The Tanzer 16 Pages

The Tanzer 16 was designed by Johann Tanzer and was first built in 1963. Production went until 1985 with a total of nearly 1900 boats being built. Originally known as the Constellation, there were two versions of the boat that were built; one as an open dinghy, the other as an over-nighter with a small cuddy cabin.The class association owns the molds and a new Tanzer 16 could be built with them (although only a few boats have been built since Tanzer Industries stoped building them).

Specifications

Length Overall 16' 4"

Length on the Water line 15' 7"

Beam 6' 2"

Draft 7" to 2' 9"

Vertical Clearance 25'

Weight 450 pounds

Weight, rigged 500 pounds

Sail Areas
Main
Jib
Genoa
Spinnaker

100 square feet
35 square feet
45 square feet
205 square feet

Tanzer16

The primary strengths of the boat are its simplicity and its well-natured traits. The center board and kick-up rudder are both aluminum, the wood cap on the center board trunk and the thwart are teak resulting in low maintenance. The rig is simple with a non-tapered mast section with external halyards and no spreaders.

While other sailors may argue that speed robbing trade-offs are silly to make, I would counter that while the centerboard and rudder are not proper foil shapes, there is a significant advantage to the cruising sailor to have foils that can bump a rock and come out unscathed.

Unlike many other dinghies, the cb and rudder are held down by gravity. At first I did not believe that they would stay down but they do. Similar arguments could be had over the lack of spreaders. But this mast is quite stiff and does not seem to miss them. Also, because of the simple rigging, the mast is sealed and should be buoyant. (or neutral) I purchased # 1298 (August 1997) (picture).

T16 Information

The Tanzer 16 main page. Topics from trailering to how to right the boat, plus boats and gear for sale.

Additions

October 2002

Been a long time .. but here are some pics that I've been collecting up.

December 2001

It has been a long time .. but while in Lockport NovaScotia in October I took a couple of pictures of an Islands 17. The Islands is mentioned in an article here as a likely T16 hull rip. After looking at this one I have no doubt!

January 2001

I rescanned the boat drawing that was so crappy before. It is almost readable in the smaller form and for sure in the larger (but it is over a Meg..)

September 2000

This is our summer boat trip 2000.

February 2000

I don't know why I did not put it here earlier but here are some photos from a weekend trip summer 1999,

September 1999

Pictures of the Tanzer 14 are now available.

April 1999

I have added a note describing the number of boats built plus the connection to the Columbia 16.

A reprint of the brochure from 1971. (includes pricing for various options)

August 1999
The US Tanzer 16 class association membership application as an rtf file.

Stuff

Here is a weird picture of my wife and I sailing a T16 in an odd position.
Check out the Tanzer owner's manual web-published by Gary Eaton. (This is now a local copy here as ther original seems to have gone away ..)

Chris Locke
chris@clal.ca