Racing Dinghies

After sailing the Fairey Finn for a season, I was hooked on the class and sold the Australian IC (GBR 304) to pay for a well sorted Vanguard Finn. This boat had come from Germany and had been breathed on with a replacement transom and updated fittings, a round carbon rig and film sail.

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After a number of years in International canoes I decided to give Finn sailing a go, mainly due to advancing age and being fed up of swimming. In 2006 I noticed a very nice Fairey Finn on eBay and it was down the road at Poole.

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David Henshall, a regular poster to the Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association forum has unearthed some great footage of a Yachting World Scow from the early 1960s. Excellent footage of a great boat.

I’ve made the decision to sell my Tideway. Further details can be found on the For Sale page

After competeing the the International Canoe World Championships in Weymouth in 2005 I met up with Christian Knott from Australia who persuaded me (not that I needed much persuasion) that I really need to buy his IC after the Worlds. I ended up swapping GBR 212 and a significant amount of cash for the orange boat, AUS 17.

AUS 17 was registered as GBR 304 and I sailed her for a year or so before realising that it was canoe sailing that was causing my back problems (or maybe it was the multiple capsizing causing the problem). At this time I had started sailing Finns and made the decision to change class so sold the boat to Stu Budden.

Everything on the boat was stripped down and varnished, the soleboards and seats had multiple coats of Schooner varnish and the mast, boom and gaff were treated with Le Tonkinois. All I had to do now was put the boat back together again. As this Tideway is the ‘Super’ version it comes with fore and side decks, stern locker, gun metal fittings and slatted seats. all the fittings were cleaned up and polished and new brass keel band fitted.

The sails that came with the boat were a little tired so I got R and J Sails to provide a new set complete with reefing points. 

Rigging the Tideway for the first time [Read more →]

After repairing the the hog and keel it was time to replace the broken ribs. As I had the seats out and everything stripped out of the boat I had a good look at all the ribs and found that the rear full width ribs  needed replacing along with a couple on the starboard side. So, after a quick call to Dennis at Dartmoor Hardwoods in Princetown I had enough oak to do the job and all the new ribs were steamed in and fixed in the copper rivits and roves.

New ribs installed [Read more →]

The 2004 August Bank Holiday weekend finally saw Rannoch take to the water. The wind picked up over the weekend and I thought it was wise not to risk Rannoch with her old wooden rig. This meant sitting out the racing for the Sunday and Monday and give us time to look at the other boats.

It seemed to make sense to find another traditional boat that could be sailed at CVRDA events when it is too windy to sail Rannoch or when we both want to go sailing. A chance conversation with Danny form the Tideway Association led me speak to a couple of Tideway owners with boats that required some work and were affordable.

In early September I ended up in Bosham and came away with Tideway 026. The boat is basically sound but needs some attention to take care of a couple of little problems.

026 as she was on arrival

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Currently the fleet consist of:

• Finn GBR 670
• Finn K349 – Pandemonium
• Finn K129 – Sea Mouse II 
• International Canoe K37 – Rannoch
• International Canoe K37 – Zenith
• Flying 15 GBR 2147
• Tideway 026
• Solo 1922
• Hobie 16
• International One Metre – K???
• International One Metre (unregistered)
• 2 * Perception Acadia Kayaks.

Bugger.

International Canoe GBR 212 – Waning Planker

After having sailed an older IC, SCATT III, I bought a Pyrahna Carbon IC – GBR212 in 2002. This boat needed mainly cosmetic work and was treated to a total strip down of all deck gear, followed by a refit and paint job.

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