Saturday, 20 April 2013

A new boat for the family fleet

Junior training starts at Slipper next week, and the youngest in our family has just got his first boat.


This boat was given to us by some friends at the club, as it needed considerable TLC.  In a windy race, the mast had dislocated from the cup holding it at the foot, and destroyed the front thwart.  The insurance company had written it off as beyond economic repair, but we like recycling old boats and thought we'd have a go at fixing it up.

Like all of these projects, I thought it would take 8 weeks but it ended up taking the best part of a year.  I wanted to learn how to spray gelcoat and refinished the hull and deck as well as fixing the thwart.  And of course the boat needed a new rudder and centreboard.  Looks like new now, but give it 3 weeks and junior training and the insurance company will be writing it off again.

Most of the jobs on the boat weren't really suitable for Oscar to help with (spraying gelcoat isn't nice), but he spent time helping me clean the workshop.  And tracking my progress with to-do lists, there's a budding project manager.



As to the boat name, he choose "Toy 2 Many".  "Eggy Chocolate Rampage" was a close second, and I have to say I was disappointed he didn't go with it.  One happy sailor:



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7 comments:

  1. Tillerman20 April 2013 at 11:30

    Wonderful! The days when my kids were in Optimists were some of the happiest of my life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. my2fish20 April 2013 at 15:42

    very cool! I'm going to have my 2 older boys (12 and 8) take some sailing lessons this summer. I'm pretty sure they'll be sailing in an Optimist.

    cheers,
    my2fish

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mark R21 April 2013 at 05:42

    Thank you for your comments Tillerman and my2fish. We've just been for the annual wetsuit fittings, and are looking forward to the first Oppie sailing this Friday!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous27 April 2013 at 15:26

    great to see old 4545 in such good conditions, we knew it would go to a good home. Looks even better than when we 1st bought it.

    Helen

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mark R29 April 2013 at 00:47

    Thanks Helen. Oscar was a little unsure about oppies this year, but 4545 has tipped the balance and he really enjoyed his first "Friday Night Oppies" last week.

    ReplyDelete
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