As most readers will know, the Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School recently took the opportunity to change their existing keelboat fleet from the popular Irish 1720 design to the J80. There were many reasons for this shift, the primary being that the school could up its fleet from six to eight boats while keeping a one-design fleet. School principal Kenny Rumball, himself a competitive 1720 sailor, is keen to see the six boats back on the 1720 circuit after the significant resurgence in the fleet over the last number of years.
The six boats are all well-known boats from the 1720 heydays and the fleet includes Lemon, TewFrydEgz, Oi!, Ranelagh Consultants, Business Gold & Key Events. All of these boats were top performers before the unfortunate demise of the class in the mid-2000s.
The six boats are all well-known boats from the 1720 heydays
Since the boats entered service with the school, they have been kept in top condition and only require new forestays to be class legal. The only modifications made to the boats for work in a teaching environment were adding a roller furling head sail and a mainsail that had a reduced roach and slab reefing points.
Each boat went through two mini-refits annually with a dedicated maintenance team replacing any damaged items, usually within a 12-hour period. Most replacement parts were like for like Harken items or better.
The fleet did rest on moorings and as such all the boats are antifouled. Prior to the pandemic, all previous antifoulings were removed, and the boats were professionally brought back to gelcoat before being treated to the full Nautix hard matrix antifoul treatment of high build primer, then sanded back before A4 TSpeed was applied in two diluted layers. As experienced racers will know, this hard matrix antifoul can be wet sanded back to a mirror finish. Therefore, each boat can be competitive instantly with a bit of elbow grease.
Masts are a mixture of generation 1 and generation 2 Selden rigs on the six 1720s now for sale at the INSS
Masts are a mixture of generation 1 and generation 2 Selden rigs, all of which sport recent spreaders, running and standing rigging, all of which is less than five years old and class legal. Each boat rests on its own road trailer; however, as these trailers were primarily used for winter storage and did not travel, each trailer would require new tyres & brakes to make it road legal.
The INSS school are motivated to sell these six 1720s ahead of the season
Unfortunately, full suits of racing sails are not being sold with the boat as the old sails that came with the boats were recycled into bags and other items. However, many members of the 1720 class have full suits of sails that are available for purchase second-hand; however, each boat will be sold with a factional and masthead spinnaker.
The school are motivated to sell these boats ahead of the season. Prices are realistic and boat dependent with prices varying from €6k-€10k. Serious enquiries are only to be made directly with Kenneth Rumball [email protected]
