Wayfarer - great little boat

[langstonelayabout]

Wayfarers. They're great! I used to instruct in them in the 80's at Emsworth Sailing School and my brother has owned two wooden ones.

Reasonably fast, predictable, seaworthy, easily righted by a novice, easily sailed with all three sails with no rudder. Also, good and very tactical to race and ideal/safe to take your family out in. I'd have one over a Kestrel any day, although I'd consider the Kestrel a more racey boat.

Yes, when capsized they do ship water in the way that every boat of that era does, get your crew to hold onto the lower toestraps as you stand on the centreboard and bring it back up. They will displace some water meaning that the boat may not float higher initially but you will have a few less buckets of bailing to do. The only nightmares occurred in the mk1/mk2 boats where the stern hatch popped off because it wasn't correctly clipped down.

Oh yes, it is also the class where I had my first spinnaker blow out: the way every spinnaker should bow out! If your centreboard or rudder hummed at speed then it is badly shaped: today's good racingfoils won't do this.

Remove the rear wooden seats by all means but leave the floorboards in. They help a little with the stiffness and are much nicer to walk on. A pump and bucket are good ideas, even is the bucket is used just for the spinnaker when lowered.

And the boat's weight? It is what it is. Get someone to help you up the slipway. Remember that the Laser 5000 weighs the same.

 

[KellysEye]

Wayfarers are great boats we have sailed them. A couple coast hopped a Wayfarer from the UK to the Med

 

[EdWingfield]

for the Wayfarer devotees. Read this sobering tale.

http://www.bluedome.co.uk/beginners/capsize.html

 

[langstonelayabout]

for the Wayfarer devotees. Read this sobering tale.

http://www.bluedome.co.uk/beginners/capsize.html

Yep, and my friend Chris and I on the same course in 2011, but less drama: https://youtu.be/BFUaayENfno

 

[EdWingfield]

Nice vid.

Their report gave winds f5-6. Dinghy folk can exaggerate. Your vid doesn't show f5-6. Their radio and flares were inaccessible. In their report I could not identify who was 'in command'. It was a Committee. The report said they had witnessed 100+ Wayfarer capsize exercises - presumably all of them in duckpond situations?

Thanks to a passing yottie, the military and the RNLI, all lived to tell the tale.

 

[langstonelayabout]

Nice vid.

Their report gave winds f5-6. Dinghy folk can exaggerate. Your vid doesn't show f5-6. Their radio and flares were inaccessible. In their report I could not identify who was 'in command'. It was a Committee. The report said they had witnessed 100+ Wayfarer capsize exercises - presumably all of them in duckpond situations?

Thanks to a passing yottie, the military and the RNLI, all lived to tell the tale.

Hmmm. I didn’t realise there was a competition.

 

[Greenheart]

I read that rather frightening Isle of Wight Wayfarer tale with interest. I think anyone who fancies cruising an unballasted boat in open water needs to read it and ask themselves whether they'd reach the same unwelcome realisations, too late for convenience.

Having said that, and having taken note of the date of writing (1999), I do think it reads like a 20th century story, if only because decent modern insulative kit for dinghy sailing need not be as objectionable to wear when one's plan specifically excludes capsizing, as perhaps it was twenty years ago.

I lately found a photo of myself sailing the Osprey in 2013, in shorts and t-shirt. I didn't think I'd ever been so nonchalant, and I certainly always wear a wetsuit now.

I've nearly always hoisted a 5-litre air-bottle to the masthead too, to prevent inversion...although naturally, the only time I've capsized, it wasn't rigged. Fortunately in the light conditions, the masthead barely dipped below the surface.

I'd feel rather astonished if I saw a dinghy sailor wearing a lifejacket, now. Considering the relatively high probability of going swimming from a dinghy, and the combined inconvenience of an inflated LJ, and its uselessness when uninflated, it's a really rotten choice.

Something that comes across strongly in the 1999 account, is how heavily laden the boat was. I think he said over 40 stone of human ballast; plus several large water and fuel cans, boxes of provisions, (tools? Or did I imagine that?), and, mentioned like an afterthought, an outboard motor! Granted, the Wayfarer carries weight very ably, but in fresh to strong winds and biggish waves, their boat sounded horribly overburdened to me.

Personally I still find the dinghy-cruising idea appealing, but I think the combination of a basic cabin and a ballasted keel make the cheapest entry-level yachts more practical and pleasing than very heavy, not very sprightly dinghies which won't self-right in the kind of circumstances when the crew is least able to effect a recovery.

None of that is any wiser than the advice I was given by people here before I bought my Osprey, and it all applies as much now, as then...I still want a yacht, and the dinghy doesn't provide what I wanted from a yacht...

...however, owning a big but brisk dinghy myself, I'm better able to stomach purchasing a total slug of a yacht, without feeling I've left all joy of performance behind me.

Finally, it does occur to me that very small, lightly-ballasted centreboard mini-cruisers are likely to need caution in breezy weather on open water. They may be unsinkable (or nearly so) and they may be far less prone to knock-downs than even the stablest dinghy, but they're still very tiny boats.

 

[fisherman]

several for sale on ebay, not too much money. I used to hire one from the Helford boatyard occasionally for our camping up the river holidays. found it very safe and forgiving, unlike the Hornet (no 263) we used to race.

 

[BrianH]

I bought a wooden Wayfarer back in, hmm, must have been 1965, and kept it afloat in Whitby harbour, on a trot just in the corner below the swing-bridge. WYC had decreed the class as a sufficiently robust and stable dinghy for our bay racing off the NE coast but we only managed to get three out together at the most.

It was only my second boat (first was a Snipe class) and I loved it. I used to get out in the bay as often as possible, mostly single-handed and often had her planing on a broad reach. One gusty evening out alone I capsized and had the devil to get her to not roll over again when righted, full of water. The sealed compartments fore and aft seemed at the time to make her laterally unstable - a veritable roll machine pivoting on those two high buoyancy points - in a seaway and strong winds. Eventually I got her up and headed into the wind and waves and climbed in over the transom, having learned the hard way that trying amidships was just going to roll her again as my weight was enough to start the tipping. I think later models introduced buoyancy bags to fit under the side decks, which must have cured that.

.

 

[KellysEye]

I'm not surprised they capsized it looks like inexperience.

Factors that led to the capsize
These were:
a) helming error
b) sloppy tacking procedure
c) bad crew co-ordination
d) the state of the sea and wind

 

[steve yates]

I'm not surprised they capsized it looks like inexperience.

Factors that led to the capsize
These were:
a) helming error
b) sloppy tacking procedure
c) bad crew co-ordination
d) the state of the sea and wind

Inexperience?? Did you read the article? That's a lot of dinghy experience there, do you have more than any of them sailing dinghies?

 

[lw395]

I'm not surprised they capsized it looks like inexperience.

Factors that led to the capsize
These were:
a) helming error
b) sloppy tacking procedure
c) bad crew co-ordination
d) the state of the sea and wind

It seems to me they'd not really prepared the boat properly, with fittings failing.
Also one of them had poor kit and was getting cold.
Plus, they were sailing 3-up, in a boat set up for 2-up racing.

They may have had los of experience, but how much of it turned out to be relevant?
Not being able to tack effectively because you have an extra person is pretty basic.
Not having adequate clothing is inexcusable these days, but to be fair the incident was last century.

I've seen Wayf's racing out of Lymington pretty often. While people bang on about them being excellent sea boats, the reality is, they (and the people in them) struggle more than the higher performance modern boats, when the wind and chop get up.
I've sailed in that area, capsized dinghies, righted them, then sailed on.

 

[BrianH]

While people bang on about them being excellent sea boats, the reality is, they (and the people in them) struggle more than the higher performance modern boats, when the wind and chop get up.
I've sailed in that area, capsized dinghies, righted them, then sailed on.

I suspect the "excellent sea boats" reputation has much to do with the legendary Frank Dye and his Iceland and Norway exploits. As I found myself and noted from a late reading (after my earlier post) of the linked story, they are not easy to right after a capsize, which should be essential for any dinghy that goes to sea, rather than in protected waters.

Much as I liked the Wayfarer, I much preferred all my subsequent dinghies: Fireball (particularly), Laser, 470 and lastly, Kestrel. I never capsized the Kestrel, it was almost a ballasted craft with its metal centreplate, but all the others could easily be righted and boarded, unlike the Wayfarer. Or perhaps my early model and relative inexperience, plus a fading memory of half a century ago, colours my perceptions.

 

[lw395]

To be fair to the Wayfarer, people who know what they are doing can right them well enough.
Getting them going again from swamped is more of a problem with some models. Being overloaded with three people, two anchors an outboard etc won't help.
The dinghy I'd choose for rough conditions would probably be the 505. If you've sailed one in rough water you'll understand why.

 

[TLouth7]

In terms of Wayfarers being seaworthy, I guess that they would be less tiring over a long passage than a more modern, flightier dinghy. You could probably keep one upright in more marginal conditions (but perhaps less able to keep driving through chop or make headway to windward), but once you go over I would prefer to be in something that comes up dry. Not least because a swamped wayfarer is not very stable, so in my experience it is hard to bail out enough to get sailing before you go over again. On the other hand with a really flighty dinghy you won't be able to climb aboard before it goes over again in really bad conditions.

Presumably there are lighter, equally stable dinghies out there which aim to fill a similar niche, but which come up dry after a capsize. Probably wouldn't have the same level of stowage though.

 

[BrianH]

To be fair to the Wayfarer, people who know what they are doing can right them well enough.

When I wrote that "they are not easy to right after a capsize" I should have written that they are not easy to keep righted after a capsize when full of water, which was my own experience ... although I am quite prepared to admit that I may not have 'known what I was doing' at the time.

Getting them going again from swamped is more of a problem with some models.

I do vividly remember that the bailer was in the foredeck compartment that I dare not open because the swamped boat would have decanted into it. I had to resort to a small, brass pump fitted to the centreboard casing that took ages to clear with no self-bailers. From then on I kept the bailer on a line tied to the mast step.

The dinghy I'd choose for rough conditions would probably be the 505. If you've sailed one in rough water you'll understand why.

I've never sailed a 505, they intimidated me with so much string doing things I had no clue of. They looked far too high-tech for me and far beyond my competence level. The later Fireball was the peak of my dinghy sailing but only on a Swiss lake, so no rough water stuff.

 

[rwoofer]

Personally I bought an Albacore in preference to a Wayfarer. Faster, more tweakable, two sails only, much much lighter which means easy to right on your own. The main downside is that it is not as stable as a wayfarer, but not sure how much of an advantage stability is when capsize conditions are reached.Compared to my Phantom, the Albacore is very stable, so it is a relative thing.

 

[Greenheart]

I get observers asking if my Osprey is a Wayfarer. It's a GRP Mk2, and the lines are classic Ian Proctor, very similar in both boats, though the Osprey is 20 inches longer, four inches leaner and at least 70lbs lighter.

The Osprey comes up from capsize with several inches in the cockpit, but she floated quite high on her side, I guess because the sidedeck tanks are substantial...

...having righted the Osp, the process of climbing in over the gunwale precipitated a further capsize, as somebody here said, earlier. I too would climb over the transom if there's a next time; and perhaps there'll be less water sloshed into the cockpit that way.

 

[Greenheart]

Continuing my Proctor-boat waffle for a bit longer, I was interested one day last summer to find myself a couple of hundred yards behind a Wayfarer with three old chaps in it...

...singlehandling the faster Osprey, I was confident that I'd cruise past the laden Wayfarer in seconds. But the minutes went by, and eventually I decided I'd be too far down-tide to get back with ease, if I kept on until I passed them.

I was going faster, but not very much, considering their weight and mine.

 

[Allan]

In contrast to the story off the IOW above, I followed this when it was happening.
http://www.xtremedinghycruising.com
A truly stunning adventure achieved in a remarkable time! Also a great advertisement for Wayfarers.
Allan