Two Crewed - N2699 

Trailer

Quick update as i have not been able to get on the computer whilst L is writing her assignment! Picked up a trailer last Tuesday night from Devon - 350+ mile round trip in works transit van in one evening. Fortunately Paul (colleague) was mad enough to come along for the ride and share the driving. Made it back safe, though van was down to 2 cylinders by the time we got back to Ricardo!

Trailer is actually a Mirror combi, and is in good condition. Unfortunately, Mirror dinghies don't have long masts, and there is therefore no mast support. I will be trying to get one made up by the fabricator at work, and will then get it powder coated rather than galvanised - much easier, though perhaps not quite as long lasting.

Other news - off to Broadstairs sailing club this weekend to crew for someone I have never met before! Sailing a Spice dinghy - assymetric, twin trapeze. Will be a bit of a steep learning curve as I haven't trapezed from anything other than the Hurricane all that time ago, and only worked an assymetric on the J109! 3 days of racing will be pretty knackering and I am sure we will get very wet!

Did the Royal Southern May regatta the other weekend. Picked up a 4th and a 3rd place, then absolutely kicked ar$e in the Sunday race, but were then penalised for a technical infringement (sailing too close to Cowes). Good weekend, and it was good that we had some decent boat speed on the Sunday.

Must go now - L has more assignment to write!

The Maiden Voyage

So, the boat was retrieved from Deepest Wiltshire on a couple of weeks ago. Since then it has sat in my works car park under a tarpaulin whilst I have (fruitlessly) searched for a suitable trailer - at the moment it is still sat on the one loaned by Jem at work. I ordered some replacement rigging in the form of sheets and control lines and this arrived at the end of last week. It was approaching maiden voyage time!

I went over to the boat on Sunday lunch time and fitted all the lines with the assistance of a kitchen knife, a lighter and some insulation tape. I had this fitted by 12:30 when Scott (crew) turned up with his car (and more to the point his towing hitch). We hooked up and drove down to Shoreham harbour. There is a rough and ready slipway there, right near the lock gates and about 100 metres from the Spanish Tapas bar. I then took about 30 minutes to get my dry suit and boots on (really must get some new boots in a bigger size). We rigged the boat, and then launched her for the first time.

Scott jumped on to get the main up, and had no problems until he got to about the last 6 inches when the sail started to get tricky. Eventually it mae it to the top, and we got the boom set up. Scott then balanced the boat as I got on board and we were away!

Initial impressions are of a reasonable amount of instability, extreme sensitivity to crew position, and a surprising turn of speed for such an old boat! We were soon running down the harbour past the new power station, rolling slightly as we went (bought back memories of sailing downwind in the Bobbin). When we came to beat up we were struggling initially with the fluky winds - I really think we need to get out on a more open stretch of water.

We sailed up and down for an hour or so. A weather front approached and the wind got gustier and the next thing we knew we were suddenly in the drink! My memory of it is slightly fuzzy, but I think we actually ended up capsizing to windward when the gust dropped off. Neither of us was fast enough to catch her, or even get over the side so we were both swimming! Scott was not impressed as he was wearing a wet suit and felt the full effect of the cold. I was ok, snug in my dry suit with my wooly bear suit underneath - that will teach Scott for laughing at me! Anyway, I swam round and climbed on the centreplate. Scott positioned himself inside the hull and I slowly brought her upright. No problem, except the boat was now full to within an inch of the decks with water!

We started to sail again and opened up the bailers in the floor. This reduced the water level in the boat to about 25 cms, but it wouldn't go down any more! Looking back, we should have experimented at that point with opening the transom flaps, but we instead gave up and went to head for the bar. It was at this point (with main down and trailer in water) that Laura turned up with Maika and Eduardo. Of course, they wanted a demo, and of course, I was only too happy to go out again!

Now we had spectators things were bound to go wrong. We started trying to sail out without the plate down and nearly went into the exposed prop of an outboard attached to a speedboat, then I couldn't get the rudder down either and it all looked rather messy! Sill, made it out, had a good sail and got our pictures taken by the Spanish contingent - will post them here once I get a copy.

Lessons learned from the sail:

1. Need more purchase on the mainsheet - it was a real handful in the gusts. At the moment it is a 2:1 arrangement. This seems to create high loads and makes it more difficult to trim by small amounts. Some new blocks needed.

2. The current jib sheet system does not appear to work well. The sheet is taken through a ratchet block which is attached to a control line which should allow it to be controlled. However, there is way too much stiction in the system, and too little control of the position. I think some jib cars may be needed, but I will wait for the next sail to see if they could be positioned ok on the side deck

3. A dangly pole should help with stability (and speed) downwind - might try and make one if I can dig out the notes on the N12 website.

4. Easy shroud adjustment would have allowed us to depower when the wind picked up by flattening the sail (more tension), and would improve downwind performance by allowing the main to go out to 90 degrees.

5. Some of the jammers need updating to current specs as they are tapered slot type which seem to chew ropes in no time.

ED: Probably easier to sail than the Minisprint in some ways, but seems a lot less stable (maybe it is just that I am out of practice). You must come along next time I get it out (probably going to be a couple of weeks at least).

Tomorrow I am going to see Geoff and Amelia's boats (they are NTOA members who live in Shoreham). They have two modern twelves with self draining cockpits and all the latest toys. Will be interesting to see how they are rigged. Will update on this soon.

The Class

The National 12 is a development class. Here is a brief history taken from the owners association page (www.national12.org):

"In 1935 the only dinghy raced on a national basis was the expensive International 14, and so to encourage dinghy sailing the RYA published rules for a simpler and cheaper boat. The original rules were simple:

Hulls must not exceed 12 feet in length
Hulls must not weigh less than 190 lbs (including floorboards!)
Hulls must be of clinker construction
Dinghies to carry no more than 90 square feet of sail.
Boats must cost less than £45 (inflation!)

These rules have been modified over the years to take advantage of cheaper non-clinker construction methods and modern materials.

N1 "Gipsy" was designed by Uffa Fox and launched at Cowes in April 1936. The Twelve proved extremely popular, by the first championships in September of that year over 150 boats had been built. Gipsy has now accepted honourable retirement at Exeter Maritime Museum as a landmark in dinghy sailing history."

As technology has advanced, so National 12s have moved on - the latest dinghies being made from carbon fibre, with carbon masts and all sorts of interesting rig adjustments available. My dinghy was built in 1972 and registered in 1973. She was based upon Phil Morrison's China Doll design, but (apparently) has flatter rear sections to make her plane more easily. The previous owner built her with the help of his father, and the finish is absolutely superb, even after 32 years!

Interestingly, the class has been split into three fleets - vintage (for clinker boats), admirals cup for later boats (typically with four planks on each side, making three softish chines), and then there are the latest and greatest self draining speed machines. My boat fits into the Admirals cup era, but is in fact one of the last clinker boats. This probably puts me at a disadvantage on handicap, but never mind!

The rig on N2699 is significantly simpler than the current crop of boats, with just outhaul, cunningham and a kicking strap to adjust the set of the main - no mast rams or shroud tensioners here!

I will write a bit more when I have time (trying to get a trailer sorted and just received an e-mail regarding a possible candidate!)

Finding the Boat

This blog is going to be about me and my boat. I have decided to do this having seen lots of interesting stuff on my dad's boat Lugg at lugg.blogeasy.com.

I hadn't sailed for 9 years until I started crewing on a J109 called Joyride in the Warsash Spring series. I generally got the task of manning the mast, and enjoyed myself. More of that later, I am sure. Anyway, the bug was back, and I decided that I really needed a dinghy of my own. The hunt was on.

I started by looking at what classes were out there and available on a modest budget. It seemed to make sense to get a boat that could be cruised as well as raced, and so I started looking for Enterprises, Wayfarers and the like. It soon became clear that finding a good one would be difficult.

Whist cruising e-bay I came across an ad for N2699 - it read like this:

National 12 no. 2699 high performance racing dinghy




National 12 no. 2699 high performance racing dinghy for sale, wooden hull design similar to China Doll but with slightly larger planing area so planes early, and very good into wind. Beautifully made and in immaculate condition, a joy to sail. This is a one off design that has won many races. Full rigging, sails etc. and measurement form included. Ready to race. (Low picture res. looks like imperfections in the boat, this is not the case! Please e-mail for some higher res. shots).

I e-mailed the seller and asked for the high resolution shots and was very impressed with what I saw. I sent them on to my dad and he also thought it was nice, so as the auction progressed I considered bidding. With about 5 minutes to go, there were no bids so I stuck in a low-ish bid (above the minimum) and tried my luck. No-one bid against me, but unfortunately the reserve was not met!

I consoled myself with the fact that a National 12 is not really a practical cruising dinghy - in fact it is quite the opposite - an all out racing machine!

Anyway, I thought I would ask what the reserve was and see if it was affordable. In the meant time I was cruising boatsandoutboards.com and spotted the boat advertised on there for £1500 so I decided it was probably too much for me. It turned out the reserve had been much lower - £500 - and I could have it for that. Unfortunately, there was no trailer so I started to look for one and then gave up, assuming it had probably been sold.

A few days later the seller contacted me and said he would take £300 as he wanted to get rid of it. Bargain! I borrowed a trailer, and on Saturday 23rd April we went and collected the boat from deepest Wiltshire (just outside Bath in fact).

When we arrived at the sellers house we saw the boat upside down on some scaffolding frame work. She looked really smart with shiny varnish over the entire clinker hull. When we turned her over it was clear that she was in beautiful condition - I couldn't believe my luck! We got her the 120 or so miles home and left her in my works car park - security cameras watching all comings and goings!

Things were looking good...