N3135 Mr Fatman

[National 12 Webmaster]

The life of N3135 Mr Fatman. Design: Mr Fatman, designed by: Nigel Waller

[Richard Colley]

Mr Fatman 3135 was an experimental boat that I bought from Rob Peebles originally designed to be fitted with a pivoted dagger board box.

Essentially, this was a "signal arm" that I had made of a stainless steel box for the dagger board to move through up and down and this box was attached to a lever which connected to a pin. Visually, think of an axe with the  head being the dagger box and the bottom of the wooden handle being the pivot point. The board would move up and down through the axe head. The pivot point was low down.

The board could act as a traditional centreboard rotating up and down, or when the box mechanism was left down the wooden board could be retracted up and down when down wind moving the board point forward.

Main issues were the board was a loose fit in the box and you still had the water in the centreboard slot. The mechanism also cut the crew and helm to bits!

Unfortunately, I moved abroad before I could perfect the mechanism. The centreboard was subsequently replaced by a traditional board by the new owner.

I am not sure if it would be legal now.