Recovered a sailboat...anyone know how to sail?

[Prodigal Son]

After the recent noreaster a derelict 15' sailboat ended up in my buddy's backyard (marsh). We winched her out and are on the hunt for sails.

Anyone have a resource for a crash course in sailing such a vessel? Actually, if I could be picky, I'd like it to be a course, sans the 'crash' if we could manage. There's a $1.5mil boat on the narrow creek between my buddy's house and open water, so lesson one: how does one get past boats he can't afford to fix?

[Capt. Fred]

Sailing's pretty easy to do well enough to have fun. BUT, a small boat like that is real easy to tip over so be real careful in this cold water. Has it got the mast, boom, center board etc? I'll bet you could get some sails cheap on ebay or craigs list.

[fishbard]

Do you know what kind of sailboat it is? That will help when it comes to looking for sails. How about the rudder, that is something that likes to float off when the opportunity arises--I have personal experience with that one. What CF says is on the money about cold water--be careful, probably want to get the boat ready to go, but wait 'til summer to learn to sail, part of learning to sail a small boat is learning what to do when you capsize--and you will capsize, trust me.

[welder]

builder of boat and maybe a picture or two ?

[Prodigal Son]

Chrysler Mutineer 15:


Rudders gone.

Mast, boom, center board all there.

As for getting wet being a concern, we both ended up swimming recovering the thing; long, somewhat humorous 'recovery' that took 4 hours in a storm that included hail, my buddy swimming alongside the 23' boat we were in for like 15 minutes trying to rig some sort of plug on the sail boat, blue lips/fingers/toes, curse words, the sailboat sinking with me on it, etc. but we were too far along to quit, and that was in the wee hours of the AM on Thanksgiving with me wearing Carhartt overalls and my finest [poop] kicking leather pull-ons. Didn't upset me too much then aside from the new 80lbs of water I felt like I was carrying after my dip, so I assume if I put on my wetsuit and a PFD I'll be good to go.

For a point of reference: my sailing experience includes hailing sailboats on the vhf of my powerboat.

[TunaTeaser1]

Looks a lot like a JY15/ Hunter14 but the cockpit is a little different looking. Should be a great boat to learn on with another person or two. Won't be as fast as a Laser or a Laser 2 since its a great bit heavier but will still probably be good fun. I used to race Lasers a little bit when I was young and before I got completely addicted to fishing. I don't think I've been on a small sailboat in at least 10 years with the exception of riding on a sunfish a couple of times.

[fishbard]

Yep, looks like a fun boat. Not bad looking, either. Beamier than most sailboats that size, but 150 sq. ft of sail area is quite a bit for a 15'. You may well be able to find some sails that more or less fit, without going to the expense of having new ones made or the unlikely situation of getting used sails from another boat just like it. I doubt there are many of these boats around, I have never heard of it and grew up sailing and racing small sailboats, so I am pretty familiar with the more popular centerboard boats. I know there is a place in Annapolis, Md. that has a lot of used sails, but don't remember the name of the place. You can measure the distance from the boom to the top of the mast, and the length of the boom to figure out what mainsail might work. Some masts use slides, others have a groove that the bolt rope goes into, you can probably modify a sail that fits to work with either system. The jib will likely have some kind of clips that attach it to the headstay and then the sheets lead back inside the shrouds, the foot of the jib appears to be not a whole lot longer than the distance from the bottom of the headstay to the mast. Good luck, you'll have a good time, I'm certain. Funny story of the salvage job, sounds like excellent training for sailing, it's like that sometimes.

[TunaTeaser1]

Yeah I was kind of thinking that the extra sail area may be needed because of the added weight? The weight of a JY is 275# (135sq ft sail) with the weight of this one being 410. Maybe the JY's weight is unrigged?

Either way, both the JY and this Chrysler have a mast of 22' and 21'8" respectively. Maybe a good used JY sail would fit this boat....That's where I would start my search.

[FASTFJR]

Those little boats are a blast, all you need is a little common sense.

How to Sail a Sailboat: Video Series | eHow Videos

[welder]

I have been on a couple little boats about that size and YES they are a blast.