Bolero 25.5

Just in the progress of buying a Bolero 25.5 and apart from knowing that Purple Haze was David Thomas's prototype for the design and having heard a few people say they are good boats, don't know too much else.

Does anyone own one or know anything interestig about them that it would be worth me knowing about?

If you are buying it for cruising usual things to look out for , but if you are looking to race one be carefull , although they are all called Bolero's 25.5 , there was rarely two constructed the same .

Purple Haze was the prototype and built of cold moulded mahogany , and a winner from new.

Production boats were GRP , some sandwich construction i think , some had more flexible rigs with runners , some had rigs with no runners and baggy luffed foresails ,

most had iron/steel keels , but best had steel box keels with lead shot low down.

In short if you want to race you want - purple haze ! , next best is a boat with sandwich construction , steel box keel with lead , check out racing record , history , some were relative dogs .

Other good names to look out for are "Ravels Bolero" was RORC year winner in its day , until my ole pop bought her and raced her  badly - not his bag ! ,now winning again in new hands

"Fiskery" - very fast in her day

Both above had runners and steelbox keels with lead , i think .

And as with any Nick Stratton boat any boat with Djinn in its name ! , as would have been built for Nick himself and always very quick boats.

There's one on e bay that seems to have been bstardised pretty severely and looks like racing days over (as it SEEMS to me) praps good cruiser.

Bolero's were gr8 boats to sail , fast , will surf when windy enough , decent accom for size and amazingly dry on deck, easily handled

good luck

Very Useful information.

Although the Boat I am looking at is a Nick Stratton boat I am not sure it has a box Keel with lead in.

Boat does however seem to have been quite competative a club / local racing level.

Any one else out there know anything about Bolero's it's worth me knowing i.e Tips on sailing one etc etc.

You will know if it is a box keel or not if you lift the floor boats. the box keel version has a little round cap, 2-3 inches in diameter in the middle of the keel footprint. They got the lead shot in this way.

If this is not there, then u have the standard cast iron version.

I bought a bolero last year and spent last winter completely refitting her. She is like a new pin now. I bought her 100% for racing. I put 70kg of lead on the keel in the form of a shoe and put a taller rig on her to allow non overlapping jibs. This allowed me to put huge kites on her for very little IRC penalty.

They are a great little boat and are weapons at club level in IRC.

One would want to be immaculately prepared tand well sailed to make the top 5 at the 1/4 ton cup though.

I was 3rd in Cork week, having led for the whole week.(Don't ask!)

Check out http://yachts.apolloduck.com/listings.phtml?cid=213 - http://yachts.apolloduck.com/listings.phtml?cid=213

Woody is a sister shuip of Purple Haze. She is in perfect condition. Her current owner won everything in it and came second behind purple haze 2 or 4 years ago during Cork week. Great little boat in tip top condition.

best of luck.