Our introduction to national 12 sailing. Not your

[ifoxwell]

Our introduction to national 12 sailing. Not your normal
storey…

 

We decided to buy bicycle clips in the end last weekend, a
baggy trousers with all the bits, a good racing record and well within our
price range… although miles away from us at leigh and Lowton sailing club.

 

Still not a problem, we have friends that way so decided to
make a weekend away of it and stayed in a premier inn on the Saturday night,
collecting the boat on Sunday morning, ready to drive back home that evening.

 

We should have realized it wouldn’t be an easier journey
when we needed to pump up one of the tires before leaving the club but we
weren’t that concerned as we got a spare trailer wheel thrown in with the boat
as part of the deal.

 

Unfortunately on the drive home when the tire went flat, and
we tried to fit said wheel, we realized that it didn’t fit! Still we had a foot
pump with us and as it was only a slow puncture we made it home in the end ok.

 

Which brings us to our first sail this weekend…

 

It was the clubs Ice Breaker event, the first race of the
new season with a single start, mass handicap race down the river and back,
with a loop half way and things got off to a reasonable start. It was a nice
sunny F3-4 and we opted to start on the club side, out of the tide and rounded
the first mark inside the top ten and amongst some much faster boats

 

We then discovered that 12’s can be a bit lively downwind in
the puffs and quickly realized that correct trim can mean some large crew
movements! but that said the fact that the boats become more stable as they
roll onto there side was pleasantly reassuring. The reach from the second mark
down river was great fun and all was going well until Hannah discovered that at
some point her watch had come undone and had now vanished. Not that it was a
great problem in itself but in our experience… when things go wrong, there
tends to be two or three of them.

 

But we were enjoying our self, we were regretting not wearing
our hikers and its clearly going to take me some time to get to grips with just
how tweaky the rig is but it was good fun and we were still leading our little
gaggle of boats.

 

And going around the last mark with just the long beat back
up river against the tide to the finish things were still good. There was a bit
more water sloshing around in the hull than we would have liked but no problem
we thought, we’ll just open the bailers and get rid of it…

 

Now at this point the story takes a turn for the worse as the
starboard bailer didn’t just flick open but fell out leaving nothing but a
large hole and a fountain of water to grab our attention. We quickly stuffed my
hat in the hole and with Hannah bailing and us keeping up some forward momentum
we managed to keep sailing, and we would have made it back if it wasn’t for the
fact the wind died, the boat stopped, and we sank. Not completely fortunately,
the buoyancy worked well and we had a rescue boat with us pretty quickly and
ready to tow us back, but even so it wasn’t the end to the good days sailing
that we would have liked.

 

So we have a bit of work to get done now for next week but
the good news is that we loved it and cant wait to get back out in her again
next week

 

Ian and Hannah

3162 Bicycle Clips

[Alistair Edwards]

Sounds like a very promising start to your N12 sailing. Shame about the bailer.

[Wobble (Guest)]

[face=Times New Roman]Glad you enjoyed it, the next lesson is that the tiller and the mainsheet keep the boat going fast downwind, the crew can’t move fast enough.[/face]

[Flew]

I bought a crusader 2 a year ago that appeared to have no rot. However when i got her home and started stripping off fittings under the paint the hull was rotten around the bailers and it would only have been found beforehand by prodding hard with a screw driver which is not something most vendors would be happy about particularly if the wood was good.  As wooden boats frequently get rot around the bailers I made good with some carbon and epoxy so I've now got a rot proof patch of hull in that spot [both sides]. To do this I dried it out , cut out the rotten laminate from the inside down to the last layer which I left to keep the hull shape while laying up the carbon. I then flipped her over and cut away the manky outer laminate to expose the new carbon and then added some more to form the outer layer. A bit of filler and it faired in perfectly. A bodgers method probably, but easy and will never rot out again. Its all good now and combined with the glass tissue and epoxy wrap to the syacamore gunwales she is now pretty bullet proof. I sail with an 8 year old. She was 7 last year and we managed ok in some very breezy weather. Dead down wind we usually sit way apart with ellen sat on the side deck diametrically opposite to me. As the wind picks up we move further back and sit more opposite. In a howler we have sat on each side of the transom. I let the shroud off and pull the ram on if I can but when it gets more hairy we are more likely to to loose time and speed on a short leg pratting around with the mast, so it gets left alone.
 
Flew 3300

[ifoxwell]

Thanks guys... I should point out that the bailer problem out wasn't due to rot, just the bailer itself falling apart, and i've already bodged it so that hopefully it wont happen again. If it does i'll have to buy some new ones and then I'll get to find out how solid the hull is i guess. Id rather not do this because the current bailers are so well fitted, faired in, and painted that  it would be a shame to spoil the finish.
Ian