic standpoint bringing a boat from out of country will be expensive and most likely out of the question.”
Too bad for our Canadian purchaser and the rest of us interested in GT30 that the GT30 molds never got shipped to Canada. They would have given us a good start.
“ I could see maybe getting one of the winrace molds if a number of people split on it”
The Bucknell family had and likely still has a close relationship with winrace with their propeller connection. I don’t recall the shipping cost being that expensive. The question would be....what mold are they willing to sell?
“Then the next question would be production. Do you go to Bert Henderson, Matt Arlt? Dave Kidd has the equipment to build these boats also as a chop strand glass boat.
The first issue is where and who will be responsible for storing and maintaining the molds?
We have had a few companies here in Ontario that did build the Top Gun critchfield. Currently there is not a a large demand for new critchfields, Voodoos or deltas .
When we were looking for a Winrace hull in North America we did check out one in New York State. It was a GT15 boat which had been running and ruined with a 50 horsepower. The performance of that combo impressed the seller but not me. It ran 60 mph. Our T750 class top boats on the race course at 594 minimum weight will run over 62 mph. The kilo world UIM record for T750 with a modified GT 30 winrace tohatsu is 66 mph.
That plus our knowledge in developing T750 class here got us thinking of modifying a critchfield or delta or Voodoo or a combination of all three to make our own GT30 hull.
What performance do you need from a GT30?
- has to run 50 mph at 550 minimum weight and minimum length of 11’5”
Can we get a critchfield built smaller and lighter.....yes!
What changes do we need to do?
- shorten the boat at the stern leave the deck as is... make the new boat 11’6”
- build in a 4 inch setback into the bottom
- widen the pad one inch and put a 1/2 deep hallowed section in the last 2 feet of the pad.
- make the outside strake rail longer and bigger so it extends from the bow to the stern.
Test and improve.
