Enterprise dilema

Hi all,
I bought a composite 1978 Enterprise dinghy to use over our local 25 acre sailing lake with my kids (7& 4). The deck has seen better days & has damage, lifting varnish, soft bits.
Had real fun learning to sail again ( got commercial coastal skipper in a past life, but forgotten most of it !)
Really not sure weather to repair/re-deck it or get wayfarer instead. My 7 year old son has had us racing the last few Sundays, which is great fun but find myself drawn towards the cruising side.
Our Enterprise has a very good set of cruising sales & combi trailer, the thing that really puts me off keeping it is when it is righted after capsize the water level is above dagger board casing. This makes it a real bitch to bail    
Any advise or abuse appreciated

Take something with you to stuff the centreboard case slot to stop the water coming in - soft hosepipe for example or even a towel - plus a bucket to bale with. And don't forget to tie them on!
To get moving you need to back the jib to the opposite side and sail on a reach then open the transom flaps when moving well.


Edited by patj - 25 Oct 15 at 8:21pm

Transom flaps have been blanked off, previous owner said they let in more water than they removed, thinking of reinstating them. It has 4 buoyancy bags, might have been slightly under inflated in rear (slow puncture), has built in buoyancy in bow ( 2 circular screw hatches )
Has self bailers, but really could not get it moving quick enough for them to work we just limped to shore for hardcore bailing session.

The side bouyancy bags should be long enough so that the aft ones touch the transom and the fore ones touch the front tank. They don't on ours and on the ocassions we have capsized have taken on a lot of water.

We too sail on a small water so at the moment I am not too bothered and as we have capsized only a couple of times and have sailed it dry so will live with it until the bouyancy bags need replacement or the boat gets upgraded.

I appreciate this is an old post,  but it is of interest to me non the less,  as I have just bought a mid 1970's GRP Ent (possibly a 404 before they amalgamated the class).  We had our first capsize last Saturday after a poorly executed gybe - my fault.  I managed to right her okay,  however when she came up,  the rear of the transom was level with the water and the centre board case was well below the water on board.  My daughter was scooped up,  but I was concerned that my weight could actually sink her.  I got on board after a bit of frantic bailing but we were still very low in the water,  we managed to get underway and opened the self bailer which seemed to help a bit,  but the transom flaps were submerged unless roll tacking and then let in more water than they got rid of.  We managed to get rid of most of the water through bailing and the self bailer.  At the end of the day we found she had taken on a lot of water into the buoyancy tanks as she was very heavy to pull up the slip way and the water ran for ages from the two buoyancy tank drains.  I am going to do a low pressure integrity test on the hull to hopefully find and fix the leak,  I think there may be a hairline crack under the gunnel that was submerged.  Wish me luck!