Kelpie
Well-Known Member
Been out three times in the last month. But then again I'm a lot further north than you poor chaps.
Dinghy query #2, or is it #9?: Centreboard, loose in its case
- Thread starter Greenheart
- Start date
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
Perhaps it's spring there in the lakes, Lakey, and further north, where there be dragons in drysuits, Rob...but it's not spring on the south coast, yet! Although it only needs the warm wet south-westerlies to return...
...then we'll all say 'blast, it never stops raining'. But I'd always prefer a damp temperature rise, over a cold but dry season.
I reckon my long-john wetsuit is 3mm thick. Or it was, twenty years ago, when I fitted inside. And it had a jacket, which I haven't seen in fifteen years...
...p'raps, as I intend sailing for summery pleasure, you can see where my 'reluctance' stems from?
Cometh the weather, saileth the Dan.
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Kelpie
Well-Known Member
Drysuit!? I don't sail fally-over type boats!
Seriously, I would concentrate on getting the boat ready to sail even if you have to do a few bodges here and there. So that when that first decent day arrives, you don't waste it discovering that the mainsail only goes half way up the mast or the tiller doesn't fit the rudder, or a hundred other possible impediments.
As Lakey says, once you've been out a few times, your priorities will almost certainly change.
I day-dreamed about turning my Wayfarer into the perfect miniature cruising machine, equipped for long open water singlehanded voyaging. But in the end most of the changes I made were about getting rigged easily and quickly, reducing the time it took to get sailing.
Seriously, I would concentrate on getting the boat ready to sail even if you have to do a few bodges here and there. So that when that first decent day arrives, you don't waste it discovering that the mainsail only goes half way up the mast or the tiller doesn't fit the rudder, or a hundred other possible impediments.
As Lakey says, once you've been out a few times, your priorities will almost certainly change.
I day-dreamed about turning my Wayfarer into the perfect miniature cruising machine, equipped for long open water singlehanded voyaging. But in the end most of the changes I made were about getting rigged easily and quickly, reducing the time it took to get sailing.
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
I'm really only hoping the Osprey sails as she was meant to, at the moment. Uphill work because she's old and abused, but I'm no perfectionist.
(Apologies, I'm about to start a new thread on what your outlook may regard as wholly unecessary supplementary standing rigging.)
Still, as soon as she sails controllably and doesn't leak, I'll start thinking how I could head for that attractive little harbour or sheltered beach round the headland...
...and from there, boom-tents, floorboards, riding-lights, stoves and anchor-chain buckets will inevitably heave into my mind's eye. If that really can be managed aboard a race-bred design, it'll largely be thanks to the Osprey's sheer size.
P.S...doesn't the Graduate ever capsize? Don't you risk being told you're not trying hard enough?
Kelpie
Well-Known Member
P.S...doesn't the Graduate ever capsize? Don't you risk being told you're not trying hard enough?
Ashamed to say we've out had the Grad out a couple of times... bought just before a house move and has been stored at the in-laws ever since. That one's definitely a wetsuit job, I admit.
EuanMcKenzie
Well-Known Member
got a harness if you want one - standard osprey crew size XXL 
PM me if you want it, - old style but with leg straps - not used in 20 years but free for the postage if you get the boat on the water with photos.
cheap wet suits on ebay
have you a roller for the jenny? useful for reducing sail quickly
Also you could botch a reef with two additional eyes in your mainsail, a hook on Cunningham as a downhaul and a hook on outhaul at the other end if there is enough extra length in it
PM me if you want it, - old style but with leg straps - not used in 20 years but free for the postage if you get the boat on the water with photos.cheap wet suits on ebay
have you a roller for the jenny? useful for reducing sail quickly
Also you could botch a reef with two additional eyes in your mainsail, a hook on Cunningham as a downhaul and a hook on outhaul at the other end if there is enough extra length in it
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
got a harness if you want one - standard osprey crew size XXL
That's a very decent offer, I thank you. In truth, I know so little about harnesses that I'm unsure how much difference the size makes...but I suspect XXL is quite a lot too big! Thanks anyway.
I'm thinking I ought to get used to the fact that drysuits are de rigueur for dinghies in the UK nowadays...the only downside being that I could probably find a newish mainsail for the price.
A roller genoa is very tempting. And the sort of thing I'd enjoy constructing, if it's not laughably labour-intensive for no saving over the ready-made version...
...and when I've worked out which of my mainsails is less crisp, I'll probably think about sewing reefing eyes in. Although I'd just as soon use a full-sized main from a smaller design of boat...
...cue query #23...what design of dinghy has a mainsail like a smaller Osprey? I realise a much shorter luff will mean less wind spilt by mast-bend, but as long as the main is much, much smaller than the standard 100sq ft, and assuming it can be flattened, I'd hope it could be useable in weather when I just want to get there safely and unspectacularly (quite often, possibly).
SigmaJon
Member
I have a mark II and was under the impression that the only mark I was the prototype?
EuanMcKenzie
Well-Known Member
I was told it was a mark 1 conversion when I bought it but honestly I'm none the wiser. It was an early osprey based on its sail number 110 that had had the rear end modified to a mark 3 open transom
My second Osprey was a mark 2 with the rear deck but had had the rear tank opened up and the slots cut through the deck that make it float lower in the water when on its side. This I believe makes it less incline to turn turtle when capsized as the hull float lower in the water with the rear tank submerged. Just found the attached which would indicate my first osprey was a 50's boat so who knows.
http://ospreysailing.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=8
My second Osprey was a mark 2 with the rear deck but had had the rear tank opened up and the slots cut through the deck that make it float lower in the water when on its side. This I believe makes it less incline to turn turtle when capsized as the hull float lower in the water with the rear tank submerged. Just found the attached which would indicate my first osprey was a 50's boat so who knows.
http://ospreysailing.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=8
EuanMcKenzie
Well-Known Member
How about an enterprise sail? You'd get one via the interweb somewhere i guess
