3446 and 2427 sail together

Well, the two Minisails shared water at the Yachts and Yachting forum open meeting on 13th October.

I used the GRP Monaco with the new blue stripy Morgan sail, and my son used the  wooden Sprite with the year old R&J sail for the 1st 3 races.

With light and shifty winds, and a difference in helming experience it was difficult to tell which set up was better. For the 4th race, I used the Sprite, and certainly found the hull more to my liking - higher volume meant less shipped water on the roll tacks and a higher angle of heel to windward on the runs without too much of the deck under water. The R&J sail appeared to have a little more power, but a tendancy for the leech to hook more.

The Sprite will be going under cover this week, but the plan is to carry on testing the 2 sails on the Monaco over the Autumn, to provide feedback owners might find useful.

I hope more photos will be published on Yachts and Yachting from the weekend, as there were camera people out in safety boats. Meanwhile, here is one of the 2 sails together on the shore.

Packed up and ready to go!

Ready for the Yachts and Yachting Forum Open Meeting - Minim on the bottom, Dotted Minim on the top on mt home made double stacker!

Made it home from the club, hopefully it will make it to Broxbourne and back on Saturday!

New Morgan sail has first outing!

A quick dash down to the club this morning (9/10/12) saw the first raising of my new (and Morgan Sails' first) Minisail sail.

A snug fit onto the mast makes pulling the sail on a little more difficult than the old sails, but pays massively once you start sailing, with no floppy bits of cloth on the sleeve.

My initial impression is of a very nicely cut sail, quite old fashioned in some ways, with little cunningham tension needed on the fairly flat entry, fullness coming from the outhaul tension, which should suit the Minisail, as too much cunningham tension would probably rip fittings out of some of the boats!

The concave leech isn't obvious, but does reduce the amount of hooking. However, I think Kicker tension is going to be vital to get the sail setting correctly. 

Oh, and the blue is a very nice shade!

Photos below hopefully show the sail to good effect. Thanks to Tim Hopes for taking the pics.
 

Dotted Minim hits the water

After her refit, my latest Minisail went for a trial sail, using the sail from Minim, my wooden Sprite.

Things went well, though in the gusty weather the Monaco hull shape did seem less "planted" than the Sprite. Might have just been windier than I thought...

The test capsize (deliberate, of course... maybe...) showed she was easy to right, but when I brought her ashore, she was dry inside! Can't be right...

The pictures show her rigged on the shore, and some detail as to how I did the control lines. Sadly, there are no pictures of her on the water yet, as my son, who was to take them, was too busy having fun blasting around in the Minisail's little sister, the Topper. Next time, and maybe with the new sail up, if it arrives this week!

Minisail Nationals

Minisail Championships 2012 at the CVRDA Nationals, Bough Beech SC.

Six Minisails got together at Bough Beech SC in Kent to hold the first championships the class has seen since it faded 30 years ago. 2 sailors came from Belgium to take part, 2 from the south coast, one from Norfolk and one from the Cotswolds. For some, the event was a chance to try out a new boat, maybe pulled from the bushes at the back of a boat park and brought back to life, for others it was a chance to try racing for the 1st time in the company of other Minisails. Standards of sailing ability varied, but the enthusiasm for the boats was clear to all around.

Ronnie from Belguim and Rupert from Whitefriars had brought along wooden Sprite type MInisails, and Ronnie is in the process of building a new Sprite back in Belguim. Dean (also from Belgium), Peter from Hickling Broad and Tom from Southampton were sailing GRP Monaco designs, Tom's with a sliding seat attached. Hampshire based David was sailing a Minisprint, a GRP version of the Minisail where the sliding seat carriage is moulded into the deck. David is spending his retirement learning how to sail the Minisail from a sliding seat, and came a very creditable 2nd overall to Rupert in his Sprite.

Much interest was shown in the boats whilst at BBSC, and we hope this event will be the start of something bigger, maybe even in the re-start of production of new GRP hulls. More information about MInisails can be found at www.minisail.org.uk.

Just one week to go!

Just one week until the cvrda National Rally, where Minisails from 3 countries will be battling it out (in a pretty relaxed manner!) to find our first Class Champion for many a year!

Bough Beech in Kent has been preparing itself for a while, so expect a great weekend of sailing, chatting and generally having a good time.

Plenty of news on the Nationals threads on the cvrda and Minisail forums
http://www.cvrda.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3789&start=60

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/minisail/Iwk5uEgev2A[1-25]

Minisail Nationals

Time to start thinking about the Minisail Nationals now, which will be running alongside the cvrda Nationals at Bough Beech over the August Bank Holiday.

This will be a great chance to both meet and sail with other Minisail owners - only so much can be done over the internet! It won't all be about racing. We will be spending time chatting about our boats, giving (and taking) advice about how to make them work better, looking at anything new that is out there, discussing the future - all, I hope with a pint or 2 and some good food.

Let everyone know if you'll be coming on the Minisail forum - it would be great to get an idea of numbers before time. The link below should take you to a thread about it!

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/minisail/Iwk5uEgev2A

Fun in the Sun part 2

This video really show how a flat bottomed boat can be both fast and stable in a breeze - white horses had started developing on the lake - I could really push the boat hard with confidence.

Fun in the Sun

Lovely breeze, sunshine and a son with a camera on Video mode. 

Perfect for showing off Minim the Minisail at Whitefriars!

Minisail Yearbook

The new Minisail Yearbook, designed to help Minisail sailors get their boats ready for the season, hints on how to get the most out of sailing them and events to go to, is now up on the main MInisail website, here:

Minisail Yearbook

or go to www.minisail.org.uk and click on the clas association button, then the newsletter bit on the dropdown menu.

But what if you...? Part 2

The  second and final part of Ed's ideas for the future of the Minisail. You can either make comments here, or join in the discussion on the cvrda site at 
http://www.cvrda.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3752

Further Development of the Minisail Class

So where could we take development of the Minisail:

We can break this down into two threads of thought -

1.    What development is possible within the current rules?

2.    What rules could be changed to allow further development?

Within the current rules

So what could be done within the rules:  Well, I have a brace of Minisprint MkIIs  and my thoughts on development are based around that design, which I basically like.

First and most importantly, I would do everything that I possibly could to bring any new boat's weight down to the class minimum.  The class rules state a minimum weight of 43.09kg.  This is very reasonable.  Let's put this into context, until recently (new rules) the 'bare-hull' weight for an International Canoe was 63Kg.  The Minisail weight is 20Kg less than one of the fastest mono-hulls in the world.  The snag is that of course, I sincerely doubt that any glass Minisail comes anywhere close to this minimum weight.  I have not weighed my hulls yet, but they are considerably harder to move around and turn over than my IC, which is severely overweight at around 80Kg.  I wouldn't be surprised if my hulls were around twice the class minimum weight?  Removing weight ("only useful in a steamroller" - Uffa Fox) is the one guaranteed way to make a boat faster, easier to sail and better fun.

The Minisail has a daggerboard of free size & depth.  But the Minisprint MkII, has a short centre-board, which although may be more practical is going to do nothing for the upwind ability of the boat (and leads to you carrying more water and weight).  So in a perfect world, I would replace the c-board with a nice long (36in) daggerboard, but more pragmatically, I think I would consider extending the centreboard slot and lengthening the c-board, about as far as I could, before I ran out of room, which I think will still be shorter than 36in.  As the slot was now bigger, there would be even more of an issue about carrying all that water, so the slot would most probably need gaskets.

A bigger challenge is to work out some way of making the seat able to come further aft for when off the wind.  I have some ideas on this, mainly around the concept used by the Unit dinghy, where the seat has a slot down it's length which holds a mushroom in the centre of boat, allowing the seat to swing in and out as well as fore and aft.  This would require a quite a bit of butchery, but after extending the board-slot, it wouldn't be such a big issue.

The rigging and sail could really do with some work too, but these are all well restricted by the rules, so beyond some careful exploration of stiffer sections for the mast and a good sail-maker, I don't think there is much that you can do.

The sheeting could also do with some thought, but I am going to leave my thoughts on that till after I have sailed them a bit more.

What would you change in the rules?

OK, so far more interesting, lets think 'blue skies'.  What rules would one change to allow the boat to develop into a fun boat of the 21st century?

The Hull Design?   Maybe, there have already been two hull designs, so why not more? It would be quite easy to write a simple box rule which restricted the designs to the kind of surfboard shaped scow that we associate with the Minisail.  It would be quite in character with the class.  I am sure there are plenty of aussie scow designs that could be easily modified to fit.  But to be honest.....if it wasn't for the fact that there are already two hull designs, then I would suggest we should stick to the current choice of hull designs we have for our further development.

But,  if there were new plastic boats to be built, then it should certainly  be to the min weight and we should encourage trying out different building techniques, other than simply solid polyester glass-fibre.  Building in epoxy/glass/foam or epoxy/carbon/foam are both very possible these days and would allow a much stiffer and lighter boat.  (Remember that lighter/stiffer = more fun and easier to sail).  Taking a female mould off a late monaco hull would not be hard, building some simple new deck moulds would be harder but by no means impossible, or easier to build the decks in light cloth backed ply. 

But let’s be really pragmatic.  Using an old monaco hull as a male mould and vacuuming down a foam shell over that, would give you a hull only 6-8mm wider.  OK, different for sure, but most probably still within the building tolerances allowed for wooden boats?  This would be very easy, especially for one-off builds.

What about the rig/sails?

This would provide the biggest gains from a change in the rules.  I am sorry, but as much as the triangular un-supported sail almost defines the Minisail look, I think it would really just have to go.  What would replace it?  A simple fully battened sail, with luff-sleeve based on a windsurfing sail, but with conventional boom.  This would need a much more advanced mast.  Possibly all carbon, or more pragmatically a stiffer aluminium base, topped with a carbon or glass top-mast.  Possibly a laser bottom section with a windsurfer mast for top section.

Size wise, I would think a small growth in size up to around 8 or 8.5 sqM which would most probably give the lighter boat a much improved performance whilst remaining easily sailable.  Of course, the battens would make the rig impossible to wrap around the mast, but I think this is only a good thing.  Different sized sails could easily be catered for on shorter or longer top-masts.

This would all require more sitting out, so either sliding seat or racks will be necessary.  But, I think that seat length should remain at the current length, which allows 'pussy-hiking' but not full 'off-the-end-of-seat' hiking, allowing the seat to remain a basic and light structure.  I strongly suspect that the best arrangement will be for lightweight carbon tube racks, attached to the boat, although it would necessitate keeping the boat truly flat and muck up any attempts at roll-tacking.

I think the boat should certainly remain una rigged as this is a key part of the identity of the Minisail, but with an allowance for old boats to carry lowers to support the mast at gooseneck level so as to prevent breakages of old kit when using the new larger sail.

So could you go further than this??

Of course, the sky is the limit.  Could it carry a bowsprit and genaker.  Yes, I think so....not from the masthead, but a 3/4 setting, yes.  It might require stays though and I would agree that this would be outside what I felt was the accepted class ethos.

Foils?  Well that might be a step to far, but if the boats were light enough and the sails big enough, I guess it might be possible.

But maybe all of this is well outside your idea of the ethos of the class....that's cool.....but thinking about it, still gets me through those long dreary meetings.

So what do you think? Do please, leave your thoughts and comments below.

But What if you...?

The Article below is the first part of a personal look at the state and future of the Minisail class by Ed Bremner, founder member of the Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association (www.cvrda.org), who, despite (or possibly because of) his love of old racing dinghies, enjoys casting a keen eye into the future.

I hope his thoughts will generate discussion! 

Part 2 to follow very soon. 

But What if you...?   

Some thoughts on further development within the Minisail class.

Hi, I guess I should first introduce myself, my name is Ed Bremner and I am the owner of two Minisprint MkII II hulls and one set of 'rig and foils’, none of which are quite yet ready to sail.  I started sailing at a young age with my father in a Fairey Jollyboat, mainly in the idyllic surroundings of the Greek island of Skiathos.  But the first single hander I sailed was an early Minisail Monaco 1, with the flat flush decks.  My father bought 3 or 4 to be rented out from our local taverna.  Now to be honest, I have to admit... I wasn't a great fan of those boats, much preferring to crew for my dad in the Jollyboat, but nonetheless, they have always held a special place in the memory of my childhood.

This post is a few of my thoughts on the Minisail as a development class.  What does that mean and where could it go from here.

Why did the Minisail class fail?

It is hard to think of any dinghy class that has gone from having such a large number of registered boats and a busy racing schedule to disappearing and becoming a 'lost class', seemingly almost overnight.  However, I think that one should remember that most Minisails were bought by families simply for 'fun' sailing rather than racing and it is normally 'racing' and indeed 'racers' that are always the back-bone of any class, so when the racing stops... it is not long before the class collapses.

So why did the racing stop?  Well, I am sure there were many reasons, but reckon that the arrival on the market of both the one-design Laser, better suited for racing and the one-design Topper, better suited for family, (but still with good racing), were the main reasons.  So that begs the question of whether the Minisail would have done any better if it had taken more effort to remain a true one-design rather than allow itself to become a semi-development class.  I think one of the reasons that the Laser and Topper took over was simply because they were such strict one-designs in an area of the market and at a time that this was exactly what people wanted.

So, is it really a development class anyway?

OK, but is the Minisail truly a development or semi-development class anyway?  Yes, there are at least 2 hull designs and at least 5 different deck layouts, with countless other mixes between the two including sliding seats, racks etc... all of which can be chosen or disregarded, depending on the water you sailed on.  But still to me, these seem more like 'choices' rather than evidence of true 'development' as such. It seems a similar situation as the National Firefly, which has 4 different internal/deck arrangements, three possible masts, two rudders and two centre-plates and yet, that class considers itself a one-design, not a semi-development class.

To look at it from another angle, I find it very interesting and remarkably telling, that no different PY number was ever given for the Sprite, Monaco or Sprint, with just the qualification that some of these designs went better on the sea, some on the lake, some in a blow and some in a drift and a presumption that in the end it would all kind of average out. 

I would like (most humbly) to suggest that the Minisail doesn't seem like a true semi-development class, simply because there hasn't been any real development since the class started to fold and with the great benefit of hindsight to point out that it may well have been the attempts to bring the class up to date, with the Minisprint MkII which actually had the effect of hastening the death of the class all together.

But here, I will come clean, I love development classes.  I am not going to suggest that the differing designs were a bad thing or that development was bad for the Minisail.  It is,  for me one of the main reasons I like the class.  Dinghies are all about tinkering, thinking, changing, personalising, building.....which is all 'development' and I love it.  Long may development continue in the Minisail.

So what does it mean to be a development class?

Let 1000 ideas flourish!  The Minisail is a semi-development racing class.... or so the brochure says!

OK... but if Minisail is a semi-development class, then what would we develop next?

Well, this is the kind of question that runs through my head as I go to sleep at night and diverts my mind in those long boring meetings, scribbling little drawing on the back of the agenda. So, how do we make a Minisail go better and what development would be possible within the ethos of the class and what lies outside the current rules? 

It also begs the question:  What do we want from the class anyway?  Do we want to develop it... or should the remaining boats be left as they are, in aspic? Are we interested in building new boats?

I think we also need to consider some of the same design issues and fundamental questions that possibly lead to the demise of the class in the first place.  Do we want a family boat, or a racing boat?  Do we want it to sail on the lake or sea?  Is it possible to have one class that does all these things anyway?

I don’t have the answer to these questions, but it amuses me to roll the possibilities over in my head at times and I would really like to encourage all of us to have a little fun kicking some ideas around.

Minisail ownership

We have all ended up sailing Minisails for different reasons, and come about it in different ways - this is how I ended up where I am today...

I bought my first Minisail (actually a Minisprint, with the self draining cockpit and built in sliding seat support) back in the late 1980’s, and sailed her for a while off the coast of Wales in the Irish sea. The waves there come straight in from the Atlantic, and can make for a wild ride. Being washed off the seat, and, if lucky, keeping hold of tiller extension and seat webbing, and clawing oneself back on board again, is an experience I’ll never forget, but the boat needed space and steady winds to be such fun, so when I moved away from the coast, she had to go.

            It was about 10 years later that I bought my next Minisail, this time a yellow decked GRP Monaco design with a wooden bolt-on seat. By now I was sailing at Whitefriars SC, a small lake situated on the Cotswold Water Park, north of Swindon, and I have to admit, I found the boat nice to sail without the seat getting in the way.

            I was also sailing with the recently formed Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association (cvrda), who luckily have a very relaxed attitude to GRP boats. Normally I sailed my Firefly, but I took the Minisail to a few meetings. The one that stands out in my memory was a fantastically windy cvrda National Rally at Roadford Lake in Devon. Upwind, the silly bendy rig, stretchy sail and narrow hull (really should have put the seat on for this event!) made for very hard work, but bear off onto the reach and it all became worth it – spray everywhere, passing much bigger boats as though they were standing still – boating heaven!

            Shortly after this, I found that I had too many boats, and (in retrospect, foolishly) decided to sell the Minisail.

            And so another decade passed…

            Thoughts during the period of non-minisail ownership often drifted back to the delights of the scow, but I was happy sailing Fireflies, British Moths, Lightning 368’s, Tonics and various other craft. However, browsing through an internet boat mart in the Autumn of 2010, I spotted a wooden Minisail for sale, for a crazy low price. Well, I had to go and see it, didn’t I? I got there expecting a bit of a wreck, really, and came away with an immaculate Sprite design Minisail.

            The boat, No3446, dates from the early 1970’s. She had been used for a few years, then put in a garage in the early 80’s, and not used since. Apart from a small patch of lifted varnish, the hull was perfect. The sail, however, was a mess. Just a huge stretched Nylon bag. going upwind was impossible, with the sail so stretched it was too long to even fit on the boom properly. A new, stiffer boom, made from a section of old mast, solved that problem, and an order went in with a local sailmaker, R&J sails, for a new main. Fittings were replaced by ones which actually worked, but were kept simple, in the style of the originals.

            In the spring of 2011 the new sail arrived, a beautiful red and white striped creation. Suddenly, the boat felt as nice to sail upwind as down. After a few races at Whitefriars, it was time to take her on the road. Llyn Clywedog, in West Wales, is a glorious expanse of water created in 1969 as a reservoir. It is surround by mountains, making the strong winds swirl in interesting ways! The Minisail, with her stable, flat bottomed early planning hull form, turned out to be the ideal boat for the water. As I’d found all those years before, the pain of upwind was worth it for the rush down the reaches, and the adrenalin filled gybes.

           Back to Whitefriars for the cvrda Nationals, and whilst the wide open spaces were missing, the wind was still there, and the reaches were still just as much fun! Winning the Nationals in such a simple boat, on home waters, was a great feeling.

Strong winds and rain

Things have been a little quiet on the sailing front recently - the weather really hasn't been playing ball.

However, it has given me a great chance to test out my latest purchase for Minim, my Minisail - a new  breathable cover, made to measure by Sail Register.

Even after days, no, weeks of rain, sometimes coming out of the sky by the bucket load, there wasn't a drop of water on board!

Very happy with new cover.

www.sailregister.co.uk

R&J Sails

When I first bought my Minisail, she came with the usual pathetically stretchy nylon mainsail that was probably in part responsible for the boat's downfall.

She just would not go to windward properly, though she was still quick on a reach.

The solution? A new sail, of course!

Knowing of R&J sails from their work with British Moths, and knowing they made replica Topper sails, this seemed like a good place to go.

Sure enough, Dick Hannaford new exactly what I was talking about, and for a very reasonable price, produced me a lovely red and white striped sail.

The upwind performance of the boat has been transformed. Whilst she will never be sparkling to windward, at least she will point in the same direction as everthing else!

On a reach, however, she now flies - up and planing sooner, and able to go lower and still stay on the plane.

So, all in all, if you are looking to boost your Minisailing fun, get in touch with R&J sails

http://www.rjsails.co.uk/

Aquabat

When LT Rudman, designer of the Beachcomber, decided to put a bermudan rig on the boat, rather than the Lateen, he ended up with a bot that is sometimes confused with the Minisail - the Aquabat.

The bright yellow decks taper far more sharply between bow and mast, and the bright yellow sail is longer in the foot, but otherwise, they ar easily mistaken, which is how Rob, owner of the Aquabat at the coaching weekend, came to be in touch with us. A quick trip to the cvrda website showed what he really had, but luckily he has stayed in touch.

My apologies to Rob for the video clip below. It doesn't show him or the boat off very well, but does show what she looks like.

What a sunny weekend at Whitefriars!

Thanks to cars breaking down, in the end we had 3 Minisails at the Classic and Vintage training session on Whitefriars lake on the wekend of 24/25 August sorry, March. We also had an Aquabat and a Beachcomber come down - very interesting to compare the boats.

David A brought his Minisprint and Tom his new Monaco with bolt on seat, to join me and my Sprite. Saturday was beautifuly warm with a light breeze. I was on the committee boat for the morning, and so couldn't sail, but in the afternoon I took mine Minisail out and ran a singlehanded coaching session, concentrating on tacking and gybing. As well as the 3 minisails and Aquabat, we had a Megabyte and a Skol MKII International Moth taking part. The British Moths and the doublehanders having split into other groups.

I hope David and Tom gained in skill and confidence in throwing the Minisail around in light breezes whilst fighting with a sliding seat.

Sunday, I was offered a ride in a British Moth for the morning, so jumped in that. Everyone was training together doing mini races, and David and Tom had some epic battles, finishing at least one race side by side.

All in all, and excellent weekend of sailing. I hope more us us can meet up again soon.

February sailing

People always think I'm a little odd for wanting to sail right through the year, and quite often I'd agree with them. However, apart from the wooly hat temerature, the sailing last Sunday, when the picture above was taken by Alistair Baird, was perfect. Great planing breeze, with gusts strong enough to really give a rush, but not a swim, the sun out to make it seem like summer - perfect!

 Intereting looking at the boat set up here, too, from the outside. Looks like I need to do something about the joint between the mast sections, where the creases are being formed. In the medium breeze I must have just powered up - the kicking strap is pretty slack to allow the boom to rise as I go looking for power in the next lull, or the leech hooks because of the battenless sail and I stop dead.

We will be looking at such things at the Coaching Weekend!

Minisail training, 24/25 March 2012

Just a month to go to the Minisail training session at Whitefriars SC, run in conjunction with the Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association and the British Moths.

I thought this blog might be a good place to look at what we want to achieve for Minisail sailors and their boats on the weekend, in conjunction with the forum.

I have 2 main aims for the weekend, both pretty basic. Firstly, I want to make sure that everyone who owns a Minisail is rigging it correctly. They are a very simple boat, but very easy to rig in strange ways, some of which make the boat a really horrible sailing experience, rather than a fun  little go cart.

So we will be looking at all the boats, making changes where neccessary, and making suggestions for longer term changes that may involve buying the odd fitting or 2 - but not that we go all out for Harken race rigging - that would cost 3 times what most of us paid for our boats!

Secondly, I'd like to see everybody get more confident in their boat handling, reading of the wind and use of controls. This in turn will lead to sailing becoming more enjoyable and less worrying, and then to the boat going faster through the water!

Looking at it in this way, it doesn't matter whether you are a sailing beginner or an experienced racer - you'll be adding to your knowledge whatever your starting point, and the whole Minisail fleet will see a boost in speed, which in turn will raise our profile and encourage others to come and join us!

The cost of the weekend is £8 per day, and if you can only make one day, that will be fine.

The timetable looks like this:

Saturday
9.00 Club open for early arrivals
10.00 Arriving, unpacking boats ready to rig
10.30 Briefing – what you hope to get from the weekend (I hope we will have an idea of this beforehand)
1045 Boat rigging, with advice from experts as to getting the best set up for your boat, where needed, showing how sail controls work
11.45 Changed and on water for a short pre-lunch race
12.15 Lunch, with discussion (& video) of what we have seen whilst sailing
13.15 Mini races for starting/first beat/running practice. Windward-leeward courses Video recording
15.00 Break, with video playback
15.30 ½ hour race to see how things have progressed
16.00 Pack away
17.00 Final get together of day at club
17.30 Pub for well earned dinner
Sunday
10.00 Briefing, looking at what can be improved from Saturday, what we will be doing
10.30 On water for mini races, looking at different points of sailing – Triangular courses, video recording.
12.30 Lunch with debrief on the morning
13.30 Longer races, putting everything together that has been learned
15.30 Packing boats away
16.30 Final debrief and goodbyes

Across the Pond

The Minisail isn't just a UK class, as Scot Spencer reports:

The “British Invasion” of the USA was more than just ROCK STARS!   Not only did the so-called British Invasion of the 1960‘s and early 70’s include the likes of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, it included an amazing little boat called the Minisail.  Imported from England to the U.S. in the early 1970’s by George O’day’s  Gemico Corp., an unknown number of fiberglass MiniSail Monacos still ply the waters “across the pond”.

Here is the story of one such boat: 

Purchased by my brother in 1972 my little rock star sailboat made it into my hands sometime in the late 70’s.  I recently asked my brother why he purchased a MiniSail vs. a Sunfish or Force 5  and his exact response was “because it was cheaper than a Laser!”  I had never though of it as being a competitor to the Laser (especially since it was the Sunfish that intrigued Ian Procter) but maybe the rectangular cockpit made it seem so in 1972.  He remembers paying $450 for it.

She started her American life at Avon Sailboats, a small sailboat dealer near the Detroit suburb in which we lived and with my brother’s help made her way to our garage.  I remember him building an intricate hoist that was supposed to allow him to store the boat on the ceiling of the garage then lower it down onto a waiting car to be transported.  It never worked quite as easily as hoped.

During the first four years of her life she was sailed mostly on lakes a short drive from Detroit but did make one fateful visit to Lake Michigan. On that trip she turned turtle and the lower half of the mast somehow came detached and fell to the bottom of this Great Lake.  From that time forward she has been sporting a silver lower mast and gold upper mast and boom.

In 1976 my family purchased a small lakeside cabin in Northern Michigan (commonly referred to as God’s Country).  This is where she would call home for the next 35 years.  I sailed her regularly as a teenager mostly trying to make her go fast in heavy air and informally racing my friends on their Sunfish (I always won).  It is a fun little boat in heavy air but I always struggled maintaining balance in light or shifting air.   Lately my two sons have been putting her to good use fooling around in the lake and learning how to sail.  Learning how to get back in the boat after a capsize is part of learning how to sail!

Celebrating her 40^th birthday she has yet to be given a name but is currently in process of getting a facelift and other minor repairs.  At the end of 2011 I brought her to my home 20 minutes from the Saginaw Bay and am in process of painting the hull and am planning on rubbing out and polishing the deck.  I have sanded the original rudder and centerboard and will be adding multiple coats of varnish. 

In addition I plan on installing new hiking straps, the original bright red straps are now more of a nasty pink and I am not sure how much strain they could bear.  Somewhere in her life the round ring that stabilizes the hole in which the mast is stepped disappeared so that will need to be replaced as well as repairs will be needed to the yolk on the end of the boom.  

In all the years the boat has been in my family the mainsheet has been attached to an eye on the rudderhead never a traveler.  I don’t believe this boat came with a boom vang and so we have never used one.  The first time I saw a MiniSail with a boom vang was on the class website.  This is an upgrade that I think is much needed and on my list for the future.

I do not know if there was ever a MiniSail one design class in the U.S. and if there was it must have been small and short lived.  I think that with the passage of time taking it’s toll on the imported U.S. boats (as well as the Rolling Stones), and the fact that it was not hugely popular here to begin with, getting a critical mass of MiniSails together to form a class today would be difficult. 

I think after my little rock star sailboat’s facelift time will have proved to be a better friend to her than it has been to Mick Jagger!