By Sportboat

In the 90's many sportboats were introduced and very few were able to build viable fleets. It's no news that I am a big fan of the Antrim 27. Of course I am. I own one and have no plans to part with the boat. I have owned the boat for 4 years and had a great time with the boat. The first couple years I raced one design on the SF Bay with reasonable success, but got tired of the political BS that the class dealt out. It now appears the class is about to fall completely apart after only averaging a 4 boat turnout per race this last summer. That means there are 9 other boats in the bay area that are choosing not to join the OD fray on a consistent basis. The return to PHRF looks imminent for the next spring/summer series.

The class instituted rules that drove boats and good folks away. The crew weight limit was bumped from 950#s to 1100#s. This means to be competitive a crew of six is required. There just isn't room for six on the boat and there sure are not jobs for six. According the designer the boat was never designed to take the loads that come with that large of a crew. Next the class allowed a lower lifeline to be added to the 18" stanchions. Great for safety, but the more serious folks started hiking out under this lower wire. No doubt it's faster upwind, but it sure is very painful. Some earlier shenanigans included a class president who boycotted the first couple Nationals because he opposed sailing in the high profile NOOD San Francisco city front regatta. He also opposed simple additions to the boat such as a mast mounted spinnaker halyard cleat. Previously the class had a world-class 505 champion who campaigned the boat very successfully and another top San Diego sailor who traveled his boat often to the bay area to support the class. Both sold their boats because they became tired of the class BS.

The builder has done very little to support the only OD fleet they have for the boat. They went as far as trying to prevent used boat sales to the fleet. In a bizarre twist the builder renamed the boat to the "Ultimate 27". Fortunately a name which has not gotten any traction, but only caused confusion and annoyed the existing owners and of course the respective designer. We hear the builder is struggling to stay afloat with no boat sales in several months. Instead they are promoting a new 24' for sailing school use. We think the J/80 is much better suited for that role.

The boat has also had some significant teething problems which seem to be for the most part all sorted out. The first boats came with a Ballenger Aluminum mast. From the get go (even before the first boat was sold) these began to fail. There was no doubt the boat needed a different spar solution, but the builder and some class members strongly opposed it. Eventually after a couple band-aid fixes and about a dozen failures the class and builder finally switched to carbon masts. None of these have failed to date. The next issue was gudgeons and rudders failing. Not too many more things thrilling then screaming down San Pablo Bay at 18 knots to suddenly be holding the rudder in the cockpit and wham!, a hard round up launching a crew member into the lifelines. Next we found out that a number of boats didn't have the stringer which supports the mast step fabricated correctly. In this case the builder did come through with a good retro fit. Now the sprit pole turning sheaves are starting to break free of the poles because the builder took a short-cut with installation of the clevis pin that retains the sheave. The designer was not aware of this. We ended up going to the OEM for a new correctly designed pole because the builder wanted to charge twice the price.

The good news is the Antrim 27 is a good PHRF boat. It does especially well in point to point ocean races. Over the years the boat has won the Pacific Cup, Santa Barbara to King Harbor, Key West, Around Catalina and a whole host of other PHRF events. We have had good success with the boat sailing short-handed. I don't know of another 27' boat that offers the same blistering performance, but still has reasonable accommodations.

Still, it is a class that just never really got going. I suppose we'll be adding the Antrim 27 to the R.I.P. One Design graveyard.

09/25/2002