Does anyone know this viper?

Darren Gilbert · July 31, 2018, 01:43:04 PM

https://www.tillerandkites.com/viper640.html

Craig Wilusz · July 31, 2018, 02:02:39 PM

Nickerson gonna give birth to a puppy on this one. I mean a real live puppy! Carbon boom, cunningham AND GNAV cleat led aft, raised roller bar, check out the foredeck support....

Peter Beardsley · August 01, 2018, 10:46:45 AM

I think this is Viper 21 on Lake Pleasant in Arizona. A very underutilized boat.

Dave Nickerson · August 01, 2018, 12:05:22 PM

Interesting boat. No longer a Viper 640 though...

Justin Scott · August 10, 2018, 12:52:41 AM

Its Idaho Joe's old boat. Anything done post Joe is not grandfathered....but some of the stuff he did (The raised hoop) was grandfathered to his particular boat (but not his carbon mast or his carbon boom). At the time, we were restarting the class and keen to welcome any boat that we could find. We welcomed almost anyone back into the fold as we strove to reach 10 boats. You had to be there to remember how awful the original components were : Aluminum tree trunk mast....bow roller which ate spinnakers......chain plates too far forward to control head stay or mast bend. Idaho Joe was an innovative I14 sailor. He bought a Viper , tweaked it and told the world "Ya know if we were to make a few changes, this could be a very nice boat that could be real easy to sail"

We listened ....and as they say...the rest is history.

The stainless hoop that we are all used to is a derivation of Joe's hoop.

Mark Trainor · August 20, 2018, 02:38:18 PM

A very interesting and timely post. I'll be leasing and sailing #21 in the Arizona Yacht Club fall/spring series, Sportboat Fleet. I'd be interested in hearing some more details. I haven't sailed the boat yet. (too damn hot right now in AZ) It's in the yard at Tiller's & Kites right now. My understanding is that it has been sitting awhile. The shop needs to go over rigging and get set up for launching next month. What do you know?

Justin Scott · August 22, 2018, 07:56:10 AM

Welcome Mark. There are some active Viper sailors in and around Phoenix who will be happy to give you Viper sailing advice . They race on Lake Pleasant . They will be more familiar with the recent history of 21.

Paging Tony ....

If you join the class and include your contact info, then you will start getting snake bytes and they can reach out to you. You could post your contact info here but it's publicly accessible, or try finding Tony Chapman locally.

You will have a blast with the old girl. Please post here and let us all know how it goes....and if you have problems, post here and you will get more advice than you need😊.

Mark Trainor · August 25, 2018, 02:57:30 PM

Thanks Justin. I'll be sailing #21 for my first time on 9/4. I'll post any question or concerns then. I have Tony's contact info and will reach out to him.