Hi Les and welcome to the best forum in Australia for yachting. You have hit the sweet spot.
Back in 1992 or 3 Big Schott was for sale and I nearly bought her. Also for sale at the same time was Envy II, another alloy hulled Peterson 42 that I think may have been identical in hull form to Big Schott. Peterson had a habit of changing the hull form, adding a bump here and making a hollow there for the sake of improving performance of yacht with the same overall dimensions, ie length, beam draught and displacement.
You have bought a great yacht!!! I may even still have the page from Trade-A-Boat from back then.
I bought Envy II because she was in survey 2 C and 1 D and I thought I was going to make a fortune out of chartering a genuine racing yacht. How wrong can one be?? I was her third owner, she was my third yacht, I am now on my seventh yacht.
Big Schott sold as well around the same time and was not heard of until about 5 years ago when she turned up for sale in Sydney, completly refitted after having been sailed around the world. I believe Big Schott has a timber or ply deck. Removing that, despite the cost, and replacing it with alloy deck beams and deck I feel would be a good investment. Doing that will certainly eliminate water leaks at the gunwale among other things.
Big Schott and Envy II share some remarkable coincidences.
1. The original owner of Big Schott was Mel Schott. The original owner of Envy II was Mel Hewitt. Howzatt!!
2. Big Schott won the Sydney-Noumea race, line honours and handicap in 1979. Envy II won the Brisbane-Noumea race in 1982, line honours and handicap. Again howzatt!!
3. Envy II was entered in the Sydney-Hobart under charter by the Mackay Yacht Club around 1986-7 but the yacht never made it to the start line. They snapped the mast on the way down and as a result of their expence liability, the commitee vowed never to campaign a yacht in the S2H again.
4. You are an ex Marine Engineer as I be. I also be ex Master V and current AYF Offshore Yacht Master.
5. Envy II was renamed when I sold her to Lady Katherine after the new owner's daughter. Envy II was sold out of Townsville recently for $35,000 to a guy who is a charter skipper at Airlie beach whose wife's name is Katherine.
I have just one question here. Why would one rename a fabulous race winning yacht after one of one's female relatives............????????
Les, I rerigged Envy II during my ownership and had plans for an inner forestay. If you want some advices or help, just shoot me a private message via the forum to exchange phone numbers etc. I am in Bundaberg and my time is mostly free except for my current yacht Second Wind. Give me an excuse to come up and sail Big Schott with you. This year's Magnetic Island Race Week sounds good.
Cheers Cisco.
Raced quite a bit on Inch By Winch when it was reserected in around 2007. Loved sailing on that boat.
Wow, she looks great! Well done.
Inch by Winch was a good performer but oddly enough never won anything of real note. In contrast, as well as her 1978 Clipper Cup and 1979 Noumea win (as Sweet Caroline under Marshall, not as Big Schott under Pearson) I think Big Schott also took out her class in the '79 Hobart against a hot field.
In that era boats were only lasting at the very top of the IOR pack for a year or less. Big Schott was referred to by Peterson as a "Phase III Pintail" style if I recall correctly, having the narrow Vee shaped stern. By 1978, partly inspired by Ron Holland's Imp design, he had moved to boats like Dida, Yena and Envy, with wider sterns. The "pintail" boats like Big Schott remained competitive upwind and downwind in light winds and she had two great owners who got the best out of her.
Here is a link to current video
www.facebook.com/Les.CarGecko/videos/2005824222998708/
and here at 9.4 knots
www.facebook.com/groups/157260841726947?view=permalink&id=161167414669623&_rdr
Those IOR Petersons are really stand out yachts.
I had Envy going at 12 knots across the Whitsunday passage with full main and a smallish flat cut tri-radial spinnaker and the pole 6 inches off the forestay and the most barnacles on the bottom you could imagine.
Just after a slipping, clean bottom, shaft alignment and balanced prop, I had her doing 9 knots with her 43 hp Kubota.
Another thing I like is how they really power to windward.