Talk To Me About The Tartan 30.

[carlheintz]

Congrats! You will love her....

[Snore]

Originally Posted by frozenhawaiian

confirmed the sale today, taking ownership in the next several days.

Congrats. Be sure to sign up for the yahoo group. It is a very competent group of Tartan owners. Between all of us, we have had pretty much every issue you could have with a Tartan. It is a good mix of older classic boats and the new fangled boats with carbon fiber. Many of the guys with new boats, previously owned a classic and share their knowledge.

[frozenhawaiian]

Originally Posted by Snore

Congrats. Be sure to sign up for the yahoo group. It is a very competent group of Tartan owners. Between all of us, we have had pretty much every issue you could have with a Tartan. It is a good mix of older classic boats and the new fangled boats with carbon fiber. Many of the guys with new boats, previously owned a classic and share their knowledge.

will do.

[DougR]

From 1976 thru about 1998 I owned two different T30s, a 1971 and a 1973 model. As you have heard from other posters, the model is a great all around S&S design. I started with the '73 model in NJ, moved it to California, sailed it to Hawaii and back and sold it in 1980. Relocating to the east coast I bought another, an early '71 model and sailed it in Long Island Sound for many years and then relocated it to the Chesapeake Bay where it cruised and raced for many years.

Here are some of the items I have found that might need to be looked at with a critical eye:
- Chain plate attachment and deck penetration- The lower shroud chain plate is located about 8" ahead of the upper shroud chain plate, and is bolted to the same bulkhead as the upper by virtue of a triangulation arrangement. This triangulation allows the lower chain plate to flex the bulkhead as well as the deck. Lengthening the chain plate and or beefing up the bulkhead helps avoid this, particularly on the Stb. side where the bulkhead is not as robust as the port side.
- prop shaft support bearing- The one inch prop shaft is very long and requires a steady bearing midway on the shaft to avoid shaft whip. On my boats this bearing was a babbit bearing with a grease cup that should be turned periodically. These babbit bearings wear out over time and I replaced the babbit pillowblock with a ball bearing pillowblock and swapped the grease cup over to the new bearing. This worked great, reduced the need to grease as frequently, and never gave a hint of a problem.
- deck leaks- The '71 model had a 1/2" plywood core in the deck and the 73" model had a 5/8" plywood core. I had deck leaks inside the Dorade boxes on the '71 which needed to be glassed, and that caused some glass delaminaton on the underside of the deck which needed attention. Nothing that someone with glass experience couldn't handle.
- A4 Ignition issues- as mentioned, sometimes the starting was a little touch and go if the batteries were down, a result of weak spark. You could install an electronic ignition. What I did was to replace the original ignition coil, which had an internal ballast resister, with a standard coil and external ballast resistor. This allows the coil to use full battery voltage when cranking but to run on reduced voltage when not cranking, thus saving the points. Works great and still gives a serviceable system.
- The engine exhaust was fitted with a dry stack muffler/ water injection which gave me some problems over time, and I replaced that with a custom waterlift muffler located at the base of the mast. Exhaust exited out the original thru hull and worked fine.

Hope this helps some. Enjoy the boat!

DougR

[frozenhawaiian]

Originally Posted by DougR

From 1976 thru about 1998 I owned two different T30s, a 1971 and a 1973 model. As you have heard from other posters, the model is a great all around S&S design. I started with the '73 model in NJ, moved it to California, sailed it to Hawaii and back and sold it in 1980. Relocating to the east coast I bought another, an early '71 model and sailed it in Long Island Sound for many years and then relocated it to the Chesapeake Bay where it cruised and raced for many years.

Here are some of the items I have found that might need to be looked at with a critical eye:
- Chain plate attachment and deck penetration- The lower shroud chain plate is located about 8" ahead of the upper shroud chain plate, and is bolted to the same bulkhead as the upper by virtue of a triangulation arrangement. This triangulation allows the lower chain plate to flex the bulkhead as well as the deck. Lengthening the chain plate and or beefing up the bulkhead helps avoid this, particularly on the Stb. side where the bulkhead is not as robust as the port side.
- prop shaft support bearing- The one inch prop shaft is very long and requires a steady bearing midway on the shaft to avoid shaft whip. On my boats this bearing was a babbit bearing with a grease cup that should be turned periodically. These babbit bearings wear out over time and I replaced the babbit pillowblock with a ball bearing pillowblock and swapped the grease cup over to the new bearing. This worked great, reduced the need to grease as frequently, and never gave a hint of a problem.
- deck leaks- The '71 model had a 1/2" plywood core in the deck and the 73" model had a 5/8" plywood core. I had deck leaks inside the Dorade boxes on the '71 which needed to be glassed, and that caused some glass delaminaton on the underside of the deck which needed attention. Nothing that someone with glass experience couldn't handle.
- A4 Ignition issues- as mentioned, sometimes the starting was a little touch and go if the batteries were down, a result of weak spark. You could install an electronic ignition. What I did was to replace the original ignition coil, which had an internal ballast resister, with a standard coil and external ballast resistor. This allows the coil to use full battery voltage when cranking but to run on reduced voltage when not cranking, thus saving the points. Works great and still gives a serviceable system.
- The engine exhaust was fitted with a dry stack muffler/ water injection which gave me some problems over time, and I replaced that with a custom waterlift muffler located at the base of the mast. Exhaust exited out the original thru hull and worked fine.

Hope this helps some. Enjoy the boat!

DougR

thanks for all the information! I didn't realize the tartan owner network was so active.

[sv whiteout]

There were changes to the T30's over time. I don't know what year your new boat is, but the factory addressed some of the issues mentioned.

If memory still serves, the early boats (I"ve sailed hull #5) had a bronze prop shaft which was changed to a stainless shaft at some point. The pillow block was eliminated. I haven't had any problems with mine. The engine hasn't been realigned in 35 years. Whiteout is a 1979.

The boat had a water lift muffler when i got her in 1984.

I have balsa coring in the cabin top & decks. I've only found plywood in the center of the transom, cabin top on either side of the companionway and the deck over the anchor locker.

I have the starboard knee that comes with the aft galley but haven't had any problems with the chain plates. I replace bedding if indicated and replaced a bit of the balsa coring around the chain plate penetrations with a west epoxy paste. Doesn't happen often but we have a few memorable passages going to weather in ~30 knot winds to no ill effects. I've only seen sixty knot winds on Whiteout once for about 30-45 minutes in protected waters. Others have had rotted bulkheads. I've been using Dow 795 above the waterline for the last ~10-15 years.

I think I replaced the coil ~1996 (internal ballast) as preventative maintenance. The original and the new spare are still under th 1/4 berth. My house bank is 2 group 31's with a spare group 24 (gell cells that average ~11 yrs each, Ample 126 amp alternator) that can be switched in. It is very rare the engine won't crank on the house bank, but we have gone to long between charging on occasion. I like keeping the fridge on so I can make ice. The admiral won't let me put a couple more batteries under the companionway stairs.

Enjoy the boat. i do.

john

[DougR]

You're correct John,
My '71 had a bronze prop shaft and the '73 had a stainless shaft, but they both were equipped with the pillow block bearing. I tried running without the bearing once on the stainless shaft, and it just about jumped out of the boat! Tartan must have changed something....

The '71 also had a bronze rudder shaft which gave a bit of trouble at one time. There was some corrosion buildup between the rudder shaft and its support tube and the tiller became very hard to move. Dropped the rudder and cleaned out the tube with sandpaper on a long dowel rod on an electric drill. No problems after that.

S&S gave the T30 one of the more substantial rigs that you will find on a 30 footer. Heavy mast section and 1/4" standing rigging all around. Before we went to Hawaii we up sized the wire to 9/32" all around, added a baby stay, and also added an inner forestay for storm jib with running back stays. In retrospect all of that was probably unnecessary and the standard rig would have been more than adequate, although the baby stay was nice to hold down mast pumping.

Also had a problem once with the gas tank on the early boat....The tank was built with some sort of coating on the inside of the tank, and this coating (like a paint) eventually peeled off, constantly causing plugging of the fuel pickup tube. Finally I had to pull the tank, cut a big hole in the top and use a putty knife to clean it all out. Then weld the section back in. That solved it.

DougR

[frozenhawaiian]

made it official this morning, got every nook and cranny emptied of old miscellaneous junk. the wiring is definitely a bit janky but there's so little of it on this boat I'll just do a rewire this winter. I have the wire I need leftover from another project and just ordered a new panel for $60. the port bulkhead does have some rot right at the top of the chainplate and at the very bottom. and I think I'll also replace it this winter so I don't worry about it next year while I'm sailing.





it's been pup approved.


detail of the 2 soft areas of the bulkhead.

[frozenhawaiian]

few updates:
1. I've started stripping the wiring out of the boat, instead of chasing the gremlins in the old wiring I'm just redoing all of it from scratch. beauty of small boats with minimal wiring.

2. I had the yard pull the mast so I can remove the chainplates and assess if I'm going to replace or just repair the bulkheads.

3.one of the portlight is leaking so I'll pull it out and re-bed it come spring.