Kaimusailing

I was disappointed when my repair of one of the hoses in the head sink faucet continued leaking. Each time I worked on it, it would take a few days for the sealant to cure. In the meantime I could work on other things, and in the brutal heat, take the afternoon off and watch the Tour de France. One day had the bike race on in the morning, Wimbledon Tennis, and then America's Cup World Series from Newport, Rhode Island in the afternoon. I forgot to mention the Olympic Trials. Nice respite from the heat to watch an active sports schedule.

A local sailor, Terry Hutchinson of Annapolis, is one of the skippers in the America's Cup World Series and he competed sailing in a 420 dinghy in his youth. The one we have is very old and made in England by Honnor Marine. I searched for more information and found that they are the builders now of the traditional Drascombe boats. These are open undecked sailboats with a yawl rig. Webb Chiles who has extensively singlehand sailed these boats has published many of his books and articles online.

There are two main classes of 420 dinghy, the Club and the International. The Club is heavier and does not have as much "tune ability" and is mostly popular as the youth trainer in American schools and sailing clubs. The International is a worldwide class that is a stepping stone to the International 470, larger and sailed in the Olympics. All these are sailed with a skipper and a crewperson. The crew takes care of the jib sail and hikes out on a trapeze wire. Since I will be taking it out single hand, it might be difficult to keep it from capsizing.

The boat came with 2 sets of sails and I tried out the older set and sailed on up the inlet. Yes, the boat is a little scary when a gust of wind comes through. It moves quickly and requires quick action to avoid capsize. It's so different from a catamaran where you won't tip over until you tip over. The dinghy is twitchy and feels like it's tipping over when it's tied to the dock. The older sails seemed to set OK and the boat worked its way upwind quite well. It took a little while to get in tune with the action of the boat, which was very quick coming about, and very quick to get in irons or backwinded if the helm were let go.

When I got back to the dock after a leisurely downwind sail all the way down the inlet, I had the problem of fitting the boat into the dock, which was all taken up with the big boats. I tied it up and put things away. Rather, I dropped the sails and tied the boat up and bailed on everything. If I had someone there to order around, I would have had them roll up and stow the sails and properly tie up the little boat, but I couldn't do it just then. I needed a little while to digest, decompress. The tiller extension had let go, the boat had leaked a fair amount of water from somewhere, and my energy level was very low.

A chicken, cranberry, and mayo sandwich at the cottage and a brief rest got me back into shape and I returned to quickly pull off the sails and tie the boat up properly. It was a good idea, because a series of storms rolled through overnight and all was well the next morning.

The tiller extension had come apart because the bolt at the joint lost its nuts. I needed a nyloc nut. A quick search and it was fixed. The old sails were taken off the boom and the "new" sails were rolled out. They were different. The old ones had some marks on them and a date, 1969. The "new" ones had measurement markings and a date, "83". 14 years newer, but today they are 30 years old. The jib needed sheets and a tack shackle. The older one hanked on the jib stay, but the "newer" one was stand alone. The main needed an outhaul line. It had no upper batten. The old main also had no upper batten. I found some fiberglass batten stock and cut one for this sail.

The boat had to be bailed out again before taking it out. It was about 4 1/2 gallons, but I suspect the boat would never leak more than that at rest. If sailors occupied it, then more water would come in.

One aspect of the boat is that it is very tippy at the dock. If the boom is let out to one side, then that is somehow a stabilizing factor. As you work forward to haul sails or hank on the jig, then the boat gets more unstable. It was the weekend and power boats were plowing through and creating surfable wakes that wreaked havoc. The sails were onboard and ready to go up. The boat was untied and drifted out from the docks.

I learned to put up the jib first. It went right up, but the main and boom were a major obstacle in the way. That had to go up before we drifted to shore.

The main had problems going up the mast. The headboard had some chaffed sailcloth and it went up hard. It was a lot of work trying to pull that up through the mast, and we ended up sailing the boat into shore The sail did go up, but it took tremendous effort.

The "new" sails were up and the boat headed out into the wind. It sailed just as well as the old sails. I followed the same track out to the end of the inlet. I bailed out some more water. The wind kind of died. We eked our way back. The boat was secured and I knew it wouldn't sink overnight. Maybe there will be more wind tomorrow.