tophatyachts.com

Noticed the description for method of construction for mark1 Top Hats reads ''hull and deck joined". For mark3 it reads sprayed in 2 halves and joined down the middle. This is a radical change in method. One would assume the mark2s were made in the same way as the mark3s. Does this mean mark3s can't/won't leak between deck and hull? I anticipate comments from mk1 owners of mark 3s splitting down the middle.

Cheers, John

John,

All Top Hats were made in 3 parts:

Hull in two parts, that were then joined in factory and the deck.

The real trick here is that a few owners got the hull [joined up of course] and the deck as two parts.

These [only Mk 2 & 3] were then joined by the owner and I believe that some had trouble with this as the salesman at Formit said to me that this was one of the worse decisions they made.

Phillip.

When I did the bow repair to Tales I also took care of some old toerail damage and cutting away material from the bow, gained some insights into the construction methods used on the MkIII.

The deck/hull joint has a nice overlap to which the toerail is bolted. This joint is reinforced inside by broad 'tabs' running the length of the boat.

The exception to this is the joint at the bow. Where the deck raises up at the bow fitting there are tabs internally but no overlap on the outside as the deck is then at the same height as the top edge of the hull. Tales just had some filler in this area and it had cracked allowing water ingress to the wooden block.

Also the tabs are difficult to lay up as one has to be on ones back to do it in a very confined space.

The picture shows a section of the raised deck from the bow with thick tabs layed up below. You can see the large air gaps where the tabs fell away before curing. There was a lot of black mould in these areas so I cut them out to sound material before laying up a new deck.

On the outer part of the hull I was able to see the externally applied overlapping tab which ran about 100mm round each side.

My impression (apart from the forward deck) was a very strongly built hull.

Cheers,

Tom