tophatyachts.com

Hi all, I am now the proud owner of a kiwi built tophat mark0. Its in pretty good condition, but I am exploring the idea of making it stronger, insulating and adding some water tight bulkheads/compartments. Being a lazy down wind sailer living in Wellington, down wind is, well, I'd like to make the boat as safe and reliable as possible (within reason). Has anyone here had any experience doing any enhancements on the wood tophat mark0?

Steven,

Welcome to Top Hat sailing, you will have a ball with your yacht.
We do have copies of some of the original timber plans if you need a copy of anything.

I did not think that any Top Hats had been built in NZ.
Do you have the history of her? Her name would be a start.

As to fixing and maintaining wood Top Hats there is not much experience here in Aus as not many were built.

But I suggest you contact Ben [benllben] via this viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2028 [maintenance/gear] as he has just brought ARIEL, one of the first six timber Top Hats built in Aus!
PM or send an email to him, find links under benllben on the right of his posts.

Steven,

I am currently in a similar position having just purchased a Mk0 tophat. Hopefully your boat is in a bit better condition as mine currently, but happy to have a discussion if you want to PM or Email me as per Phillips suggestion.

I have attached a copy of the boat plans i have received with purchase of Ariel, they may be of interest to you. I am unsure if they are truly Mark0 plans or not.

Ben

Thank you for the responses. Those plans look a bit like the Mark1 cabin configuration, judging from what little I know. My boat has the small cabin, like the model boat in the gallery section. I have one a4 page with some drawings, which I will post when I know my way around the sight a bit better. And I will start taking photos of the boat soon. It's been helpful for me already to see some of the boats already here. I'm using them as a guide.

As far as I know three of these where built in New Zealand during the mid sixties.

Steven.

Steven,

Do you know if they still exist and any boat names please.

hi Steven
I built that model Top Hat and Jilpanger was constructed off the same plans but in fiberglass I had the plans scanned and I have them on a CD and the same plans are on this site

Cheers Bear

I just tried to upload a photo but I couldn't. I got the message " board attachment quota has been reached".

I only know of my tophat being in New Zealand at this stage. I will be keeping lookout from now on. My boats name is Toroa.
That's the Maori name for albatross.

I am very interested in the digital copy's of the plans. I have seen some line drawing here in the gallery. Are there more detailed versions?.

Regards Steven Crawford.

OK! I managed to upload a photo of my boat to the mark0 galleries.

What a beauty!

Thank you, I am very proud. I think I can trust this boat with my life:-)