North American Fireball Message Board: FRP molds

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FRP molds

Posted by Pat on 8/7/2009, 12:46 pm
69.106.236.102

Available fiber glass molds for fireball building; hull, deck, mast partner and centerboard cap.

In the late 1980 a group of fireball sailors from Fleet 271 (San Francisco) provided funding for the construction of the molds to be used in building new boats for the local fleet.Buzz Ballenger was the first to build boats from this tooling, he is now no longer involved in boat building but still maintains a spar service with a fabrication facility in Watsonville, CA. He is currently sailing in the Flying Dutchman class. The next builder to use this tooling was Larry Tuttle of Water Rat fame, Larry is not longer building boats (yes even 5o5s) and is now concentrating on his foils. I think Larry builds the best center boards and rudders in the world. The last builder involved with this tooling was Steve Smith, he and the late Uncle Bobby worked on a hybrid boat that was to be part wood and part GLP using the deck tooling, but in the end they ran out of time and finished the boats in wood. Steve would not be interested in building one off boats but might be interested in building a group of boats, how many and for how much, I would have to talk to him.

The tooling could also be sold to another builder outside the San Francisco area, the price could be worked out to fit the conditions.

Another option would be to go the amateur building route. We completed a couple of boats this way. I can offer a construction outline and be available to answer questions but could not get too involved in a building project outside of the SF Bay Area.

After almost 20 years sailing in the Class I miss the Fireball. Most of my sailing currently has been in Big Boat racing on the Bay, although I did get back into the 5o5 for a short period of time. Most of the sailors that would have gone into the Fireball class locally have chosen the 29'er class.

If anyone has an interest in this tooling please contact me

Patrick Grey
pgrey@att.net