Concerto : Blue Water Products

"Concerto"

TimConcerto1crop

TimConcerto2crop

1969 Ted Hood Little Harbor Custom 50 centreboard ketch.

Fibreglass moulding under Lloyd's supervision by Tyler Boats, UK.

Interior fit out by Frans Maas, Holland.

Rigged and launched by Hood Yacht Systems Marblehead, USA.

Launched early 1969, and originally owned by Mr Frederick E. ("Ted") Hood as"Robin". Later "Vivace", "No Way", "Bonnie Jai" and since 1980 "Concerto".

We became her proud owners in February, 2002 in 1770 Queensland and sailed herto her new home in Sydney at that time.

She has been on the marina at The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club at Newport inSydney ever since and used just about every single weekend and holiday as awonderful family cruiser. We have taken her to Port Stephens twice and SydneyHarbour numerous times as well as spending many many weeks aboard throughoutPittwater and the Kuringai Chase National Park.

In late 2008 we took her north for 9 weeks to Lady Musgrave Island at the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef to see the sea turtles nesting, then home via the Sunshine and Gold Coasts, and the beautiful NSW North Coast.

concerto_inside
Daughter Jessi offshore off Port Stephens aged 4. February 2003.

"Concerto" Specifications

LOA 48. 11"
LWL 37. 6"
Beam 13. 1"
Draft 5. 3" board up
11. 6" board down
Displacement 42000 lbs (20 tonnes)
Ballast 12000 lbs (5.5 tonnes)

Sails:
Selden Furlex headsail furler. Lazyjacks and separate boom cover onmainsail.
Hood Sails Melbourne 1989: Mainsail, No. 2 genoa, Mizzen.
Also older ï¿½ oz. Spinnaker, no. 3 genoa, mizzen staysail,
storm jib and trysail.

Engine:
Yanmar 110hp 4 cyl. Turbo Diesel.fitted Nov. 2011
1.5 inch stainless shaft.
3 blade Maxprop feathering propellor.
Fuel capacity: 500 litres.

Water capacity: 1000 litres.

Deck:
Keefe electric anchor winch with chain counter, 60kg Bruce anchor, 60 metres of 10mmchain.

Single spreader Hood mast with fore and aft lowers, baby stay and hydraulicbackstay. Single spinnaker pole stored along front edge of mast therebyfreeing up entire foredeck.
Mizzen mast and boom have currently been removed but will be included with theboat.

8 x Bomar deck hatches + 6 opening chrome side ports into saloon.

4 self tailing cockpit winches . primaries are 3 speed Barient 32.s.
1 cabin top mainsheet winch, plus cabin top centreboard cable winch.
2 self tailing halyard winches on mast plus 2 spinnaker halyard and 2 toppinglift winches.
1 reefing winch on boom.

Fully plumbed gas barbecue mounted on pushpit.

Brand new spray dodger and cuddy dodger over fwd hatch.
Bimini and linking sheet between bimini and dodger then side curtains down tolifelines to enclose and weatherproof cockpit..

Teak wheel with large helm compass plus two tactical coaming compasses.

High pressure salt water deckwash.

Accommodation:
Forward V- berth double, dressing area aft of that.
Identical double bunk cabins port and starboard adjacent to mast . both lowerbunks can open up to form doubles . currently only starboard cabin has cushionmade up to do so.
Saloon has pilot berth to port as well as settee berth under that slides outto make a decent width bunk.
Total berths 2 doubles, plus 5 singles, but comfortably 3 cabins - all forwardbeing either two doubles and a twin, or a double and two matching twins.

Large open saloon, table to starboard seats 8 comfortably. Engine is mountedin the centre and the engine box forms a two person centreline bench at thesaloon table.

Open dutch tiled fireplace.

Galley aft to starboard with stainless steel benchtop, fridge, freezer andthree burner stainless steel stove and oven. Twin centreline sinks, pressurehot and cold water plus manual cold water pump.

Head and separate shower aft to port. Fireplace chimney goes up through headto deck thereby warming this space and drying towels or wet weather gear.

Massive storage under cockpit accessible from port and starboard cockpit seatlockers. Access space between these ie under cockpit floor for fresh waterpump, salt water deckwash pump, and access to steering gear.

Starboard aft end of cockpit has separate drained gas and outboard fuel locker. 2 x 4.5 kg gas bottles fitted. Similar locker to port accesses exhaustmuffler, autopilot hydraulic ram etc.

Electronics:
Magnavox MX400 GPS with Simrad cockpit repeater.
Black and white chartplotter in nav station.
Depth sounder (two transducers with mercury gravity switch) with Simradcockpit repeater.
B&G masthead wind direction (old and working but requiring replacement).
Icom VHF with masthead antenna.
Furuno 16 mile radar.
Wood Freeman electric/hydraulic autopilot . (old but perfectly functional andquite AMAZING in action).
240 volt shorepower with two interior outlets, 240 volt hot water and Woodsbattery charger.
Start battery Nov. 03. Lifeline 2700T 100ah 900CCA "Heavy Duty Cranking"
House batteries Jan 06. 2 x Vision 200AH maintenance free Absorbed Glass Matbatteries.

Other:
Fenders, dock lines, cockpit cushions, wheel and binnacle cover, all sheets,beautiful dutch teak removable swimming ladder for amidships, foldingstainless steel swim ladder permanently mounted on transom.

Ted Hood

An eye for sailmaking.

A prolific sailmaker, yacht designer, innovator, and champion sailor FrederickE. "Ted" Hood first became prominent as a sailmaker producing crosscutspinnakers for offshore racers and America's Cup 12-Meter yachts. Then, hismainsails and jibs became the standard. Of his sailmaking ability North SailsPresident Tom Whidden said, "No one had a better eye for sailmaking than TedHood, you could not teach a sailmaker to see what Hood saw." A championsailor: Hood sailed in several America's Cup boats and won the Cup in 1974 asskipper on Courageous.

He also won offshore championships, including SORC and Newport Bermuda Race.As a yacht designer Hood produced numerous race winning Robins, the America'sCup yachts Nefertiti and Independence, and 1,600 other designs.

Few know him as the innovator behind the development of the grooved headstayand dip-pole jibes.

Sailing World Magazine
Hall of Fame April 2002

"Concerto" History

Ted Hood was approached in early 1968 by E. Llwyd Ecclestone, a propertydeveloper and very keen and experienced racing yachtsman, for the design andbuilding of a new racing yacht to the then current CCA Rating Rule (see notesbelow). The resulting 50 footer was "Bikini", "Concerto"s sistership. At Ted'srecommendation her hull and deck were built in the UK at Tyler's and a mouldwas made from which "Concerto" was hull no. 1, of a total of 4 for Ted'sLittle Harbour Boat Yard Corporation. There were several more boats from themoulds that were later finished by Tyler's but which are not in any sense trueLittle Harbors.

"Bikini" was launched as a sloop, "Concerto" and her three other sisters as"racing yawls", as the American's used to call them although technically theywere all ketches. Ted tells me that under the CCA rule there was no penaltyfor the extra sail area in the mizzen, and off-wind the extra horsepower fromflying the mizzen and a huge mizzen staysail, was really useful on longerraces.

As far as the centreboard, as you will see in the chapter reproduced belowfrom the Cruising Club of America's "Offshore Yachts" book, Ted writes thatthese boats were designed for "off-shore racing and cruising, as well as forshallow water cruising, therefore she has a 5 foot draft and a centreboard.Three different models were tested at the Davison Institute to get a goodall-round boat before hull lines were finalised".

Ted Hood sent me these two great photos of "Bikini" .they are from theSouthern Ocean Racing Conference (S.O.R.C.) in Florida in 1969. Both boatswere brand new then, and Ted was racing his (our) boat, then known as "Robin",in Class A against "Bikini".

In the Miami - Nassau Race "Robin" was 12th, "Bikini" 2nd.
In the Nassau Cup Race "Robin" was 10th and "Bikini" 14th and
in the Lipton Cup Race "Robin" was 11th and "Bikini" was 10th.
concerto_black1

Ted sold "our" Robin shortly after that SORC series in 1969 and orderedanother sistership from Tyler and Maas. Boat 2 sold before Ted could get hishands on her and he eventually finished up with hull no. 3 as his next"Robin". So in effect our boat like all of Ted's many Robins was largely builtas a demonstrator for him and his "Little Harbour Boat Yard Corporation".

The next owner, a New York advertising executive and close friend of TedHood's by the name of Ed Ricotta renamed her "Vivace" and contested the 1969and 1971 Marblehead-Halifax Races. She came in 8th in class A in 1969 (againstthat third sistership James Wickersham's "Gannet's" 9th), and 17th in Class Bin 1971 against two sisterships: "Adele" was 3rd (Ted's other "Robin . hullno. 4), and "Gannet" was 14th. After only three summers with the boat Edretired both from business and sailing and she was passed on again into newhands.

This time to a Mr Ronald L. Donley who renamed her "No Way" because as hetells it there was no way he could afford either the boat or to go oceanracing. There was no way he should have bought her in the first place and noway he should have been spending so much on her so his wife told him to callher "No Way". Ron did in fact do a great deal of ocean racing during his 7years of ownership including two Newport-Bermuda Races, two Annapolis-NewportRaces, two Block Island Race Weeks, and the 1976 Southern Ocean RacingConference (SORC) in Florida.

Ron then sold her to a gentleman called Ralph Mueller in Minnesota and herre-named "Bonnie Jai". I have been unable to find out much about Ralph exceptthat her next owner assures me that right through till the point he purchasedher from Ralph she had always had a full-time captain aboard her and wasalways immaculate in every way with all exterior teak gloss varnished.

In 1980 a young Texan by the name of Bil Colthurst spied the boat for sale inSalem, Massachusetts and fell instantly in love with her. He was planning asinglehanded circumnavigation and wanted "the biggest boat I could comfortablysail on my own". He had calculated what he believed was the maximum size ofyacht that he could hoist, drop, flake and stow the no. 1 genoa on and hadbeen looking for either a Sparkman and Stephens design or a Swan but wasutterly captivated with "Bonnie Jai" and immediately purchased her instead.Bil then undertook a thorough re-fit before spending a summer offering"Concerto", as he had then re-named her, for skippered charter throughout the1980 America's Cup in Newport Rhode Island. He then spent a couple of yearschartering her out of Grenada in the Carribean before starting his solocruising through Central America, Panama, The Galapagos Islands and on toTahiti. There he met Yuko, a Japanese university student celebrating hergraduation with a brief holiday before returning to start her career in Tokyo.She instead sailed to Australia with Bil arriving in Bundaberg on ChristmasDay in 1984.

They cruised south to Tasmania, buying land and settling ashore there for awhile before setting off around the top of Australia to Fremantle and againchartering during the 1987 America's Cup there. Returning to Tasmania andthereby completing their circumnavigation of Australia, they decided to sell"Concerto", to start a family and to spend time with Yuko's family inJapan.

Bil and Yuko were fastidious with their care and maintenance of the boat andkept her full varnish up throughout their ownership.
It seems Bil still has a real soft spot for his old boat and he and I keep intouch. In fact he keeps a couple of pages on his family website devoted to"Concerto" and has uploaded around 50 photographs from their travels togetherthrough out the Pacific.

http://www.concertocomputers.com/bil/Family/concerto.htm

She was next purchased by a Melbourne yachtsman John McQuay who employed askipper to keep her in the same immaculate condition. He replaced her workingsails through Hood's Melbourne loft and had planned on racing "Concerto" inthe longer distance passage events on the East Coast such as the Sydney-Suvaand Sydney-Noumea Races, but finding it difficult for his friends to take therequired time off to join him he placed her on the market again within a shorttime.

Experienced Melbourne couple Don and Rosie Pedder were her next owners andthey along with their daughter Adele sailed her north to Queensland and livedaboard her for the next 11 years. They decided to move ashore in 2002 and itbecame our turn to take over custodianship of this fabulous yacht.

I can clearly recall my first sight of one of Bil Colthurst's or perhaps JohnMcQuay's ads for the boat in Trade-A-Boat magazine 12 or 13 years earlier andwhen Don began advertising her again in 2001 in the magazine I immediatelytook an interest. My wife and I flew to Queensland to see her up the tinycreek in 1770 and we too fell under her spell and took possession of her inBundaberg on Valentine's Day in 2002.

Coincidentally "Concerto's" youngest sister, the dark blue hulled no. 4 boatfrom the moulds, "Cornelia Maria" was cruised to Australia by her retiredAmerican owners before also being sold here in 2003, and she now lives inBrisbane.

"Concerto" Design

The Cruising Club of America (CCA) Rule:
"By 1969 ocean racing had worked itself up to a fever pitch in the UnitedStates as hundreds of new sportsmen entered the fray, mostly in the new glassboats being turned out by a score of boat companies across the United States.
(The 1969 S.O.R.C.) series marked a turning point in American ocean racing.First there was a quantum jump in the number of entries. In the Miami-NassauRace, the most popular event on the calendar, 100 boats participated.

The year 1970 marked the last time the S.O.R.C. was sailed under the C.C.A.rule, a fact that Florida yachtsmen especially, and others from all over theUS have been mourning ever since".

From: Ocean Racing Around the World" -Geoffrey Hammond

"On the one hand were the Americans with their Cruising Club of America or CCArating, while on the other were the Europeans with the Royal Ocean Racing Clubor RORC system. The American formula did favour broad, heavy hulls and themainsail carried relatively little weighting and was therefore large, whilethe opposite could be said of the British system...

The International Offshore Rule or IOR became official on the 1st of January,1970 and was to govern ocean racing throughout the world from that dateonwards... It is a complex formula that includes parts of both the RORC andthe CCA systems."

"Carina. was fitted with a centerboard, a single blade for sailing towindward, stability being guaranteed by her beam and the fact that no lessthan 45% of her displacement was accounted for by ballast. She would appear tobe a boat designed for following winds but won the 1955 edition of the Fastnetin testing conditions to windward. The fact is that ballast that is not settoo low makes for a sweeter yacht when breasting waves and pitching and a welldesigned centerboard can have a greater effect than a long keel integratedwith the hull. The result is a yacht that is faster to leeward and beatsbetter".

The following pages are taken from a hardcover book called "Desirable andUndesirable Characteristics of Offshore Yachts" published by The TechnicalCommittee of the Cruising Club of America in 1987.
Adele_1

"Concerto" Recent maintenance history.

Previous to our ownership

Rig removed, re-painted and re-rigged February 95
Engine new .77, engine mounts done .92
Hull has been resprayed and is still in excellent order.
Osmosis was treated once roughly 25 years ago and again roughly 15 years agoand we are still getting the occasional blister but with the hull being asthick as it is I have never considered them any cause for concern.

2002

Bought in 1770 Queensland -Feb 2002

New muffler Elasto 80mm ex New Zealand

Replaced lower rigging screws .Mooloolaba,

Arrived Pittwater Easter 2002

5/02 Complete fridge service, re-gas etc + new thermostat

8/02 Serviced EPIRB

8/02 Serviced Jonbuoy Danbuoy

11/02 Complete engine service, new oil cooler, all new belts, anodes, hoses,small (60 amp) alternator, cooling system core acid cleaned etc with AlFrancis,

LP Gas sniffer and solenoid fitted, and complete gas system check 10/02
Gas barbecue plumbed and fitted.

All sails to Hood Sails .re-cut headsail, spinnaker, main and mizzen.

11/02 Slipped, antifouled, polished, re-pitched prop .20 degrees, 5 newseacocks etc for: engine inlet, toilet in & out, sinks x 3 outlet, 2 cockpitdrains, removed rudder and replaced bearing, also prop shaft bearing, 1" gaslocker drain fitted,

Removed forward head and shower,

2003

Removed all cockpit winches for full o'haul , service and re-chrome

7/03 Removed, reconditioned and replaced centreboard, black hard racingantifoul and new s/s/ cable 1:1 only.

8/03 Removed mizzen (and radar scanner)

Drained and scrubbed all three fuel tanks. Forward tank no longer in use .refilled port and starboard tanks. total 272 litres.

Removed and serviced hydraulic backstay adjuster

11/03 Steering compass removed, serviced (bubble repaired), adjusted forsouthern hemisphere etc

11/03 Replaced start battery Lifeline 2700T 100ah 900CCA "Heavy Duty CrankingBattery"

11/03 Grounded prop shaft across flex-coupling, tested with Tim Stranack

12/03 Full anchor winch grease and service (non-electrical only).

2004

4/04 Replaced Main and Genoa halyard winches on mast with self tailers.

Replaced all 48 bolts on Port and Starboard cap shrouds, fore and aft lowers(involved complete removal and replacement of port and starboard twin cabinbunks). Strengthened and glassed up under supervision of surveyor DougBrooker. Major undertaking but should be good for another 35 years now.

Cockpit instruments .purchased Simrad GPS repeater, serviced old B & G winddirection, and re-fitted Datamarine depth sounder repeater

Replaced both "plumber's block" bearings on intermediate section ofpropshaft.

8/04 Slipped, anti antifouled, polished, re-pitched prop .16 degrees, removedrudder again and glassed up crack in skeg.

Serviced autopilot hydraulics: new pressure gauge, overhauled ram, pressuretest etc

Replaced depth sounder with Cruzpro printed circuit board to convert 120kHzsignal
from two existing transducers to NMEA and added second Simrad Multi displayhead in cockpit

Removed much old and unnecessary wiring and plumbing

2005

Raised engine and removed sump after an engine mount sheared and the enginedropped and bruised the aluminium sump on the top of the centreboard cablehousing. Repaired sump and replaced .also re-aligned shaft and machined shaftcoupling faces, replaced more wiring, etc

Repaired crack in port fuel tank

Serviced hydraulic backstay ram again.

Replaced fresh water system accumulator

Put full overhaul kit into fresh water pump

Rebuilt companionway garage - incl. new laid teak

2006

1/06 Replaced house batteries (2 x Trojan 115 AH) with 2 x Vision FM200 (2 x200AH) fully sealed and maintenance free Absorbed Glass Mat batteries.

Also built new battery boxes for above and re-secured to bilge.

Had all battery cables checked and refitted by electrician.

Changed centreboard cable arrangement to be 2:1 again but with purchaseaccessible and above cabin top.

Re-sealed and re-secured all staunchions, as well as handrail on starboardcabin top thereby stopping the one persistent deck leak we had beenchasing.

Slipped for antifoul April . cut and polished topsides, removed and replacedaft section of prop shaft. Replaced skeg bearing. Re-packed stern gland. Oldshaft had been shimmed to accept Maxprop, new shaft machined correctly. Engineand shaft fully re-aligned. (ie all engine mounts fully checked andadjusted).

July . full engine service including repeated flushing of cooling system andtotal replacement of coolant.

2007

Replaced spray dodger.

Replaced pram dodger over forward hatch.

Replaced all lifeline wires and mid-ships boarding gates.

Strengthened and re-fitted davits, 3.1 metre Aquapro dinghy and Johnson 15hpoutboard, as well as having mount welded on port davit for radar scanner.

Re-fitted radar scanner.

2008

Mast removed, stripped and completely refurbished. All new standing rigging, and spectra halyards.

A removable second forestay was also fitted just aft of the main forestay onto which a new working jib was hanked for any windward work on our Queensland trip while the larger headsail on the furler was used more as a reacher offshore. For inshore sailing we remove the second forestay and simply use the larger headsail.

At the same time bow roller was removed for re-welding and strengthening as well as replacement of all mounting bolts.

Centreboard removed, faired, epoxied and treated with Coppercoat epoxy antifouling. In theory this will last ten years and will only require occasional scrubbing whilst in the water.

New Jabsco toilet fitted, as well we have bought a small Porta Potti.

New 406 EPIRB.

2011

Brand new Yanmar 110hp 4 cyl. Turbo Diesel fitted Nov 2011.

Having now returned from our Queensland adventure we have regretfully decided to put "Concerto" up for sale. As our children grew larger and their range of other sports and interests does as well we plan to look for something a little smaller for pottering and day sailing around our beloved Pittwater.

Our asking price is $235,000 Australian and for any further information or to arrange an inspection in Sydney please contact John Lamble on
(61) 408 970 087or email jlamble@bluewaterprod.com.au

concerto