Nostalgia

[Alan]

Hello forum members: I am a previous Top Hat owner and enjoyed our boat ’Deus Regit II’ for Six and half years after fitting out and launching her a Mark III (with two windows) in late 1986. I lived aboard with my wife for 5 years cruising around the Pacific to Canada and back. We sold the boat in 1992.
I was recently pleased to read of Jamie Mitchell’s achievements of sailing around the world over the last 10 years in his Top Hat ‘Possibilities’(what a great name) and during the same week ran across a toppy being hauled at a local boat ramp for routine maintenance. Both of these instances prompted a nostalgic revisit to the past and our experiences with a Top Hat and an internet search found this Top Hat site which I have enjoyed reading the questions and comments! Top Hats still catch my eye whenever I see one and it’s nice to read of so many enthusiastic owners enjoying their boats. Cheers, Alan

[Miker]

Nice of you to drop by Alan, do you have a log and stories of your trip to Canada to share?

Michael

[Tales]

Hi Alan,
Great to have you aboard!
Many of us are relatively new to sailing and would appreciate reading anything you have to offer.
Six and a half years is a long time to sail and live aboard a boat so I imagine you had it pretty well sorted by the end.
Some information on water storage, offshore rig preparation and the dinghy problem would be very welcome.
All the best,
Tom

[Alan]

Hi Mike, Tom and Co, sure plenty of stories to tell but a bit hard to put in this format? I will try and answer your questions.

Re: Rig we kept it pretty simple and went for a slight increase in wire to 7/32 and set up a small inner forestay with 3/16 wire for a storm jib sized staysail that had one slab reef point in it which gave a lot of versatility combined with the reef-able Genoa on a furler and main with three reefs. We supported the mast in way of the inner forestay with running backstays which we set up with simple tackle.

Water storage was standard under the cabin sole – about 120lts and in addition we had a couple of 12 Lt Jerry cans; later when we started having kids we carried a bit more water than this though that was enough for our longest passage of 35 days with just my wife and I onboard.

Dinghies- we tried a couple of combinations from modifying one to fit neatly up forward to making a custom one – which unfortunately focussed more on aesthetics than function and was a nice fit forward of the mast but too small to be practical. Eventually we settled on a US Montgomery 68 which is a large capacity clinker pram that is compact and stable it fit well forward and wasn’t very heavy, but did everything well in the water. We still use this original one regularly (I liked it so much that a couple of years ago I purchased the rights to build in Australia and have production moulds) Sorry if that sounds like a pitch. We had an inflatable for a while but it was a cheap version fine at the time but a bit less reliable to deal with on a regular basis, modern inflatable’s are certainly fine but would need to be small if kept alive on deck. My preference is to have a dinghy ready when needed so to pack and fold didn’t really suit. I don’t believe its good practice to tow a dinghy.
Cheers, Alan

[Shaun]

Hello Alan,

Welcome to the site!

I thought i recognised the name "Deus Regit II", many many years ago there was nothing on the internet about Top Hats, except for a reference to them on a page on the Mussellbrook Hall Of Fame http://www.muswellbrook.org.au/halloffa ... picture=27 (I hope you dont mind me posting that , its very interesting & impressive).

Thank You for taking the time to join & post on this forum.

cheers
Shaun



Alan, Did you reinforce the deck under the chainplates &/or the backing plates for the chainplates?

[Alan]

Hi Shaun,
re: backing plates under chainplates..
I actually did end up putting angle bar under the chainplates though not until after we had sailed more than 10,000 miles.. I used Galvanised steel about 35-40mm and painted it..
I dont think it was really necasary as the deck never moved, distorted or groaned in the area. So it was more a case of maybe thats a good idea,i never regretted it, but it wasnt an issue in the long term. Maybe an old boat with water ingress into the plywood core could be a case for concern? It will depend on the boat ..
I think if anyones sailing a Top Hat and there are no indicators of stress - delam or other signs of a problem in way of the chainplates then they should probably relax and go sailing!
Cheers, Alan