Plastic Classic Forum

Yes, I know...I left the stern ladder down.

What year is your Tartan? I've been eyeing one here (overpriced like most Tartans, but a sound boat).

She is a '76.

The T30s $'s seem about right to me...the 34's are starting to climb in value and I think it is appropriate. I may be biased, and am, but I think for the money a classic Tartan 27, 30, or 34 are the nicest classic plastic mney can buy. You can quote me on that, too.

Cheers,
Clint

...I think for the money a classic Tartan 27, 30, or 34 are the nicest classic plastic mney can buy. You can quote me on that, too.

You are trying to start a fight aren't you :-(

-Britton

no just stating a fact...

:)

In the interest of civility and decorum on this forum I am going to withold my own thoughts.

-Britton

sail what ya love, love what ya sail.

Britton,

Please share your thoughts! I admit there are a couple design flaws on the T30...what are your thoughts?

Cheers.

Clint.

Britton,

Please share your thoughts!

Only that dollar for dollar the Triton gives more bang for the buck :-) The Triton has to be one of the cheapest boats in its class on the used boat market today. Good if you are buying. Bad if you just put $35k into the boat and want to get it back.

Of course there is nothing rational about boats so it is an impossible argument to say one boat is better than another any more than to say blue is better than green. What strikes my fancy might not do it for you and vice versa. Moreover boats are designed with different uses in mind so what works brilliantly for one person's activities may be a total bust for another's.

My thoughts?... Tritons are the best deal going of course!

sail what ya love, love what ya sail.

Exactly. Now I thought guests couldn't post anymore. Who is that mysterious person?...

-Britton

it was me. I hadn't noticed that I hadn't logged-in until just now.

I came across a REALLY nice tartan 34 today. Fresh from the yard with a shiny new deeeeeeep red paint job on the topsides. Probably not for sale.

In the interest of minimizing flames (I'm a T27 owner), I'll just confirm that the Triton is indeed a great boat. Like so many old boats, I think the depressingly low asking prices you see are often well deserved because the boats are in poor shape. The boats in good shape (ours, of course!) don' t go on the market because we love them, or they disappear quickly. I've noticed this with T27s on yachtworld. The good ones come on for 15k and are "sale pending" in a matter of days. The junkers have been sitting on the site forever, asking 6k.
Tim et al could command several times the typical Triton's asking price and get it, because the boats are like new and loaded.

The Tartan 34C ("C" meaning 1978 and earlier) was seriously undervalued. A lot of boat for little money, although as Clint points out, their owners have banded together and made a real effort over the last several years to increase the demand side, and it looks like it's been working.
Here's a photo of a T34 in my favorite stage of restoration. Clean, painted & varnished, before all the extraneous hardware & junk is added. A thing of beauty regardless of make & model. Except maybe a Buccaneer...

There is nothing like a freshly-restored boat! Shiny, unfettered, and unscathed.

I think we all share a love of old sailboats, from a wide variety of builders. Putting arbitrary labels of "best" or some such on any boat is just silly, because there are too many factors at hand surrounding individual taste and needs.

What matters is loving your own boat and making her what you want her to be. Boats are so individual that there is definitely not one solution that fits all. It's great to love your boat; let's face it: boats are an unnecessary luxury item for us, so if you didn't love what you had, I don't know what the point of owning her would be.

Threads like this one always start out with innocent intentions, but can blossom into unfriendliness. Let's not go there.

very interesting...

bcooke wrote:Now I thought guests couldn't post anymore.

Right indeed. I forgot to change the permissions on the two new forums I created for photo posting. It took me a few days to figure out how those guest postings showed up!

Anyone needing to refresh their memories on why I needed to make posting for registered users only, please click here. Remember, I'm not trying to exclude anyone!

I stuck my neck out by saying that older Tartans are some of the "best" good old boats money can buy, and I will keep my neck out, but only to spark interesting, respectful debate.

The thing is once a good old boat is restored the bang for the buck debate goes by the wayside because the restoration is usualy worlds better than the original since design flaws are widely recognized and, moreover, the owner puts his or her own self into the boat. The boat becomes a reflection of us and so trying to debate best at this point sure is silly.

That being said, for the number of design flaws (few), classic beauty (high), handsome performance (can hold its own), and structural integrity (super) the Tartan 27s, 30s, and 34s are the pick of the litter. I was a Triton owner and occassionally miss the boat. Actually, i miss the boat b/c it was a family boat and is now sitting in a guys yard waiting for him to get going (its been 3 years now). The Tartan 34 is my dream boat. I am keeping my eye peeled for a salvage 34 to buy and start making a dream come true!

Cheers,
Clint

I was just looking through the boat photos and came across this thread - those Tartans are nice looking boats. Here's a nice project boat at Torresen:
http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/ ... slim=quick&