Hi Bill,

As far as I know, the only one who has any stock of Taipan parts is Guck, Inc and these are what were left over from Taipan America. You can visit their web sit ( Guck, Inc) to see what they have. The factor representatives that AHPC list are really of no help. The ones I have contacted don't have any spare parts and they don't have boats in stock. They say they will order anything for you but if you can order the parts yourself direct from the factor, why pay extra for the added factor rep markup. It is a shame that AHPC can't find a serious representative in the US that will really market the boat. The Taipan 4.9 is such a great boat and I think we would see the fleet grow quicker than it is if they were more readily available and supported.

As far as T4.9 owners stocking part, I have a few items but nothing major. All I have is an extra inspection port and a universal joint. I have two booms, one rear sheeting and one center sheeting so if I damage one I can always use the other. I just finished making a second rudder linkage bar which features a telescoping tiller extension. I like sailing uni with the fixed length one that came with the boat but I find myself hitting the crew in the face with it when I sail sloop. I havn't sailed the boat with crew recently so I havn't tried it yet. I have 3 main sails, 2 sloop and 1 cat, but only one jib and 1 spinnaker. Each main has its own set of battens. I did a beutiful swan dive into my original main sail and it now has a rather large and noticable patch in it (This was the sail Micheal was using at JPOR). I broke my spinnaker pole last year and built a new one from the spar off a Sunfish sail and the hardware off the old one. I didn't like my orginal pole so this gave me an opportunity to make it the way I wanted it. I think the problem with stocking parts is you will never have the part on hand that you need unless you own 2 boats, one to sail and one to canabilize for spare parts.

Jennifer
Taipan 4.9 #262