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Tartan redefines the cruiser/racer category

Don't let the sparkle of the stainless, gorgeousness of teak, intelligence of opening portlights, and ventilation cowls with dorade boxes fool you. the new tartan 365 is designed to move at a pace unexpected by her competition. once below, the richness of solid stock cabinets, luxury of custom upholstery, and comfort of properly-designed cabins and furniture remind you why you wanted to come aboard in the first place. tartan yachts has created another unmatched jewel., designer’s notes.

Tartan goes to great lengths to ensure each yacht reaches and exceeds your expectations of quality. T365 is no exception.

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Specifications

The Tartan 365 moves the performance in “performance cruising” genre into another gear. With her narrow waterline at beam max, fine lines aft, and nearly plumb bow, the Tartan 365 looks ready to fly even when tied to the dock or mooring. That said, her standard carbon-fiber mast and solid lead keel provide a ride second to none available in this size and price range no matter where in the world the building takes place. The Tartan design team was tasked with creating a modern dual-purpose, family-friendly boat with a strong cruising ethos. Tim Jackett and his team have once again proved their talents and created just what is needed in this size at this time. Let’s go sailing!

For detailed standard specifications with design dimensions click here.

Tartan 365 Reviews

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Dear Readers

• Sailboat Reviews

The newest version of the 31 has been

The Tartan 31 is one of the new line of performance cruising yachts from the venerable—and durable—Grand River, Ohio boatbuilder. In the last few years, Tartan Marine has come out with a range of new models, including the T-28, the 3500 and the 4600. A 41-footer is in the works. Both the 28 and the latest version of the 31 are part of the new Piper series, which are marketed in sailaway condition.

The Boat and the Builder

Tartan, now a division of NavStar, has come along way since its early days as one of the pioneer manufacturers of fiberglass auxiliary sailboats. In 1980, Tartan was Douglass and McLeod Plastics, formed by Charlie Britton, among others, to build the nowclassic Tartan 27 centerboarder from Sparkman & Stephens. The first hull was produced in 1961, the last in 1980 for a total of 712—approximately 700 more than Britton’s initial expectation.

During that run, Tartan took its place as one of the major auxiliary builders in America, competing almost on a model-by-model basis with Cal, Pearson and, later, Catalina in producing mid-range cruisable sailing yachts. Tartan also has seen its share of troubles, from a serious plant fire in 1971, through ownership upheavals in the 1980s, and even a brush with voluntary bankruptcy in 1990 when the company shut down for three months. Under NavStar, which also markets the Thomas line of sailboats, Tartan has bounced back and retains unusually strong loyalty among its customers.

By 1991, company sales were outstripping production once again, an enviable position in these down-market times (so bad that even the National Marine Manufacturers Association has stopped tracking sailboat sales). Tartan has been looking for new markets abroad, following up with dealerships in Holland, Great Britain and Japan. In 1992, 25 percent of its business was exports.

There are two versions of the Tartan 31, both the work of Tim Jackett, Tartan’s in-house designer since the 1980s. The first 31s were built in 1987, and 118 were made before Jackett “Piperized” the model for 1992. Aside from adding a sailaway package, which includes North sails, Harken furling gear and lazy jacks, and Autohelm ST 50 instruments, the Piper offers a revised interior layout and a new shoal draft keel. The Piper also carries slightly less ballast with the same hull and rig; otherwise, the two versions are the same.

The 31 is classic Tartan—a medium-displacement cruiser with lots of power for performance and as many amenities as can be worked into 26 feet of waterline. The double-spreader masthead rig carries 507 square feet of sail, 266 in the foretriangle, 241 in the fully-battened main, for a sail area/displacement ratio of 18—enough to provide good speed without being overpowering. Tartan elected to use sweptback spreaders on the Piper, eliminating the babystay, which also clears the way for a (no-cost) optional self-tacking jib. (The standard jib is 135 percent.)

The original 31 displaces 9,030 pounds and carries 3,900 pounds of lead in its external keel, for a 43 percent ballast-to-displacement ratio; ballast in the Piper is reduced to 3,600 pounds for a still-respectable ratio of almost 40 percent. Both versions come with a six-foot deep fin, which most owners eschew for the shoal-draft version. The first 31s carry a Scheel keel, which draws 4′ 4″. For the Piper, Jackett designed (and named) the Beaver Tail, which draws the same but differs in shape, with NACA foil sections for greater lift and a somewhat flattened bulb intended to create an endplate effect and reduce drag. By concentrating the weight lower, the Beaver Tail provides the same righting moment with 300 pounds less ballast. “We feel it’s more performance oriented, that it gives more lift,” said Doug Zurn, a Tartan design engineer.

The hull itself, with an 11-foot beam (one foot more than the old Tartan 30), is full, with a distinct turn at the bilge for less wetted surface in light air, and stability, when the wind rises and the boat digs in. All in all, the 31 offers a stable platform and a blend of good looks and blue-water function. Since Tartans are semi-custom, you have the option of a traditional counter transom or a sportier scoop-style stern, with a somewhat wider swim ladder. Most customers choose the scoop.

Construction

Tartan has a reputation for solid construction and good workmanship and that’s what the 31 is: solid and well put together. The hull is hand-laminated with alternating layers of chopped strand mat and unidirectional E glass. Behind the NPG/ISO gelcoat there’s a layer of vinylester resin, which so far appears to provide the best osmotic blister protection available. Tartan, also a pioneer in cored hulls, has limited its balsa end-grain coring to the deck, because of the 31’s small size.

At a time when such reputable builders as Tillotson-Pearson (now TPI) are moving toward glued-together hull and deck joints, with bolts only at the cleats and stanchions, Tartan is still through bolting the length of the hull, with stainless steel bolts driven every six or seven inches through the solid teak toerail into a molded-in 1/ 4″ aluminum backing strip. The connection is further solidified by 3M’s 5200 adhesive. Down below, a partial liner to support the flooring is bonded to the hull. The keel is secured to the hull by seven 3/4″ stainless steel bolts and a thick bedding. Gear throughout is quality—Harken roller furling, Harken winches and a white Awlgrip-finished mast from Offshore Spars, which rises 48′ 6″ above the water. Deck hatches and opening ports are Lewmar. The engine is an 18-hp. Yanmar diesel.

The 31 has a comfortably deep T-shaped cockpit, a roomy foredeck and sufficiently wide sidedecks to facilitate moving around. Teak handrails and molded nonskid (plus the inboard shrouds) make the fore and aft trip safer. Even so, Tartan has made things easier by leading all sail control lines aft to housetop-mounted winches. Traveler controls also are mounted on the cabin top, although some serious racers have moved the traveler aft of the helm. The helm consists of a large Destroyer-type wheel by Edson “or equivalent” and the helm seat is raised slightly for a better view; owners have commented favorably on its comfort, even after long hours at the wheel. Tartan supplies an emergency backup tiller.

Several 31 owners complain about mast leaks. One found the solution in liberal application of silicone sealer. Another has been frustrated by a persistent leak, possibly from the head of the mast, which requires constant pumping out of the bilge.

One owner spoke of her tie rod not being secured, but attributed the oversight to her dealer. Other Piper owners bemoaned the absence of handy stern chocks.

Performance

Although its design teams have changed, Tartan over the years has shown a knack for getting performance out of its cruising boats. That’s because Tartan emphasizes performance first in its cruisers, Zurn said. “You get a nice teak interior, but they do go fast,” he said. Racers we’ve talked to seem as happy with the 31’s performance as the weekend cruisers are with its accommodations. The 31, like other Tartans present and past, avoids the extremes of some other manufacturers.

One reason for Tartan’s successful blending of elements would appear to be careful attention to rig and sail plan. The double-spreader masthead rig permits extra sail area, resulting in a nicely balanced boat that’s “very forgiving,” in the words of several owners. With 241 square feet in the main, there’s enough sail area for good offwind speed; the big 135-percent jib, with 359 square feet, provides plenty of power to windward, the 31’s best point of sail. Upwind sail trim angles are further enhanced by the inboard shrouds. The boat moves nicely to windward, especially in a breeze, and also handles well dead downwind. Like other Tartans, it is least effective on a broad reach, especially when seas build up, but the good-sized “subtly” elliptical rudder provides adequate control. However, the 31 we sailed last spring on Long Island Sound managed a respectable 5-plus knots on a beam reach in about 10 knots of wind.

The 31 can carry sufficient sail partly because of its keel, particularly the deep fin version preferred by racers (and apparently Tartan’s overseas customers in Holland and Japan). With the shoal keel, the boat naturally loses some windward performance, but does not appear noticeably more tender. According to Zurn, the boat heels 10-12 degrees then “holds its own.” There’s no talk of reefing on this boat until the winds are well over 20 knots; owners report comfortable sailing in 35-40 knots, with a double reef. Adjusting the bendy mast and experimenting with sail trim may be necessary to increase performance in lighter airs. Those to whom performance is a priority should consider installing an optional hydraulic or mechanical backstay adjuster.

Under PHRF, the Tartan rates between 141 and 153, with 150 as an average, and compares favorably to most cruisers of its size and vintage, many of which were trumpeted as “performance” cruisers when introduced. The British-made Moody 31, for example, which displaces about 100 pounds less, carries slightly less ballast and has almost identical sail area, rates between 174-180; the Freedom 32, considerably lighter at 7,610 pounds (with ballast of 3,100) carries 50 square feet less total sail area and rates about 15 seconds slower per mile; the Pearson 31, marginally heavier with about 10 square feet less sail area, has an average PHRF in the 170s.

Down below, the most obvious differences between the original 31 and the Piper are apparent. Both have a definite seaworthy look—angled bulkheads, a businesslike nav station and a U-shaped galley for cooking in offshore conditions. Bulkheads, furniture and cabinets are all teak, offset by an off-white partial liner. The sole is varnished teak and holly. Settee cushions are a plush six inches thick.

In an effort to increase stowage space on the Piper, Tartan removed the port pilot berth and added cabinets and shelves. Settee berths were shifted outboard slightly and the bulkhead-mounted table moved to the centerline. Switching the table permitted the designers to add a second door from the main cabin into the head, through the port bulkhead. This increases access, although some observers feel it decreased privacy.

Also changed was the navigation station, to port as you come down the companionway. The original has a fold-down station (with instruments optional), separated from the main cabin by a full bulkhead. The new, permanent station faces aft behind a partial

bulkhead and offers more room for instruments. The change “opened up the cabin tremendously,” Zurn said. Also under the old arrangement, access to the port quarterberth was partially blocked when the chart table was in use; that’s no longer the case.

Interestingly, owners of the original version prefer the old layout, although for different reasons. One was glad to see the “coffin” pilot berth go, but disliked the nav area changes; another preferred the new nav station, but felt the centerline table intruded on cabin space. Yet another preferred the old CNG stove to the new propane burners.

The forward cabin has the usual double V-berth, with bureau and hanging locker to starboard. Several owners we talked to find the forward berths (about 6′ 9″ long, 6′ 6″ wide at the head, but narrowing considerably) somewhat cramped and stifling and prefer to sleep elsewhere, in the double quarterberth to port or amidships. The quarter berth, 7′ x 5′, is the most comfortable sleeping spot on the boat. The main settees are bunk-sized; the port berth, 6′ 6″ x 2′, will fit an adult, but the starboard bunk, 5′ 6″ x 2′, is more suitable for a child. Overall, Tartan has done a decent job of packing reasonable accommodations into a 31-footer, while retaining some sense of space in a pleasantly nautical environment. Standing headroom is 6′ 2″ in the main cabin, an even 6′ in the forecabin.

Just about everyone praises the easy access to the engine, which is gained by swinging aside the companionway stairs. This allows access to all sides of the engine, including the rear; even the stuffing box is readily accessible.

Light and ventilation are provided by a total of eight opening ports on the house sides, mid-cabin and foredeck hatches, and an extra opening port to the cockpit. Storage below, especially on the Piper, is adequate, if not expansive; topsides, there’s a cockpit locker opening to the starboard quarter, and lockers port and starboard of the helm.

Conclusions

The Tartan 31 strikes a nice balance between performance and cruising comfort. There’s enough power to keep the casual racer feeling competitive, and enough stability to keep the relative newcomer out of trouble. The Piper, fully equipped, retailed in 1993 for $88,580. Tartans traditionally retain their value, and the manufacturer and many of its dealers receive excellent notices for their post-sale service. The BUC Used Boat Price Guide is listing the 1988 pre-Piper 31 at between $61,200-$67,200, but current asking prices from dealers and individuals in classified acts are higher. (BUC, which, in our opinion, used to have slightly inflated values for used boats, seems to have reacted to the soft market by significantly underestimating true value, in the opinion of many dealers we’ve talked to recently.)

There may not be anything earth-shatteringly innovative about the Tartan 31, but it can lay solid claim to being an All-American mid-range cruiser, suitable for inland lake or coastal sailing.

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Bom dia Darrell… Primeiro parabenizar pelo blog e dizer que sou leitor frequente dos seus artigos. Gostaria de ler algo sobre o catalina 30mklll Ficaria imensamente grato se pudesse me enviar link da avaliação caso já tenha feito, e ou algum artigo para eu ler a respeito do modelo propriamente dito. Estou bastante interessado no barco e buscando informações para uma possivel aquisição.

Ansioso por uma resposta e muito obrigado.

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Tartan Yachts

For over 50 years, Tartan Yachts have set the standard when it comes to quality craftsmanship and performance in a sailboat. The Tartan creed is to deliver a yacht to the new owners that excels in all performance expectations, spares no expense when it comes to safety, and has the luxurious accommodations that one would anticipate when buying a yacht. It was 1960 when Charlie Britton, the design firm Sparkman & Stevens, and builder Douglass and McLeod would form a partnership to build the first Tartan 27. The Tartan 27 was a departure from the old world of wooden boats and used quality crafted fiberglass hulls to set itself apart during this new age of boat building. The company quickly needed to expand as new models splashed including the 34 and BlackWatch 37 and opened a second shipyard in North Carolina.

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TARTAN 455 SAILBOAT

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Quick Facts about Tartan Yachts

• Tartan Yachts was first founded in 1971 by Charles Britton.
• Today, Tartan Yachts is owned by MMG, a division of Seattle Yachts.
• The factory that builds Tartan Yachts is located in Painesville, Ohio.
• There have been more than 5,000 Tartan Yachts built and delivered.
• The largest Tartan model built today is the 455.

Tartan Yachts VIDEOS

As the innovations improved in the boat building industry, so did Tartan Yachts. Tartan soon became an award-winning company, including the Cruising World Boat of the Year award for both the Tartan 31 and 372. The materials used in building a Tartan also developed over time as new higher tech composites and vacuum-bagged resin infusions became available and offered a much stronger hull with better performance. Today, Tartan Yachts are among the best built sailboats in the world.

The Tartan Yachts difference is seen in every component, each technical detail, as well as the commitment Tartan makes in their comprehensive warranty. The decks on Tartan Yachts, for example, our built with longevity in mind and are among the strongest and stiffest of any sailboat in its class. With Tartan’s resin-infusion process, every deck is a 30% resin to 70% fiberglass ratio which is much better for performance than the 70% resin found in many competitive brand boats. This provides the strong, stiff result that Tartan decks are known for. 

Tartan’s comprehensive warranty gives owners a peace of mind as it is widely known as one of the best in the industry. Our team of designers and craftsmen take pride in the materials they use and their advanced building techniques. 

These factors combine to make such a high quality product that the Tartan warranty includes 10 years of blister and hull protection as well as a 2-year material and workmanship warranty. 

The Tartan factory currently produces 3 large boat models,  the Boat of the Year Award winning new Tartan 365, the newly designed Tartan 395 and the all new Tartan 455. Contact your Seattle Yacht Sales Professional today to start your search for the perfect Tartan sailboat.

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Last Man Standing

• By Herb McCormick
• January 19, 2024

There’s an alarm clock on the nightstand beside Tim Jackett’s bed in his home in Erie, Pennsylvania, but he doesn’t need it. Every weekday morning, at the otherwise sleepy hour of 5 a.m., he’s already wide awake, up and at it, ready to go. The drive to Painesville, Ohio, the current home of Tartan Yachts, is a 75-mile straight shot down I-90 that he can generally knock off in a bit over an hour (though he once got stranded on the highway for 11 long hours in a lake-effect blizzard). 

Jackett started working for Tartan as a summer job in college almost 50 years ago. Though he hasn’t toiled there continuously since then, the work has been the central thread woven through his long, eventful ­career as a boatbuilder and naval architect. These days, he not only designs the boats at Tartan, but he also oversees the operations and production. The plant gets ­underway at 7 a.m. sharp, and he won’t be late. 

Jackett’s a boatbuilder all right, but, to be more specific, because his roots play such an important role in who he is and what he does, he’s a Midwestern boatbuilder, a born-and-bred northeast Ohio boy, a child of Lake Erie, where his passion for sailing was kindled and the seeds of his lifelong craft were sown. 

The sixth of seven kids, Jackett’s the son of a US Navy veteran who briefly set down stakes in Florida following his service in World War II but soon returned to good old Cleveland, where he and his wife were raised. The family eventually moved to the east-side suburb of Mentor, pronounced Menner : “No ‘t’ in there,” Jackett said. “If you’re from Menner, you’re from Menner.”

Jackett attended the public high school there, but, more important, the little town had a cool, cozy, ­communal sailing club. It was a no-frills outfit (unlike the nearby hoity-toity yacht club) where his parents sailed their little wooden sailboat, a Privateer named Jacquette (the original spelling of the family name, in honor of the old man’s French-Canadian heritage). That club is where the racing bug bit Jackett.  

“There certainly wasn’t any junior sailing program, but it was a great place,” he said. “We were kind of the outcasts. We raced on Thursday nights because the yacht club raced on Wednesdays. And we used their marks. We did try to be courteous about it, but, yeah, we were the hoodlums across the water.”

Following high school, Jackett applied to exactly one college: the tiny, focused Cleveland Institute of Art. “I thought I was going to be a painter,” he said. “I was a bit of a loner at that point, and going up on a mountaintop somewhere and painting sounded pretty good. But my very practical dad didn’t think much of that as a career choice and encouraged me to go from the fine-arts side to the more-commercial program, which was industrial design. So I went down that path. And I spent my whole time there drawing boats. I got a copy of Skene’s Elements of Yacht Design and learned how to draw lines plans. When everyone else was drawing toasters and headlights, I was drawing boats.”

The boat-crazed lad searching to find his place on the watery planet went through a family friend to land the ideal summer gig: as a gofer at the busy local boatbuilding concern, Tartan Yachts. Launched in 1951 and originally called Douglass & McLeod after its two founders, the company switched in 1961 from building small one-design racing dinghies and launched the Sparkman & Stephens-designed Tartan 27, a wild success commercially and on the racecourse. By the mid-1970s, however, after a fire wiped out the company’s base in Grand River, it was owned and run by a passionate sailor named Charlie Britton, who would come to play a major mentoring role in Jackett’s life. 

Jackett’s job involved mostly warranty work, though he once leapt into murky Lake Erie to see if one could reattach a centerboard pennant on a Tartan 37C without hauling the boat (one could). During the couple of summers that he worked there, he never actually crossed paths meaningfully with Britton. That all changed thanks to, of all things, a local bar called the Beachcomber that the after-work Tartan crew frequented. 

Jackett’s sister was a friend of the owner, who wondered if her art-school brother could build a model sailboat to display in the center of the joint. (If you strolled to the men’s room, you couldn’t miss Jackett’s framed boat renderings from his college classes lining the walls.) Jackett was mightily enamored of the slick Tartan 41, of which there were several on the lake, including the one campaigned by Britton.

“I’d spent a lot of time looking at the boat and found a brochure and decided to do the 41,” he said. “The model was fully rigged, sheathed in fiberglass, had the keel, winches, everything. Charlie had a look and asked, ‘Who the hell made that?’ And that’s when I got to know him a bit.”

That first impression proved lasting. The summer after graduating, in 1977, at the tender age of 22, he was hired full time at Tartan. Little did he know then, but he’d embarked upon his lifelong pursuit.

If, at the time, jackett had any inkling about the tenuous future of American production ­boatbuilding, or about the twisting, turning marine-­industry journey that lay ahead of him personally, he just might’ve packed up his easel and headed for the hills. In the moment, however, there was no time for deep contemplation. His first project was the 33-foot, one-design Tartan Ten racer, and it was full-on.

Britton was betting the farm on the boat, with the ambitious goal of having 40 boats on the starting line the following season (other than the prototype, none had actually been built). Sparkman & Stephens had drafted the lines for the hull but little else. So, Britton set up Jackett in the development shop with a drafting table and told him to get to work. 

“I ended up doing the deck design and what little interior there was to it,” he said. “Charlie was a product guy, not a designer, but he loved the development side of it. If you had a sketch, he’d put his notes all over it. And we’d sit down and talk about stuff, and I’d take his thoughts and help him turn it into what we were trying to do. I felt really privileged to work with Charlie. He was such an experienced sailor.”

Collaborating with Britton on this inaugural ­effort was an almost perfect introduction to the business of creating yachts for a consumer market. And it would lay the groundwork for so much more to come. But ­working with Britton was also an adventure because it was almost never exactly clear what would happen next.

For instance, the union situation in Ohio was ­problematic, so much so that Britton shut down the production floor and moved that whole shooting match to Tartan’s second facility, in Hamlet, North Carolina, to which Jackett was also dispatched. In Hamlet, Jackett graduated from conjuring deck layouts to engineering entire systems, with Britton once again looking over his shoulder and working through problems and challenges. “It was a great experience,” he said. “Talk about a hands-on education.”

Also in Hamlet—because what else was a ­boatbuilder going to do with his time off—Jackett decided to rent a little shop and design loft, and build his own cold-­molded, 24-foot-6-inch racing sloop (it was ­actually his second personal boat, having completed one earlier in Ohio). 

“I’d work all day at Tartan, grab a six-pack, and go to work on my next boat,” he said. “One day I’m down on my hands and knees, and Charlie comes in and says, ‘What are you doing?’ And I tell him I’m building my next boat. Next thing you know, he’s down there on his hands and knees with me.” The sensei and student, back at it.

Like Jackett, Britton always had a side project going; under the auspices of a company he called Britton Marine, he commissioned Southern California naval architect Doug Peterson to draw a powerful 43-foot offshore racer, exposing Jackett to yet another facet of design work and the approach of a renowned designer. But the move also signaled Britton’s own growing wariness with union labor and Tartan in general. In 1984, he pulled the plug and put it up for sale. 

Partners John Richards and Jim Briggs (of Briggs & Stratton power-equipment fame) were the next ­owners, and their five-year tenure was characterized by ­missteps and false starts. But Jackett said that he will forever be indebted to them for one satisfying opportunity: to design his own boat, soup to nuts, the Tartan 31.

“Charlie was so enamored of Sparkman & Stephens,” he said. “I don’t know that he ever would’ve given me free rein to be the complete designer of the product. I made my pitch to John and Jim, and they said, ‘OK, we’ll do it.’ At that time, the development cost for a 31-foot boat was about $400,000. At that point, I’m like 30 years old, and I’ve got a company committing major resources to something that I conceived and drew up. It was cool.”

The new owners’ confidence was not misplaced; the production run for the 31 totaled 165 units, which made it profitable. The design also earned a Cruising World Boat of the Year award, which made it a critical success. Moreover, it gave Jackett a new title: chief designer of Tartan Yachts.

But Briggs and Richards weren’t in it for the long haul. When they decided to bail out in 1990, Jackett took the molds for a Tartan side effort called the Thomas 35, a one-design racer, and hung out his own shingle to build them: Jackett Yachts. Which is just about the time everything once again came to a fork in the road. A businessman named Bill Ross picked up the Tartan pieces and lured Jackett back into the fold, this time not only as the brand’s designer, but also as chief of operations.

Ross cared little about boats, per se; his expertise lay in finding distressed companies and making them whole. His stewardship was oftentimes a rough ride down a road littered with potholes. But two significant events occurred during the time he owned the place. The first, in 1996, was acquiring the popular, longtime Canadian brand, C&C Yachts. Jackett was thrilled, and in rapid order designed three C&C’s: the 110, 99 and 121, of which some 400 yachts would eventually be built. 

“They were my favorite boats growing up, even more than Tartans,” he said. “Really good performers, more toward the racing side, and now we could take on J/Boats a little bit. The two brands worked together very well. Dealers were hungry for them. It was a really smart move. I stopped racing my own little boats and started racing the C&Cs I designed. I took the 99 to Key West and did some nice events with it. It was all fun stuff.”

The second seismic shift happened in the late 1990s. With their Fairport, Ohio, plant bursting at the seams, Ross enlisted the services of a fellow named John Brodie, who was exporting some of Tartan’s stainless-­steel parts from a facility in China, to build the Tartan 4600 there. The tooling was loaded on a ship, and Jackett landed in China the same day the molds arrived. After inspecting the decrepit infrastructure, he almost immediately realized that the entire idea was disastrous and wouldn’t work.

But one significant development arose from the ­otherwise failed experiment: Brodie wanted to build the boats in high-tech, vacuum-bagged, two-part ­epoxy laminates—a superior mode of construction—and Ross was all in. He told Jackett to make it ­happen (his arm didn’t need twisting; he’d been ­employing West System epoxy, which he loved, on his own cold-molded boats for years). Jackett enlisted some of the top names in materials and composite structures, eventually bringing all the new technology to the Ohio floor. At the same time, Tartan acquired an autoclave and started fashioning its own carbon-fiber rigs and parts. It was a major shift in how the boats were built, and, for that matter, marketed. 

“All of that dovetailed into our advertising, which Bill was really smart about,” Jackett said. “It was all about ‘engineered to perform.’ Audi was running a similar marketing program at the time, and Bill didn’t mind plagiarizing from the auto industry. It was an important element back then, and it still is. Our boats are different from a run-of-the-mill production boat.”

But the roller-coaster ride was far from over. The early 2000s were good years for Tartan, right up to the Great Recession of 2008, when the hammer fell on the entire economy. Tartan wasn’t immune: Ross sold out. Jackett Yachts reopened for business. There was a collaboration with Island Packet on a boat called the Blue Jacket 40; the launching of a new little daysailer, the Fantail; and the acquisition of the Legacy powerboat brand from Freedom Yachts. In 2014, thanks to the Legacy business he brought with him, Jackett teamed up with Tartan’s latest owners and rejoined the firm. 

If Jackett had never done another thing in the ­marine industry, you could say he’d enjoyed a rewarding, stellar career. But it turns out that there was another chapter yet to unfold.

the heart attack—yes, heart attack—that Jackett suffered after racing sailboats on Lake Erie this past August was certainly unexpected. At first, he thought the tightness in his chest was from sitting too long in an awkward position on the boat. Once ashore, he realized it was something far more serious. Quick action by several folks at his yacht club averted what otherwise might’ve been tragic. And he was a lucky dude indeed, surviving with all systems intact and sparking. 

I learned of Jackett’s health situation and other ­personal matters on a visit to the Painesville plant this past September while on an assignment to ­review the Tartan 455, his latest design. It’s a pretty sweet, ­powerful sailboat, with a raised deckhouse very much outside his usual purview. But as I discovered on a windy test drive on Lake Erie, like every Jackett design I’ve ever helmed, you get some sail up and it will haul the mail. So there was no real surprise there. Instead, the surprises came, one after the next, on a tour of the factory.

It was bustling place full of frenetic activity but with a palpable feeling of camaraderie and purpose. Pink Floyd blared from the wood shop. A makeshift help-wanted sign was placed near the entrance: “Marine Mfg, Now Hiring, Apply Inside.” Jackett was bearded (his last shave was the day he graduated from high school; his wife, Donna, and their three kids have never seen him without it) and bedecked in a Cleveland Browns hoodie (his beloved Brownies were playing that evening on Monday Night Football), and he looked every bit the image of the burly, no-nonsense Midwestern boatbuilder. He was clearly quite proud to show some visitors around. “We make two things here,” he said by way of introduction. “Boats and dust.”

At the front of the shop, a trio of older Tartans, including a 4400 that had been thrashed in the Bahamas during Hurricane Dorian, were undergoing complete refits, which is a welcome and steady stream of business. Around the corner, a new rudder was being cast for a Tartan 37C. If you have an older Tartan that needs parts or an upgrade—“regardless of vintage,” Jackett said—the company’s happy to address it for you. 

The hulls and decks for several new Tartan 365s, one of three models currently in production, including the 395 and the 455, were in various stages of construction. The 365 is Jackett’s latest critical triumph, the Cruising World Domestic Boat of the Year for 2022 and one of his 31 overall designs, including the C&Cs and the five backyard boats he ultimately built. (When complimented on that impressive number, he cracked, “We become prolific and old at the same time.”) In the rigging shop, a worker was laying up swaths of carbon fiber, straight out of the fridge, in the autoclave for a new spar. Out back, the original Tartan 27, Hull No. 1, was propped up and ready for a complete makeover, set to coincide with the 65th anniversary of its launching in 2025.

Jackett led us from the factory floor to the stairs and his second-floor office, where a window overlooks the entire hectic scene (and where his contented pooch, Ella, a German shepherd/husky mix, waited ­patiently). At the foot of the staircase was a pair of sneakers ­painted gold and mounted on a plaque. 

“That’s the Golden Tennis Shoe Award,” he said with a laugh, “for the guy most improved in staying at his workstation and not wearing out his shoes.”

This is where Seattle Yachts, the latest entity to own Tartan, comes in. In early, pre-pandemic 2020, Jackett was running the place with Rob Fuller, but matters “reached a financial rough point.” They reached out to Peter Whiting, a managing partner of Seattle Yachts, an established Tartan dealer that had several boats on order. Whiting paid a visit to the plant. And, in rather short order, Seattle Yachts took over Tartan Yachts. It was a strong move by the Pacific Northwest firm to commit to a good, old American brand.

Originally a brokerage office, Seattle Yachts had pivoted into boatbuilding and owned several brands. After purchasing Tartan, it made several six-figure investments, including the purchase of the new plant in Painesville. Eventually, the new owners put Jackett back in charge of overall operations. Always a stickler for running things efficiently and incentivizing his workers, Jackett witnessed a few too many folks taking too many breaks. Hence, the Golden Tennis Shoe Award for sticking to the task at hand, one of several new employee incentive programs. 

The new overall responsibilities have once again changed Jackett’s life, adding a daily commute back and forth from Erie, where he’d moved to be closer to his grandchildren. On top of everything else—­actually, more than anything else—Jackett’s a family man, and being closer to his kids is a huge priority as he navigates his 60s. Taken in context with his recent health scare, this desire leads to inevitable questions. Like, do you ever consider wrapping up your career? And what, exactly, does it feel like to be one of the business’s lone survivors, the proverbial last man standing? 

The answers took some of those old twists and turns. Under a photo on his office wall of the Tartan 31 under full sail—his first design, and still a fond memory—he offered a few thoughtful responses. 

Sure, he’s given some thought to moving on, but he needs a successor, someone he trusts, to whom he can pass the baton. He enjoys the operations side of management, building the team. He’s proud of continuing the long manufacturing tradition in northeast Ohio. He likes the fact that he’s there for owners of older Tartans, that when you buy one of his boats, you join the Tartan family. And the feeling he gets when setting the sails of a new design after months of hard work, that initial rush as it heels into the breeze, remains a cherished one. 

But what about it, Tim? How long? 

“There’s a country song that asks that question: ‘What would you be doing if you weren’t doing this?’ And the answer is: ‘I’d be doing this,’” he said. “Maybe not with Tartan, but maybe I’d set up a little shop and build my own cold-molded 25-foot boats. Just for the pleasure of building them, putting them in the water, and sailing them.”

Once a boatbuilder, always a boatbuilder. 

Jackett had one last remembrance and anecdote to share. Fittingly, it goes back to where this story began, on that nightstand in Erie, next to the useless alarm clock. 

“Back in the mid-1980s, I actually sent a job ­application to Sabre Yachts, and I asked Charlie Britton to write a letter of recommendation,” Jackett said. “And he wrote one, in longhand. I tell people, you have your wooden box that you keep by your bed, and Charlie’s letter is in there. He was a man’s man, and there’s a line in there that I really appreciated: ‘The men have respect for you.’

“And that’s a cool statement, you know?” 

Herb McCormick is a CW editor-at-large. 

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How the Marine Corps is testing a ‘narco-boat’ for resupply efforts

The U.S. Marine Corps is testing out an autonomous system inspired by a “narco-boat” to bolster resupply efforts, as the service focuses on island hopping and projecting power from land to sea, according to the head of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory.

In addition to delivering two Naval Strike Missiles for the Corps’ anti-ship missile system, the autonomous low-profile vessel the Marine Corps is experimenting with also aims to better get critical supplies like food to forward deployed and distributed Marines, Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Simon Doran said at the Defense News Conference on Wednesday.

“Truth be told, this is just a narco-boat,” Doran said. “We stole the idea from friends down south. And so this is 55 feet long, completely autonomous. It’s able to go hundreds or thousands of miles. It’s able to carry weapon systems that we have that are new. … It can carry pretty much anything you want to put in it.”

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Inspired by narco-boats, which are used by traffickers to smuggle illicit substances across bodies of water, the unmanned vessel remains close to the water-surface level to cut down on the likelihood of detection as it assists with logistics capabilities.

The service tested the logistics supply drone at the Army’s Project Convergence Capstone in February at Camp Pendleton, California, where the Marine Corps trained a cook in 21 days to operate the system off the islands of Japan.

The Army spearheads the Project Convergence to test out advanced technology and capabilities in modern warfare as part of a joint, multinational exercise.

The autonomous low-profile vessel is particularly important because it allows forces to resupply food, fuel and ammunition without jeopardizing the safety of Marines, Doran said.

“If you have that unit located inside a weapons engagement zone, contested logistics and the ability to maneuver in the littorals becomes key,” Doran said. “And for that, what we’re looking at is trying to acquire systems that we deem risk worthy, meaning that we don’t necessarily want to just waste them, but we’d rather put something in there that’s autonomous, that doesn’t have humans on it that can do some of these higher risk missions without having personnel put in that riskier situation.”

This system is something the Marine Corps wanted “yesterday,” but testing is ongoing, Doran said. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory received two prototypes in 2023.

The vessel is expected to join the III Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa, Japan, for further evaluation this fall, he said.

The service hopes to purchase the vessels in the next several years, Marine Corps leaders said at the 2023 Defense News Conference.

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