Review of Turnabout

Turnabout anno 1901. I was so happy to find this fleet of Turnabouts on a pond in Winchester, MA, yesterday. We have a blue one in Maine. Despite being a Boomer I still love to sail her. Her name is the “Blue Blade 2,” which is the name of a line of Gillette razor blades.

Basic specs.

The Turnabout is a small sailing dinghy designed by the American maritime architect Harold R. Turner in the early fifties. Several thousand boats have been produced. The Turnabout is built by Parker River Marine.

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Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.
Some boats has a hull made of Wood.

Interior

Note: the boat has also been sold to be self-made/-interiored, which means that the quality of each boat may vary.

Rig

The Turnabout is equipped with a cat rig. A cat rig (also called an una rig) is simple to manage as there is no standing rigging, often referred to as “unstayed”. With only one sail it can be single-handed quite easily. The downside is its upwind performance.

Keel

CentreBoard

The Turnabout is equipped with a centreboard keel. A centreboard keel is a pivoting lifting keel, allowing to sail both coastal and inland waters.

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Turnabout is about 31 kg/cm, alternatively 177 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 31 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 177 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Turnabout is 1.84.

Compared with other similar dinghies it is more spacy than 92% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.

Maintenance

Boat owner's ideas

This section is reserved boat owner's modifications, improvements, etc. Here you might find (or contribute with) inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what you have done.

Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Turnabout it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.