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Hi,
I sail at South Windermere Sailing Club. I used to do A LOT of dinghy and keelboat racing about 20 years ago but had a long layoff from the sport due to all the usual suspects – work, house buying, marriage, apathy etc!
Finally managed to get back to sailing last year, as my two daughters are now old enough to take an interest.
I thought a Wayfarer would be a sensible choice and this is the story so far…
I was surprised how well they keep their money. When I started looking I expected ?500 would land me something rough but servicable, yet the first boats I looked at were rubbish and going for about ?2000! In the end I found this GRP MK1 Wayfarer 1642 one for ?800. Hull, foils and spars are in reasonable nick, but the sails are a bit weary, it’s never had a spinnaker and I’m having to replace pretty near all the running rigging and the trailer. I think by the time I’ve got it as I want it I’ll have spent about ?1300-?1500.
That will be to a sort of “semi-race” trim, with a decent outhaul, wire halyards, kicker led aft etc, but also with reefing lines rigged so I can take the family out in fairly strong winds without too much drama. Will keep an eye out for a spinnaker later, and maybe sort that next year.
So far I’m very impressed with the way it sails, especially considering that I haven’t sorted the rig yet and thus it can only get better! It’s a handful when the wind gets up a bit as I have no way of properly depowerng the rig, but nevertheless we’ve had a lot of fun already, and it really does work well as both a cruiser and a racer – something that few dinghies do.
We’ve just used it for our club’s “Family Sailing Week” and in the process managed to come home with a list of 101 jobs that need doing. Expect to see a rash of posts on the “technical” forum v. soon!
Taken all in all I’m pretty impressed – I’d have another!
John Thornley
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