regularman
New Member
Its been a while since I have posted much here mainly cause I have been working a lot of hours and haven't had time. Does anybody know of any new inprovements or gadgets for use when cruising/daysailing with the C14? I have made a few with mine that make it easier for me and my wife. We usually sail on a large lake and usually sail for the day. I have been meaning to take a bunch of photos and post them on a web page with all the mods and little extras becuase some of them are hard to explain without a picture. I have made most of the additions or improvement because there does not seem to be that many things for the C14 for sale out there. Right now I am working on a small ladder to put on the back. Its telescoping so that it won't touch the water when sailing, but when you let it down there will be 3 steps to let you climb back in the boat. My thinking is that this would be real handy for taking a quick dip in the water or getting back in after a capsize because the telescoping ladder rungs will be held up with a samll bungi cord that can be released from within the boat or when your in the water. I am making it out of aluminum to keep the weight below 5 pounds. There have been plenty of times that I wanted to get in the water but it was just too much trouble to get back in. I tried the rope with a loop thing and it was more trouble than it was worth for me, the bow rises and the stern lowers and the rope and my feet end up underneath the boat. I'm going to have this ladder with a brace down near the water line that kicks it out from the back a little to make up for how the boat reacts when you step on the ladder.