Terrorist - sailing again

Forty years on from her debut in the 1974 One Ton Cup, the radical Bruce King-designed twin centreboard One Tonner Terrorist is sailing again. Salvaged from a boatyard several years ago, Terrorist has been expertly rebuilt and refurbished by her new owner US yachtsman Paul Tullos. Her history and rebuild is documented in an earlier post here.  

When re-launched in 2013 she was fitted with twin rudders, and while these worked well when sailing, they proved to be of limited assistance when manouevring within the marina. Tullos has since reverted back to a single rudder. Although still reliant on internal ballast, Terrorist carries plenty of beam and Tullos reports that the boat loves sailing to windward in a good breeze, and this is leading to some good results in local racing. Tullos comments that it is hard to overpower the boat - "the boat's old mast was 2 feet longer than on the drawings - I now see why". The new carbon spars and stiff new sails are also helping with her upwind performance. 

Terrorist sailing again recently (and still sporting her original sail number - US 7150)

Terrorist - back in the water!

Terrorist, the unusual Bruce King bilgeboarder that featured in the 1974 One Ton Cup has been back in the water, albeit briefly. This impressive restoration project by Paul Tullos achieved its milestone recently for the purposes of fine tuning the internal ballasting - with her twin asymmetric bilgeboards, Terrorist relied on a combination of internal lead ballast and wide beam for stability. Tullos says that it was gratifying to put the boat in the water - if only for a few minutes - after almost three years of work.

In the water at last - March 2013 (all photos by Paul Tullos)

The new ballast is lead shot, and because of its reduced density Tullos has extended the ballast compartment fore and aft.  The shot was poured into the hull after the compartment was blasted and then coated with two layers of Interprotect.  Now that the yacht has been floated and the ballast properly trimmed, the shot has been encapsulated with epoxy laminating resin.  


The ballast now installed

The yacht will be fitted with a carbon-fibre mast and the increased righting moment earned by the new spar has saved about 1,000lbs of internal ballast compared to the yacht's original configuration.

A view of the hull just before launching

Terrorist is located in Lake Texoma, about 2 hours south of Oklahoma City. A trailer has been built for the yacht which will allow her to be transported between Corpus Christi, New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Some history about Terrorist and other photographs of her restoration are here, and check the latest photos of her sailing in 2014.

Terrorist (Bruce King One Tonner)

Terrorist was a radical IOR yacht designed by Bruce King in 1973. She featured twin asymmetric centreboards, angled outwards at 12 degrees and 'toed in' at 3 degrees to the centreline. Terrorist introduced the concept of internal ballast, a considerable change from keeping ballast as low as possible in a keel. The boards could be lifted independently or linked by a connected system that lifted the weather foil while the leeward foil stayed deep in undisturbed water, and combined with the slight angle to the centreline the boards created tremendous lift to weather. Off the wind both foils were retracted to reduce drag and wetted surface. Despite being an odd boat - short (10.8m LOA), wide (3.9m beam), high-wooded and relatively light (4,765kg), she was seen as a real threat in the 1974 One Ton Cup held in Tourquay.

Her wide beam provided additional stability - although she had a high ballast ratio the weight wasn't carried deep in the hull so its effect was minimised. Because of her wide beam the boat had to accept some trade-off in light airs in terms of wetted surface, but in a breeze the boat was almost unbeatable. 

One Ton Cup 1974 (Sea Spray)

But Terrorist also appeared competitive even in light winds against the types of boats predominant at the 1974 event and she won the first race of the One Ton Cup by nearly five minutes. Yachting journalist Jack Knights reported that fellow American crews were surprised that she had been able to win in light air - everybody else was amazed that the boat could win at any time. However, a broken mast in the short ocean race, which ruled her out of the following race as well, prevented any chance of an overall win. This let the Peterson design Gumboots through to take the Cup that year.












The long term future of Terrorist was seriously affected by the introduction of a 'moveable appendage factor' (MAF) to the IOR later in 1974, which raised her rating out of the One Ton rating limit of 27.5ft. Because she had been penalised out of the One Ton class, the owner, Al Cassell, decided to remove the hastily repaired old mast and to increase the height of her rig by about 2 feet to improve her light air performance. This change, combined with the MAF penalty, boosted Terrorist's rating to about 29.5ft.

Terrorist seen here during the 1974 One Ton Cup (photo Facebook)

Terrorist on a tight reach (Carter Cassel Collection)

Terrorist as she was found circa 2010 (photo Craig/CRM)

Terrorist was re-discovered a few years ago sitting forlornly in a yard in the US. An American yachtsman Paul Tullos has been very busy refurbishing the yacht, and hopes to have her back in the water for the Northern Hemisphere spring. The hull fairing process is nearly completed, and the boat will be fitted with a new carbon mast, and dual rudders. There will be even less interior than originally, so the boat will be a big daysailer, at least initially. 

Undergoing hull fairing in 2012 (photo Paul Tullos)

 Above and below - hull and decks all painted - February 2013 (photos Paul Tullos)

Update 16 August 2013: The new carbon mast (by GMT Composites) was recently fitted and Terrorist is now back in the water:

Photos of Terrorist sailing again in 2014 are here.

Updated June 2023