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Some Additional Notes on Buying a Tasar in North America
Note: General advice from Tony Keevers and Frank Bethwaite is available here
Buying a new Tasar in the US or Canada
In North America, new Tasars can be ordered from George Yioulos at West Coast Sailing, 721 N Tillamook, Portland, OR 97227, USA. Phone 503-285-5536. www.westcoastsailing.net.
Buying a used Tasar
Used Tasars are advertised on the Tasar website here. If you are looking for a boat, you can NATA, and we will put your want ad on the web here. You can get some idea of the price of a used Tasar buy looking at our list of boats sold.
Hull numbers are molded into the transom. On boats built in North America,
for sail numbers up to 2754, hull numbers have the format:
AAAnnnnnMMYY
where:
- "AAA" indicates where the boat was built, e.g.
ZYH = built by Alvis Marine in Vancouver, BC
ZFS = built by Performance Sailcraft in Quebec.
- "nnnnn" is the sail number, eg: 02250 is sail number 2250
- "MMYY" are the month and year of manufacture, eg: 0578 indicates a boat built in May 1978
For sail numbers 2755 and above, the format of the hull number has changed. The builder, Cascade Yacht Builders in Portland, OR is indicated by YCST. The hull number is the next 4 digits, and is followed by up to 10 more letters and numbers.
Significance of Sail/Hull Numbers
Sail and hull numbers are generally the same. However, it is the hull number that will tell you what you want to know about a Tasar.
Performance Sailcraft in Quebec were the original Tasar builder in North America. Any Tasar in the US or Canada with hull number below 1700 was probably built by Performance Sailcraft. There are a few boats in NA that were built by Performance Sailcraft in the UK.
Boats with hull numbers below about 900 are reputed to have some kevlar in the hull, and are generally lighter than the next generation boats, which had an extra layer of fiberglass on the bottom of the hull. If you are looking for a light boat (i.e. weighing significantly less than the minimum for racing of 68 kg or 149 lbs), and can find one in good condition, a boat in this hull number range can be a good choice. I don't know the exact number at which the construction changed, so if the number is higher than 700, you should weigh the hull to determine if it is an early, lighter weight, type hull.
Above this hull number, and up to 1699, hulls had no kevlar, had more fiberglass on the bottom, and typically weighed about 155 lbs. However some boats in this range weighed less, so you might find a hull in this number range that weighs less than the minimum for racing.
After Performance Sailcraft stopped manufacturing the Tasar, the molds and a supply of sails, spars and other parts were purchased by Richard Mellon and Scott Sibley in Vancouver. They had a small number of boats built, starting at hull number 1700.
Shortly after this, John Evetts at Alvis Marine took over as the North American builder. Significant hull numbers for boats made by Alvis Marine include a range from about 2255 to 2294, which had defective foam in the decks. Most of these boats have been repaired by Alvis Marine, and the repaired boats have been completely free of problems. However when tapping the hull and decks of a used Tasar in this range to check for possible delamination or voids, you should pay particular attention to the deck where the skipper and crew sit and hike.
Starting at hull number 2388, Alvis began using a new layup developed by Frank Bethwaite for the hulls. All boats with hulll numbers 2388 and above should weigh less than 149 lbs, and the quality of these boats has been uniformly high.
Beginning with hull number 2755, Tasars are built in Portland, OR, by Cascade Yacht Builders, and are available from West Coast Sailing in Portland, 503-285-5536.
More information on checking over a used Tasar is available here.
Richard Spencer
Updated 2007-05-15
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