SR25 Ruckus: Leaving blog up as information

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Leaving blog up as information

I actually did sell Ruckus over a year ago to a very nice sailormaker and last I heard, he was doing pretty well with it in the Miami, Florida area. . I am glad. I will leave this blog up for a while still as a source of information on both the SR sailboats and C&C, who purchased the SR line in about 1994.

Also, as far as I know, the only other SR25 actually built and finsihed is Hull Two and is in California still.

For the record, I do miss this boat! The pictures were from Sailing Anarchy's CHAWS event, held only one year at Ft Pierce, Florida.

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SR 25 Ruckus Infomation

1995 C&C SR25 Hull#1 Ruckus (ex: Putz)

This is hull one of two in existence. Hull 2 is currently in California. As a new boat, Putz won it’s class in Key West two years running. She had been modified at the time to have a masthead spinnaker and rated 120. We purchased Ruckus (then named Flash Gordon) from Chicago in April of 2007. The previous owner had removed the masthead mods and returned the boat to stock configuration. The last LMPHRF rating was 129 and the current PHRF in Florida is 132.

A SR25 is a beautiful boat that requires an intense and complete commitment to do well with her. She is a joy to sail, but like any thoroughbred, she requires a lot from her crew. It is important to know this up front as the learning curve may very well be much higher than expected. When you get it right with this boat, there is nothing better. Getting it right pretty much all the time is what is required to win.

We believe hull one is the boat tested by all of the magazines as while hull 2 did seem to make the show circuit in Florida, it seemed to head out west pretty quickly. Read the tests and the brochure as it does explain some of the reasoning behind the boat. The reasoning is basically sound but it is also what makes the SR line somewhat harder to sail to their ultimate potential. If you think you are up to the challenge of sailing a boat like this, you will never regret trying.

Now, as to Ruckus, herself:

Current Condition.

1) Returned by the previous owner to stock configuration. This means that the blocks, hardware and the rig’s diamond installed for the masthead spinnaker has been removed. All of this hardware is still in existence and will be included with the sale of the boat. Re-installing it will require some welding but is pretty straight forward. I personally can see where the extra spinnaker area was needed. No masthead spinnaker is included with the boat. It appears to be a 6 to 9 second per mile hit. It also was, as far as I can tell, only used for the asymmetrical.
2) As this was a new design for C&C, the deck has had several fitting moved early on. At one time, the boat had adjustable cars for the Genoa. These are long gone. Most of the rest of the deck hardware has been modified or replaced at one time or another. It currently uses a cam cleat on the deck for the main halyard and the spinnaker halyard while there is a double clutch deck mounted with one side unused and one side for the jib halyard. The front tracks/ single cars are for the #3 and the rear set up, with double rope cars, for the Genoa.
3) 99% of the lines, including all of the sheets and all of the halyards have been replaced with high tech line within the last 12 months or so. Halyards are Crystalyne and the sheets are primarily Flight line.
4) The rigging was all replaced in 2006. I did shorten the forestay this year with a Sta Lok fitting. The backstay is Amsteel blue, new in March 2009. Life lines were replaced with SS this year as well.
5) Mast & boom was repainted this year and is currently Silver Grey. Reasonable job, but not perfect. I had to rush it. Some previous owner had used a spray can and brush so it had been a badly needed project.
6) Rudder: Rebuilt this year. Repaired and repainted. Could be final sanded to a final racing finish.
7) Keel. Removed this year for inspection and a repair in the keel trunk. Could use a final sanding to a racing finish.
8) Hull. Some repairs made, mostly due to scrapes and bumps. No delaminating found. Some “cosmetic blistering” found where boat sits on the trailer pads. One bad thing about trailer launching it all the time. Repaired with epoxy. The blisters were between two layers of “paint”, not against any glass work.
9) Topsides. Professionally painted in 2006. Blistered in 2007. It must be pointed out that this hull is not a production hull, rather it was the one-off prototype hull from which the production tooling was made. The small paint blistering is primarily over one of the two types of putty used to fair the hull. I was told the old silver paint (from Putz days) was “stripped off” which could have meant that the resulting primer coats were contaminated by a residue of the stripper used. However, I do not believe it was ever recognized before that this was not a production type hull. The blisters are only cosmetic and contained in the paint coats and the hull is structurally very sound.
10) Deck Structure: The deck proper seems very good. The stress cracking is primarily in the cockpit and is not where there is coring but rather where the core stops and the curves are solid glass. A few repairs have been made but are visible. The painted non-skid is in need of “updating”.
11) Spinnaker Gear: It is very important to note that this boat has always been rated with both the articulated 5 foot carbon retractable sprit for asymmetrical and an oversized (by 12inches?) conventional pole and symmetrical spinnaker. The boat still has the gear for both, though we only used the conventional spinnaker once. It should really be used in certain conditions. Our bad. We were lazy old farts!
12) Sails: The boat came to me with three “sets” of sails. A raggedy set (#1, #3 and main) of Doyle Kevlar/ Mylar that seems to date back to the late 90’s. A North Mylar #1 and Dacron Main (with reef points added 2008) that date to 2000 and the full set of #1, #3 and main Doyle Stratus dated 2007. These sails were brand new on the boat when we purchased her. The main and #1 had been put up a couple of times only. Doyle has informed me that they are “high end racing sails that can not be expected to last more than a few races”. They have probably twenty races on them average in all kinds of conditions. None are worth much at this point. It is a toss up between the North Dacron and the Doyle Stratus as to which set is better right now. Neither have been very good in heavy air, including the Stratus when new. The Stratus does not like to be reefed though it had a reef point from new.
13) Motor: No outboard is currently on her. The current mount is an retractable and removable aluminum mount with a custom plywood/ epoxy pad (that weighs a third of the original).
14) Instrumentation. All electronics are Navman, linked through their Navbus system. Speed and an older but good working tack tick compass are mounted on a custom mast bracket. Depth and wind are bulkhead mounted. All of the displays went at the same time and so were replaced by Navman, but the wind is no longer calibrated and currently the sensor is not mounted, but a trace line is in the mast for the wiring.
15) Trailer: The aluminum single axle trailer is about 5 years old, I would guess. I dropped the bunks and added a couple of bow supports this year. I also have a custom clamp on extension to get the boat on and off the trailer at the shallow ramp we must use. It has a spare wheel/ tire. Extra light set up that goes on the back of the boat to make it all legal.
16) Miscellaneous: The boat does have a very good Sparcraft Vang and a gel cell marine battery. It also has three cushions (Bow, two sides - in light grey vinyl , red piping) , a custom installed potta potti (for the ladies) and functional nav lights and a cabin light. There is also a nice mast support that goes across the cockpit and a custom companionway cover that bumps up for the keel with the boat set low on the trailer. Also things like custom interior side bags, halyard bags, cockpit “deck plate” bags, life line cushions (four) , standard windex, backstay flicker, custom modified keel lift winch - 3 to 1, and I’m sure a few more things I can’t think of right now.

SR25 Ruckus

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Leaving blog up as information

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SR 25 Ruckus Infomation

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