Purchased a Soverel 33 Project Boat

Oct 29, 2016
1,915
Hunter 41 DS Port Huron
Daydreamer, the early boats built by Soverel were lighter and stiffer. The Tartan built seem to have a pretty good record in the class championships. They were stiffer than the other boats. Should be a fun boat. Raced against them for years. Are you on Lake St. Clair?
The boat was built by Soverel marine and the previous owners added the stiffening ribs on the inside to help reduce the flexing. We sail out of Port Huron, might be a bad year for racing though, seems at this point in time the Canadians are not renewing our waiver for racing in Canadian waters. We have our course set up in Canadian waters which is a joint venture between the Sarnia and Port Huron Yacht clubs. Hopefully we hear something soon, although our race year has been shorten by 4 weeks as it stands now.
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Likes: jon hansen
Jan 13, 2009
391
J Boat 92 78 Sandusky
"We have our course set up in Canadian waters which is a joint venture between the Sarnia and Port Huron Yacht clubs. Hopefully we hear something soon, although our race year has been shorten by 4 weeks as it stands now. "

Well that sucks!. Sail Canada has cancelled all sailboat racing for the year according to the guys on Lake Erie. Wimpy Canadian hosers. Currently, US boats are prohibited from even entering Canadian waters. It is going to be fun going up the St. Clair river on the US side. You might need to drop a small block Chevy in your S-33 to get out the river.
 
Oct 29, 2016
1,915
Hunter 41 DS Port Huron
@Jumpstart "It is going to be fun going up the St. Clair river on the US side. You might need to drop a small block Chevy in your S-33 to get out the river." you sound familiar with the St Clair River and which side one goes to.........yes the US side of the river especially under the bridge runs very quick, 6-8 knots and it get really bouncy in there as well. My dock neighbor winters his boat in Sarnia and can't get to it to prep it for launch.
 
May 25, 2012
4,333
john alden caravelle 42 sturgeon bay, wis
dreamer, my Ascow has lots of flex to it, just the nature of the beast. it only has an 8' beam and with a six man crew we can keep her upright. no reef points on it ( no keel, 1850 lbs). the mast is very narrow and is very adjustable on the fly. above 20knts of wind we don't go out. off the wind we've seen 20knts+ of speed in a good breeze. fast is fun.

like you said, getting crew has always been very easy. usually it's the opposite where i have to turn people down cause we are full.

my bud's own a hobie 33 (holy toledo). they have sailed her all over the great lakes and florida. they do well. the hobie is flexy. they sail her very hard and she is doing fine after all these years.

you are going to have a hoot!!

enjoy
 
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Likes: DayDreamer41
Oct 22, 2014
20,992
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Just sitting there in the driveway she looks like she has fast lines.

If I was in a bar and saw a woman like that I would hope a friend would tell me... "No John you can not afford the upkeep. That there is fast and furious.. High maintenance... "

And I would reply... "You only go around once. Grab the gusto..Just think of the funnnn"

And then we would look around for Gusto...He is always leaving at the wrong time...
 
Nov 19, 2019
8
Catalina 22 Gainesville, FL
A little Soverel 33 story. Back in the early 80s I was crewing on a Soverel 26 in Ft. Lauderdale. I knew a guy who crewed on one of the first 33s named "Blue Angel" in the 83 Daytona to Bermuda race. They won overall honors, but he said that the boat flexed so badly the hatch wouldn't slide. Granted, they had that thing tweaked with an ace crew, but he said the boat scared the hell out of him. I'm sure that led to a bit more stiffness in subsequent boats.
 
Oct 29, 2016
1,915
Hunter 41 DS Port Huron
Well last night was our first sail with the Soverel 33, my son did a super job of redoing the deck with Kiwi grip and the boat looks awesome. We didn't have main on last evening but we flew the #3 jib, OMG the boat flies, this Soverel is meant to race and hopefully next year we will race her hard. We had some winds to 20 last evening and with this little jib we were pushing mid 6's DD. We had (4) of us on the boat so we played around a bit with weight distribution, talk about responsiveness to weight change. Had (2) folks on the fore deck while going DD had them move to the cockpit and the boat accelerated to 6.5 kts in about 50 ft. Can't wait to sail her with a full complement of sail area and balance.
Its definitely going to take some time to learn how all the rigging works lots of tuning options that is for sure!
Floating.jpg
Rigged.jpg
 
Oct 29, 2016
1,915
Hunter 41 DS Port Huron
Based on the photo, your son did a terrific job on that deck.
He did indeed there were a couple soft spots in the core for which he either cut out and reconstructed or drilled holes and injected epoxy. Sure would be nice to have self tailing jib winches that is for sure, its been a long time since I operated a winch that needed (2) to manage.
 
Aug 21, 2020
13
Soverel 33 mkII Port Huron
Hello all! This is said son here. I’m excited to own the boat. It’s been an awesome project thus far. I have learned a lot about repairs and really enjoy it.

here are some more photos of the project
 

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