I tried to keep the background brief, but this post got long in spite of me.
Background
After twenty-plus years away from dinghy sailing, I found my way back to the laser fleet about a month ago, and I'm having a great time and reasonable racing success re-learning small boat-handling. I won't use my 40 extra pounds as an excuse, but my body sure doesn't recover as quickly as it did back in college.
Part of what drew me back was wanting to introduce my teenage son to racing small boats. That led me to buy another boat last week. Sailing alongside and coaching from the water is so much easier and more enjoyable than tracing instructions in the sand and waiting and watching from the beach. My son's smart, he's tall and strong, and he's a fit High School athlete. I'm glad that he's excited about sailing (note: I actually just changed "happy" to "glad." I know it's cliche', but I don't think I've ever done that before). He's not quite secure enough to mix it up on a crowded, aggressive starting line, but I'm thinking he might be ready in another 6-8 weeks. Which leads me to the point.
The Project
Both of these boats have some years on them and were reasonably priced, but this second boat was a 'bargain.' I have no illusions about it jumping to the front of the fleet, but it's a good boat for learning, and when his abilities exceed the boat's, we'll either trade boats or simply upgrade the older one.
The Hull
The hull and deck feel pretty stiff to me, with no noticeable deflection. I believe it was primarily stored vertically on blocks supporting the deck above the transom. I think the last year or two were spent on a trailer, deck down. There are no visible ill-effects from any improper storage. Also, the boat -including the mast step- does not appear to leak at all. It is a white hull, built in the early 80s and with a little rubbing compound, most of the yellowing discoloration is gone and the original solid color is restored, although there are a lot of long surface cracks in the fiberglass that give the appearance that the hull's been dropped or strapped down too tight for a long period of time. As I said, feels ok, and it's not leaking. There's not much more we plan to do with the bottom.
The Sail
We put up the old sail that came with the boat, it was surprisingly fast in light air, but I don't have a lot of confidence that there's enough life left in that one for much more than that. My local Laser dealer had a couple of very lightly used class sails, and I picked up one of those for $125. I'll change the numbers to match the hull and call that good enough also.
Rudder & Daggerboard
The blades need some TLC, we'll start with some 600 grit paper and see if we can make progress on those.
Rigging
The rigging on the boat has not been upgraded and we're on not a severe budget, but certainly a limited one. The off-the-shelf rigging upgrade is close to the amount we have in the boat so far, so that's not an option at this point. Instead we're upgrading it piece by piece, in small, affordable bites.
We picked up some shock cord to replace what was worn out on the hiking strap, and the daggerboard, and added an in-haul. The vang was already turned over and a swivel added so we added a couple of 16mm airblocks (and a fast pin for rigging/unrigging) and we have a workable 8:1 system (with 5 'turning points.') Next, added some line and a couple of becket blocks and rigged a usable 6:1 purchase on the cunningham with the existing deck fairlead and clam cleat. For the outhaul, we added a small 'dinghy halyard' shackle and block for the 2:1 off the end of the boom and we also rigged a 3:1 purchase to the tail of that up to a turning block on the mast, but we're still using the old-school boom-mounted outhaul cleat. For now, we're using a piece of spectra core tied in for a clew tie down, but I'd like to get a velcro strap soon for convenience. I was lucky enough to have an extra carbon tiller and extension with my other boat, so I dodged a big expensive there. We were able to get all of this very workable with almost no cost, but the next step (cost) will be, in addition to sail #s and a clew strap, the double pad eye & fork blocks for the outhaul/cunningham. This will do 3 things, reduce (some) friction in the cunningham, change the lead for tightening the outhaul making it much easier to tighten. It is still led through the boom cleat, but setting to max ease is a simple matter of grabbing it on the boom and letting it go to a predetermined length, controlled by strategic knots. Finally and perhaps most importantly, it gives us someplace to attach the mast tie down. Without this, the only place I see to tie it is to the cunningham fairlead which is already a friction problem. The old vang is workable as it is, but I know we will want to add the new style outhaul/cunningham cleats after a while, but that's a hundred dollar expense I can defer for now.
Transport
We have a kitty hawk trailer and seitech dolly we bought with the first boat, but also on the list will be making a cradle to better hold and distribute the weight for deck-to-deck hauling to the water. For now, I have a pool toy "noodle" with a piece of PVC pipe slipped into the middle of it for stiffness and cut to fit in both mast tubes to keep them from sliding fore and aft and side to side, and we pad the decks with life jackets for the short ride to the bay, but we don't store them that way and having them supported primarily at bow and stern is less than ideal.
Next Steps
Am I missing anything?
Background
After twenty-plus years away from dinghy sailing, I found my way back to the laser fleet about a month ago, and I'm having a great time and reasonable racing success re-learning small boat-handling. I won't use my 40 extra pounds as an excuse, but my body sure doesn't recover as quickly as it did back in college.
Part of what drew me back was wanting to introduce my teenage son to racing small boats. That led me to buy another boat last week. Sailing alongside and coaching from the water is so much easier and more enjoyable than tracing instructions in the sand and waiting and watching from the beach. My son's smart, he's tall and strong, and he's a fit High School athlete. I'm glad that he's excited about sailing (note: I actually just changed "happy" to "glad." I know it's cliche', but I don't think I've ever done that before). He's not quite secure enough to mix it up on a crowded, aggressive starting line, but I'm thinking he might be ready in another 6-8 weeks. Which leads me to the point.
The Project
Both of these boats have some years on them and were reasonably priced, but this second boat was a 'bargain.' I have no illusions about it jumping to the front of the fleet, but it's a good boat for learning, and when his abilities exceed the boat's, we'll either trade boats or simply upgrade the older one.
The Hull
The hull and deck feel pretty stiff to me, with no noticeable deflection. I believe it was primarily stored vertically on blocks supporting the deck above the transom. I think the last year or two were spent on a trailer, deck down. There are no visible ill-effects from any improper storage. Also, the boat -including the mast step- does not appear to leak at all. It is a white hull, built in the early 80s and with a little rubbing compound, most of the yellowing discoloration is gone and the original solid color is restored, although there are a lot of long surface cracks in the fiberglass that give the appearance that the hull's been dropped or strapped down too tight for a long period of time. As I said, feels ok, and it's not leaking. There's not much more we plan to do with the bottom.
The Sail
We put up the old sail that came with the boat, it was surprisingly fast in light air, but I don't have a lot of confidence that there's enough life left in that one for much more than that. My local Laser dealer had a couple of very lightly used class sails, and I picked up one of those for $125. I'll change the numbers to match the hull and call that good enough also.
Rudder & Daggerboard
The blades need some TLC, we'll start with some 600 grit paper and see if we can make progress on those.
Rigging
The rigging on the boat has not been upgraded and we're on not a severe budget, but certainly a limited one. The off-the-shelf rigging upgrade is close to the amount we have in the boat so far, so that's not an option at this point. Instead we're upgrading it piece by piece, in small, affordable bites.
We picked up some shock cord to replace what was worn out on the hiking strap, and the daggerboard, and added an in-haul. The vang was already turned over and a swivel added so we added a couple of 16mm airblocks (and a fast pin for rigging/unrigging) and we have a workable 8:1 system (with 5 'turning points.') Next, added some line and a couple of becket blocks and rigged a usable 6:1 purchase on the cunningham with the existing deck fairlead and clam cleat. For the outhaul, we added a small 'dinghy halyard' shackle and block for the 2:1 off the end of the boom and we also rigged a 3:1 purchase to the tail of that up to a turning block on the mast, but we're still using the old-school boom-mounted outhaul cleat. For now, we're using a piece of spectra core tied in for a clew tie down, but I'd like to get a velcro strap soon for convenience. I was lucky enough to have an extra carbon tiller and extension with my other boat, so I dodged a big expensive there. We were able to get all of this very workable with almost no cost, but the next step (cost) will be, in addition to sail #s and a clew strap, the double pad eye & fork blocks for the outhaul/cunningham. This will do 3 things, reduce (some) friction in the cunningham, change the lead for tightening the outhaul making it much easier to tighten. It is still led through the boom cleat, but setting to max ease is a simple matter of grabbing it on the boom and letting it go to a predetermined length, controlled by strategic knots. Finally and perhaps most importantly, it gives us someplace to attach the mast tie down. Without this, the only place I see to tie it is to the cunningham fairlead which is already a friction problem. The old vang is workable as it is, but I know we will want to add the new style outhaul/cunningham cleats after a while, but that's a hundred dollar expense I can defer for now.
Transport
We have a kitty hawk trailer and seitech dolly we bought with the first boat, but also on the list will be making a cradle to better hold and distribute the weight for deck-to-deck hauling to the water. For now, I have a pool toy "noodle" with a piece of PVC pipe slipped into the middle of it for stiffness and cut to fit in both mast tubes to keep them from sliding fore and aft and side to side, and we pad the decks with life jackets for the short ride to the bay, but we don't store them that way and having them supported primarily at bow and stern is less than ideal.
Next Steps
- polish the rust/pits/scratches off the blades
- clew strap & sail numbers
- add the dual pad eye deck plate and Harken fork blocks (and mast tie down)
- trailer "bunk" for deck-to-deck configuration.
Am I missing anything?
