N12 singlehanding?

Going to be slow going... ideas still buzzing round my head how best to build it, want to keep the weight to a minimum, move the mast back, lower the C of E, work out whether to have a deck or not... the list goes on!

Neptune... thinking of the older boats not me.....!


Edited by Jeremyc - 05 Dec 11 at 6:54pm

Originally posted by rogue Originally posted by Jeremyc Alex, I'm not saying it is poor, just not what I was expecting, I enjoyed sailing it but it is not really suitable to our pond.. £10k on a toy only I can use, no matter how well built it might be and how much I might be 'want' to give one a go. That's a change in spending culture and value judgements... the other thread deals with this, so no need to go O/T. I love what you're doing here Jeremy, exactly what I'd like to do! Please keep us posted, maybe use this thread now it's started???

Jim

In my old club on the river, it used to be very common to singlehand dinghies like Enterprises.
With practice you can short tack nearly as well as a fully crewed boat.
As a student I remember sailing Larks singlehanded, getting the kite up would be so much easier with decent systems!
 Last two handed dinghy I singlehanded was a Bosun, apart from crew falling out of the 400 that is.
I would say centre main, particularly a hoop like the 400 is not what you want, you want to be able to move around the middle of the boat freely, and keep your weight forward in light airs.
Obviously there is a limit in breeze where you cannot depower enough or respond to the gusts quickly enough. I would think singlehanded 12'swould be great, but as it's possibly still not going to be ideal on a breezy day, as a largish bloke I might look at something a bit bigger/more powerful to make the best of the light days. Just thinking about the days when you want some weight down to leeward, a bigger person in a small boat is going to be cramped under the boom perhaps?
All depends what you want from it, but potential for fun sailing.

Originally posted by rogue 12ft boats are sweet- even a mirror!

Although of course we all know a mirror is 10ft (ish) long....

I think a miracle is 12ft, and there's a fair few of them at Draycote James. I know the stigma attached, but if you could get over that there are some sh1t hot sailors in that fleet so the racing would be tight. I've seen them single handed with spinnakers too though no idea how easy that would be as its got all that funny pole stuff going on. They can be had fairly cheap or you can get plastic ones. You could then do family stuff in them as well. I sailed my Dads old one when Amy wanted to do some windy races but didnt want to take the I14 out. We got on ok and Amy even won the crews race and got a cup for it (more than I've ever won at at this club - not impressed!)