Development of the TS1, TS2 and TS3

The original concept for the TS1 IOM was to develop a boat that would basically sail itself upwind without the need for the helmsperson to continually make steering corrections. This was driven by the understanding that when sailing or flying radio controlled models the main form of feedback the helmsperson or pilot receives is visual and the last thing a sailor needs, while trying to manage a race, is to be constantly watching the boat to prevent it from luffing head to wind and stopping. In racing a yacht, it is important to be able to look around to determine the best strategy and tactics for each particular situation and while looking around your boat still needs to be sailing at full speed.

To achieve this, the hull shape was designed to remain symmetrical as the boat heeled, there by minimising any influence the hull shape would contribute to the weather helm. This was the underlying principal behind the original TS1 IOM design.

The TS1 was the first IOM to my design that was built. It was not the first design I drew as Peter deLange, Cors deLange and I looked at my original drawings and felt the bow was too full. As a result I fined the bow down and it became the TS1. This boat was designed and built in early to mid 1993.

After 8 months of sailing this boat Peter deLange and I decided that we would like a boat with more buoyancy forward to allow us to carry the rigs downwind longer. Also, our group had an agreement that we would only have Number 1 Rigs and hence the need for more buoyancy forward. Peter and I sat down to come up with the new design and started by looking at the TS1 and then looking at the original drawings I produced. The original drawings seemed to be exactly what we were after so we built a couple of boats to this design and they were the TS2. Peter built the first boat to this design out of strip planked Queensland Red Cedar and we took a mould off it for the rest of us. I made a boat out of the mould and Peter and I launched these boats just before Easter 1994.

The TS2 appeared very fast at the time and a number of the other sailors wanted one. Unfortunately, while we were away in NZ for Easter 94, a couple of sailors managed to glue some boats into the mould. Thinking that the mould was destroyed, Craig Smith offered to make a new mould as he wanted a TS2 as well. As part of making a new hull mould Craig also made deck, keel, rudder and bulb moulds. These moulds are the ones that Craig uses to produce the TS2.

In 1998 I wanted to produce a competitive IOM at a greatly reduced price. The idea was to change the construction processes in an effort to reduce the labour to build a boat. Eventually I would like to be able to use vacuum formed plastic in the construction. The overriding criteria however, was for the boat to be competitive against all other IOMs. I was also thinking about producing a narrow boat based on the TS2 philosophy to see if I could make a narrow design sail as well as the TS2 while reducing the wetted area of the hull. The new design was the TS3 and this design included a new keel (the 84mm parallel fin), rudder (the straight tapered rudder) and a longer bulb (360mm long). I made moulds for all the parts and tested the keel and rudder on the TS2 in 1998. I have used these ever since including in the worlds in Malta and Croatia. The bulb mould was producing bulbs that were too light and I did not seriously try to sort out the problem until 2002 when I started using the longer bulb. This bulb found its way onto a number of TS2s for the Canadian worlds in 2003.

The prototype of the TS3 was first built in March 1999 but was only sailed a couple of times in 1999 as I was using the TS2 for the Malta worlds. The TS3 was basically put on hold for a few years as I only sailed around 12 times between the Malta and Croatian worlds and that did not allow me the time to tune up a new design. In fact, the TS3 only came out of the cupboard seriously while everyone was away at the Canadian worlds and I was at home. I have spent some time since June 2003 and May 2004 trying different keel locations, keels, bulbs and rigs developing the TS3 and I have finally settled on a combination that I am very happy with. This combination is the original TS3 hull, 84mm parallel keel, straight tapered rudder and the 360mm long bulb but with the rig and keel locations sorted out.

The TS3 in its current form also includes a number of ideas that I have wanted to try. These include:

• Joining the hull down the centreline similar to what Graham Bantock has been doing for years. This allows for a generous radius at the gunwale and I felt it would make for easier vacuum forming if I ever made it that far.
• Using Teflon rudder bearings to reduce friction in the rudder system.
• Using a Mainsheet loop attached to the deck rather than a post through to the bottom of the hull.
• Locating the winch, steering servo and batteries together under the access hatch rather than having a separate winch box forward.

In addition to the above the TS3 includes:

• Fitment for either the Hitec Servo Arm and RMG 280D winches
• Décor type plastic hatch.
• A rectangular keel case to allow for easier fitment of newer fin designs to older boats in the event a newer fin design comes along.
• Note: The current boats no longer use of a slot attachment in the foredeck for the headsail attachment position as it has proved problematic.  I will look at new ways of reincorporating this type of attachment in the future.