Well as you may have read in my other post, last night I drove from Cary out to my parents place in Kill Devil Hills so that today I could head down to Ocracoke to look at a "free" Tornado, well long story short the boat was really rotten as it had been sitting upside down on a plywood (ie wet) trailer for years, we flipped the hulls over and they were total mush. Perhaps a good project for someone...but not me.

So driving back to my parents place I was sort of bummed, but figured hey what the heck it was a free boat...I shouldn't have expected much. As we are pulling back into my parents neighborhood I noticed a red sailboat sitting behind one of the houses at the end of their street, so we took a walk down there to take a peak and find out what it was....just out of curiosity.

Walking up to the boat I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was an Isotope!! Exactly the type of boat that I sailed last week, and was planning on buying eventually. So we knock on the door and see if the owner is possibly interested in selling it, and he says "hell just take it out of my backyard and you can have it!!"

So there it is...after driving out to the outerbanks in the end not only do I end up with a boat, but one that is more suited to me, in MUCH better shape and FREE!

The Isotope will take a little bit of work to get it back on the water, the rigging is all there and in good shape its just old school, the main and jib are actually in pretty decent shape but again, old. The biggie is that one of the hulls has a crack in it, however my ol man is confident we can repair it. Once the hulls are structuraly sound (no soft spots anywhere!) I plan to have it sanded and painted and the back on the water. The boat was last sailed in '06.

Anyways enough drivel, here are a few quick pictures. Its sail #1100

I should add that it also included a nice trailer set up for the Isotope!

Couple quick questions, the center boards are made of metal...is this factory or did someone make up a set of their own. How is the mast base/bottom of the mast supposed to look, am I missing something? I do have a big bag of parts that I havent rummaged through yet that it could be in (mast base)
It would also appear that at some point someone tried to add a crossbar to the front of the boat (like the newer ones) we plan to seperate the deck and hulls to make some repairs, should I bother reinstalling it, or perhaps buy the parts from IFG to update it properly...see pics below

More pictures





\[img]http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/745296/fullsize/dsc03547.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/745297/fullsize/dsc03581.jpg[/img]

Sail it like you stole it...'cause you did.

Congrats!
That glass repair will work out, just do it right the first time and you'll never have to worry about it again. Get new standing rig and check all of the fittings that hold up the mast.

Sail on!

J

And some more pictures (I am excited if ya can't tell)

This is the worst spot on the boat by far, but we have a plan to fix it

At one time, Isotopes had metal (aluminum, I think) centerboards. Frank tells stories about how they used to hum, and you could tell if someone was gaining on you because their's had a higher pitch.

The mast base looks fine to me.

The crack in the picture looks like a straightforward repair. I'd hesitate to separate the deck from the hulls - what makes you contemplate that? The compression bar is not the current design, but it might have been made that way. I do notice that the bridle wires are not attached. Does this boat have a roller-furling jib? The trampoline looks new (it's a recent style anyway), although it is not tied to the front crossarm. There should be a rod across the front that you lace to. One thing to check on Isotopes of this age, is for stress-cracks in the crossarms. The front crossarm, especially - where the dolphin striker is welded on (newer ones are bolted), can fracture over time. The mast looks like it might be newer than the hulls. At least, it doesn't appear to have diamond wires (which is good). Sail number 1100 is Howard Alexander's. He might know something about the history of the boat. Howard or Frank would be good people to check with about what it might need and how to fix it up.

Otherwise, if you bring it to the lake, we'd be happy to look the boat over for you.

Regards,
Eric

Unbelievable!!! What GREAT LUCK. I"m Jealous but thrilled at the same time. Welcome to the fleet!

Isotopes Nationals is 4th weekend in August, Lake Wacammaw Sailing Club.

I called Rhoda and left a voicemail to see if she knew the history of the boat.

The mast base looks perfect. Absolutely, the crack is fixable!! Let me read more.

Congrats, hope to see you out on the lake in the future. I'd second Eric's advice...don't remove the decks unless absolutely necessary. Hopefully those big hatches give plenty of access to your repair (you might also might make sure those hatches seal well or you can let in a lot of water).

anyday you get a free boat, is a good day.

Hope to see you around!

awesome, congrats.. sure beats a mushy tornado! plus it should be alot easier to trailer

What an awesome story!

I always think about stopping at places that have an obvious boat that has gone unused to see "What it will take...." but never have. Maybe now I will. Great job and good luck. Wow.

Have any of you ever done what he did and just ask?

Quick day two update

we are in the process of seperating the h deck and hull. The front crossbeam up near the bow is not the factory style and needs to be completely removed and updated. It's a slow process but have just about got the starboard hull seperated. More pictures and updates later...back to work for me

Yeah... I would have agreed with all the other peeps that said leave the deck in place.

We're in it now...

@Eric - no roller furling jib, though one will be added when the time comes. Did these boats have any sort of hull/serial number etc on them?

Well plans have somewhat changed, and for the better. It would appear (after talkging to IFG) that my boat is like a 70-71 but has the more modern mast and rigging (woot!)

The hulls are worse than we thought, we got inside one of them and the deck (while solid) is somewhat unrepairable. I've spoken with IFG and they have a set of brand new 1989 hulls sitting up at the shop, as long as the price is within our reaach I am just going to buy them and swap everything else that I have over.

Stay tuned.

Good choice. Hope they cut you a break.

Figured I would give you guys and update.

I am going to be picking up a set of really clean '83 hulls with tramp, crossbeams, compression bar and some other misc rigging from IFG in the next two weeks or so. Heading back out to Kill Devil Hills Friday after work to finish up the trailer resto and then bringing it all (sans hulls) back with me so I can head up to IFG's factory to assemble the boat on the 'new' hulls!