Some simple dinghy truths and observations

A few observations I've come to accept about this sport/pastime...

A wave you think you'll clear will swamp you.

A wave you don't think you'll clear will also swamp you.

Boats are heavy

Boats are heavier than described by their manufacturer

Capsizes are always the fault of the crew

Circlips will always fall into the grass and disappear forever.

Daggerboards will always jam half way up or down.

Daggerboards will fall out and float away during a capsize.

Fastpins will never be the same size as the holes in your chain plates

Helms are always right, only the change of circumstance is wrong.

However much kicker you apply it will always be not enough or too much

If any two ropes are not meant to interact, they will then become permanently tangled the entire race and only loosen after the finish.

Knots at the end of the main sheet will always be undone by the mainsheet knot gremlin, however well you tie them.

Marks of the course and Epoxy have magnetic attraction.

Rear sheets and tiller extensions also have magnetic attraction.

Self Balers are Satans Spawn

Shackles if left on halyards will always dematerialise or time shift into a parallel universe

Small gravel type shingle will always find its way into the daggerboard slot.

Splicing is witchcraft.

Spinnakers have minds of their own, secretly they've always wanted to be undercovers.

The main halyard will stretch, then some more, then even more still.

Tin should be in a bin

Wood is not necessarily good.

Wiggle sticks like to park themselves in buoyancy vest arm holes

Wiggle sticks will also engage with the trouser legs of hiking shorts

Edited by iGRF - 28 Aug 14 at 10:38am

Mostly true, but some points are soluble by non-numpties.

Satan's bailers are doing a good job in recent designs where they enable a shallower, more comfortable double bottom. The bailers thus help optimise the double bottom and the latter helps the bailers by giving them a pressure head to work with. Sorry, just my latest obsession, spawned by reflections on some abysmal buoyancy arrangements I've suffered lately.

I'm just gobsmacked by the word "necessarily" in the "Wood not necessarily good", line. Is GRF going soft on us?

GRF is contemplating a wood build, inspired funnily enough by that picture of the sled boat you posted, how difficult can it be? What could possibly go wrong?

Edited by iGRF - 28 Aug 14 at 12:16pm

Boatspeed makes you a tactical genius