Friday, June 11, 2010

Old Boats of the Club Part 3, Daysailors

A look into the daysailors of WYC's past.

BY JOHN COURTER

Tanzer 16

A little like an underpowered smaller Flying Scot with a rounder bottom. I felt that it didn't steer very responsively, and it didn't feel very fast. It was a 500 lb boat, and since we probably had the genoa, it had 145 ft² of sail area. With the standard jib it had 130 ft² of sail area. In contrast the Flying Scot has 190 ft² of sail area.

 
Left to right: Excalibur Islander 26, Caravel Bristol 22, Tanzer 16
From 1980 Daysailor
 E-scow

The E-scow was 28 feet long with a boom that sticks out over the transom. It had bilge boards, twin rudders and was designed to be sailed heeled over. The boat planes offwind. It's a very different feel than a 505 planing. Sailing upwind you heeled the boat so when the deck was almost touching the water the lee bilge board would be vertical in the water. The boards had toe in to reduce leeway. The weather board needed to be raised because it would cause drag being at an angle to its opposite. 

This boat had small rudders and sail trim was important. I had the jib halyard break once. I couldn't get the boat to bear off, it stayed in irons without the jib. I tried raising the jib on the spinnaker halyard and promptly pulled the screws for the block out of the wooden mast. I then ran the foot up as if it were the luff using the spinnaker pole topping lift, tied a knot in the sail near the head to hold onto and sailed home. 

When I got my rating on it, the chief who went out with me and also had an E-scow of his own said, “I'm not sure that only two people can right it.” He then proceeded with the capsize part of the test. It turns out you can right one with only two people. There were 4 E-Scows at the club at one point. I believe two or three of them were affiliate boats. I have several fond memories of cruising Lake Washington summer evenings on this boat. It had 323 ft² of sail area and the hull weighed 965 lbs.

C-scow

20 foot cat rigged version of the E-scow. I pretty much ignored this boat since I considered the E-scow so much cooler. It wasn't a long term boat in the club. It had 216 ft² of sail area and weighs 650 lbs.


Husky

Huskies were the first boats that the club owned. In the fifties a design contest was held and a cabinet maker won with a scow design. The boat was constructed of a few sheets of plywood. The first version was under rigged and consequently more sail area was added. 

I believe originally there were 6 Huskies, at the time I joined there were the Brad, Deb, and the Increadaboat left. Two of the Huskies were stored in the Canoe House and the masts had to be tipped back at an angle to clear the door leading to the ramp that is in the Montlake cut. There was also another Husky left that had been converted into a race committee boat, the mast had been replaced with a course board and an outboard bracket had been fitted. I got stuck using this 6 HP powered thing more than once teaching classes. 


The original boats had a centrally mounted rudder and centerboard. The Incredaboat had been modified to something similar to an E-Scow with twin rudders and bilge boards angled out. Additional sail area had been added including a deck sweeper 180 % genoa. Dual trapezes were also added. I believe on my first Snooze and Cruise that the Increadaboat hit a log and tore a rudder off with part of the transom. That evening there was a group of people fiberglassing it back together on the island.

Victory 21

I would say that the Ensign was a nice replacement of the Victory 21. Ours was famous for winding up floating stern up after taking on water. We added more foam in the cabin so that it was self rescuing after that, and we tested it at the dock. 

You can read more about its sinking and see pictures at: http://www.victory21.org/ 

Select the floatation button on the left to see a report of its sinking and re-floating written by the club member that was involved. We sold it when some rudder and rudder post repairs became more work than we wanted to deal with. This boat had 185 ft² of sail area and weighs 1350 lbs.


Star

This was a powered up two man keelboat. It had no trapezes or spinnaker. It was also an Olympic class. The mast had double running backs which were critical to set correctly to keep the mast from coming down. You have to loosen the leeward set and tighten the windward set on every tack or jibe. 

The Star class has been around since about 1911 and has had a variety of rigs including a Gunter rig in the past, which is basically a gaff rig where the gaff goes up nearly vertically. The boat that was donated to us was made of wood. We kept for 3 years then sold it. This boat is a little short of 23 feet, weighs 1500 lbs, and has 285 ft² of sail area.


Tempest

Another two man keelboat that is 22 feet long, but this one had a trapeze and spinnaker. It weighs about 1000 lbs, 500 of that was a bulb keel. This keel could be lifted with a purchase until the bulb was touching the hull making it easier to trailer. It has 247 ft² of sail area. 


Minute Man

15 foot catboat styled boat with a gaff rig. It has a U.S. Flag as its insignia on the sail. If you don't raise the peak and throat halyards together you break the gaff jaw, so the gaff was in the shop on a regular basis. A wide shallow draft boat with a short rudder is perfect for sailing in shallow waters but it resulted in compromises in sailing ability in my opinion. 

This boat draws 8” with the board up. You couldn't really hike in the boat, but if you let it heel it would round up when the rudder came most of the way out of the water. This boat was 15 feet long, had 145 ft² of sail area, and weighed 800 lbs.

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