AHPC introduced the 14 ft Taipan 4.3 in 1999, but it never came into production. It sounds like it would fit perfectly into this class if juiced up a bit and with a spin added. A few vestiges found on the web about this neat boat:
Thanks for sharing this! Maybe Jim could retool and add small daggers for a US boat! His boats are well built and he already has an established US dealership network!
Bob
"The election is over, the talking is done, Your party lost, my party won. So let us be friends, let arguments pass, I’ll hug my elephant, you kiss you’re a $$.” Liberalism = A brain eating amoeba & a failed political ideology of the 20th century!
The boat was a small 14ftr trainer and really not suitable for serious competition. It's performance in the 14ft class was a bit average here in Oz. MY '430' pictured above is more of a performance oriented 4.3m/14ftr. Specs. Designer/Builder Bern Leslie Length: 14ft nom. / 4.3m [LWL] Beam: 7ft.10in / 2.4m Displacement: 107lbs / 75kg Sail area: main: 145sqft / 13.5sqm Spinnaker: TBA Mast Height: 24ft 7ins. / 7.5m Bern
I checked with AHPC. Bad news, no plans for the 4.3 Tiapan exist. They made it modifying some molds for the 4.9. Unfortunatly, it doesn't seem like they want to be much help.
I'm serious about building a boat, but I'm not going to make a mold. It's going to have to be tortured ply, or something I can "build up". Glass and foam don't scare me, and neither does carbon.
Got a used A class pentax main for the sail, now I need a mast, beams, and rudder system.
So for those that have built your own boats...just how hard is it???
Here is a letter I received from Greg Goodall at AHPC:
Hi Mary, the formula 14 class is a interesting concept and hopefully will become popular. Unfortunately we don't have any plans for building a 4.3 catamaran at this time. The taipan 4.3 that we built a couple of years ago was only a proto type adapted out of the taipan 4.9 moulds. This boat was sold 18 months ago. We do not intend to do any further development on the 4.3 at this time.
Regards, Greg
Re: Taipan F14--Did you know...
[Re: Mary]
#29763 02/15/0401:07 AM02/15/0401:07 AM
