Hi Rachel, You hit a great big BINGO. Amsterdam Shipyard G. DeVries Lentsch is the yard that built my Tripp-Lentsch. They also built a small Rhodes design, as I recall; about 25 or 26 feet in length. Is that what you are looking at? DeVries Lentsch, generally built yachts in the 50' and up sizes, - mostly up - and as I mentioned before were one of the top three yards in Europe for high quality yachts, their competitors for the big jobs being, Camper & Nicholson, and Abeking & Rassmussen. DeVries Lentsch with no experience in fiberglass, and wanting to get into a new market area - used Fokker Aircraft, the Dutch aircraft manufacturing company, as fiberglass consultants - to get into the fiberglass boat business, and did it properly, in a temperature and humidity controlled shop. They built a whole new facility in Vianen, Netherlands (their main yard was in Amsterdam), just to do the fiberglass work. They built 50 Tripp-Lentsches (a Bill Tripp design, who also designed the Bermuda 40 for Hinkley, and the Northeast 38 for Le Compte, plus several smaller designs for other Dutch builders) and mine was the last one built: Number 50. At that point G. DeVries Lentsch went into bankruptcy. They had overextended themselves with the building of the whole new Vianen facility; the fiberglass boat business sales didn't materialize as rapidly as expected in their main market, the USA, .............and they lost a contract to a competitor for a large yacht - their bread and butter. Their Banks called their loans, they had liquidity problems, and that was the end of Amsterdam Shipyard, G. DeVries-Lentsch, jr. Bill Tripp had a lot of problems with the smaller Dutch builders not following his designs. They substituted iron keels for the lead that was specified, and pulled other stunts. Bill Tripp finally got fed up and said no Dutch builder was going to get another of his designs. He gave sole rights to produce Bill Tripp designs to the DeDood Shipyard in Bremen, Germany - upstream and across the Weser River from Abeking & Rassmussen. DeDood built only in wood. The smaller Dutch yards were jumping into fiberglass with both feet; learning as they went. I used to visit the Amsterdam Boat Show (and almost every other one in Europe) every year. A side advantage when one has a job that requires a lot of traveling! In '64, '65, '66 when you went into the exhibition hall, it reeked of uncured polyester. You needed a couple of Heinekens to get past the smell........, but then almost everyone was building in fiberglass, except for the few that were still making steel hulled, hard chined vessels. So, from my experience with my Tripp-Lentsch, my guess is that your Phil Rhodes ship hull, built by G. DeVries-Lentsch should be blister free. ............and I don't think - though I don't know for certain - that G. DeVries-Lentsch ever had anyone else build hulls for them. Your boat might have been part of the learning process that G. DeVries-Lentsch went through then building the Tripp-Lentsch 29s, and I know that they had a larger Tripp design ready to build - in the 37 foot size. We picked our boat up at the Vianen yard, and then went via Amsterdam-Rhine Canal to Amsterdam to the G. DeVries-Lentsch yard, where we got the mast stepped. Then we motored around the bottom of the Isselmeer to the East side where we called Harderwijk home port for a month, and learned to play with the new toy. The area where we first sailed is now a new polder - solid land - with new farms, new towns, and a city........... I used to fly over it coming into Amsterdam, and marvel. I used to sail where there are now green fields, roads, towns, ......... Let me know what you find when you inspect it. Connie
Connie, It is the boat you're thinking of, a Rhodes-designed Seafarer Meridian, hull #48, built in 1962. They're 24'9" long, with a 7' beam, and were touted as the minimum package that still had everything necessary to be a proper cruiser. One thing I've noted is that in all the literature for the Meridian, they say it has a lead ballast pig (it's externally mounted, with keel bolts), but all the Meridians I've ever seen (or heard of) have an iron pig, and I've never seen nor heard of one that actually got lead. That being said, a boatbuilder who's recently done an extensive restoration on one, reported that it was a very well-done iron casting - much higher quality than he'd often seen. Perhaps they changed it from lead before ever building any since the Meridian was supposed to be the "most affordable" of the cruising boats, providing (according to a 1961 advertisement) "Full cruising accommodations for four persons - in divided cabins!" At any rate, they sail quite well from reports I've heard, so I guess the iron worked out, although I prefer lead in principle. Interestingly, the Meridian's big sister, the Ranger (28'), was made with two optional ballast plugs the first few years: You could get an iron keel that weighed about 1800#, or a lead one that was about 2700#. I noticed that after a few years (around 1964, I think) they came out with the "Ranger II" that seemed just about the same but had a lead keel, no iron option. I think 1800# must have been a bit light for that boat, at about 7000# or so total weight. I realize this is totally non-Monty at this point - and I considered writing back-channel - but then I know that for myself, it drives me a bit nuts when someone starts an interesting thread (okay, I'm a boat nut so it's all interesting :-) on-list, then takes it back-channel and leaves me wondering what the rest of the story was... Thanks for all the interesting information, Connie. I'm going to save it in my Meridian file - it's not all that easy to dig up info. on the early years of fiberglass in Holland. I mean, certainly no-one else has ever brought up the point of "needing two Heinekens" to get past the fumes at the exhibition hall. Luckily, I'm sure they were readily available ;-) I guess you probably weren't there as early as 1962, or perhaps you would have seen #48.... I think it's kind of neat that the boat is my exact age ... too bad *I* can't be Awlgripped ;-) I'll keep you posted, --- Rachel Fatty Knees 7' dinghy Former owner, M-17 #334 Former owner, M-15 #517 Rhodes Meridian #48...?
I'm hoping we'll get to see pics of this boat if you buy her, Rachel ... She sounds unique ... Iron shouldn't be much of a problem for an external ballast keel, should it? --Craig ----- Original Message ----- From: Rachel To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 1:53 PM Subject: Dutch boatbuilders (was: Blisters) Connie, It is the boat you're thinking of, a Rhodes-designed Seafarer Meridian, hull #48, built in 1962. They're 24'9" long, with a 7' beam, and were touted as the minimum package that still had everything necessary to be a proper cruiser. One thing I've noted is that in all the literature for the Meridian, they say it has a lead ballast pig (it's externally mounted, with keel bolts), but all the Meridians I've ever seen (or heard of) have an iron pig, and I've never seen nor heard of one that actually got lead. That being said, a boatbuilder who's recently done an extensive restoration on one, reported that it was a very well-done iron casting - much higher quality than he'd often seen. Perhaps they changed it from lead before ever building any since the Meridian was supposed to be the "most affordable" of the cruising boats, providing (according to a 1961 advertisement) "Full cruising accommodations for four persons - in divided cabins!" At any rate, they sail quite well from reports I've heard, so I guess the iron worked out, although I prefer lead in principle. Interestingly, the Meridian's big sister, the Ranger (28'), was made with two optional ballast plugs the first few years: You could get an iron keel that weighed about 1800#, or a lead one that was about 2700#. I noticed that after a few years (around 1964, I think) they came out with the "Ranger II" that seemed just about the same but had a lead keel, no iron option. I think 1800# must have been a bit light for that boat, at about 7000# or so total weight. I realize this is totally non-Monty at this point - and I considered writing back-channel - but then I know that for myself, it drives me a bit nuts when someone starts an interesting thread (okay, I'm a boat nut so it's all interesting :-) on-list, then takes it back-channel and leaves me wondering what the rest of the story was... Thanks for all the interesting information, Connie. I'm going to save it in my Meridian file - it's not all that easy to dig up info. on the early years of fiberglass in Holland. I mean, certainly no-one else has ever brought up the point of "needing two Heinekens" to get past the fumes at the exhibition hall. Luckily, I'm sure they were readily available ;-) I guess you probably weren't there as early as 1962, or perhaps you would have seen #48.... I think it's kind of neat that the boat is my exact age ... too bad *I* can't be Awlgripped ;-) I'll keep you posted, --- Rachel Fatty Knees 7' dinghy Former owner, M-17 #334 Former owner, M-15 #517 Rhodes Meridian #48...? _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
On Jun 5, 2005, at 9:18 PM, Craig F. Honshell wrote:
I'm hoping we'll get to see pics of this boat if you buy her, Rachel ... She sounds unique ... Iron shouldn't be much of a problem for an external ballast keel, should it? --Craig
Okay, I promise to send photos if it all works out :-) As far as iron for the keel goes, I think that the main issue is just that it's not as heavy per the same size chunk, ie. less dense. In the case of the boat I'm talking about, the designed ballast ratio is pretty high (near 50%), so even if it's a bit less with the iron (not sure if they just used the same size iron pig as the lead that was originally planned for or if they recalculated), it's still probably more than adequate. From all reports they sail well, so it worked out okay in any case. I think the iron can also get a bit of surface rust that lead wouldn't be prone to, but all-in-all probably not as much trouble as something like a centerboard, where you have the issue of trying to keep it "thin" over the years, or as encapsulated ballast, where you have the "rusts and swells" possibility. --- Rachel PS Craig, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but your posts never have an "Re:" at the beginning of them, which is kind of confusing at times, because it always looks as though you've started the thread(s) -- even if you're just responding to them. I don't notice that with anyone else's posts, so I wonder if it's some kind of mail setting you could adjust?
participants (3)
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chbenneck@juno.com -
Craig F. Honshell -
Rachel