Posted by John Pazereskis on July 10, 2001 at 02:53:46 from 216.125.106.112:
In Reply to: Re: good boats posted by Stuart Wier on July 06, 2001 at 22:23:13:
I've been away for some days, and was delighted to find and read the posts which followed my original post. Always a delight to get other poeple's ideas. Thinking things over, I suspect my original idea was at least partially a product of the waters that I've sailed for the last fifty odd years, i.e. the Great Lakes of the United States. As you may know, except in a few isolated areas, the Great Lakes have no protected water.
There are no sailable bays or rivers and few large harbors. Hence, the instant one clears the breakwater, one is in cold, open water where open dinghies (except for things like International 14s sailed by experienced sailors and mostly under the eye of a rescue boat) have very little place.
Hence my insistence on the self rescuing qualities of a boat for children. As I wrote in my original post -- and not hopefully to beat a dead horse -- the Laser was mentioned as something representing the kind of boat that could be gotten used cheaply enough that one could entrust it to children and that would be self rescuing, have a hull and rig that were easily handled by children, etc, and that could be sailed safely without adult supervison after the children had proven a degree of expertise and responsibility. What is, perhaps, sometimes forgotten, is that the Laser -- which, of course became an Olympic singlehander-- was origially designed as a second generation beach boat... a sailfish that could sail. The original marketing aimed as much at children and adults sailing the boats with several people up i.e., not singlehanded, as it did on single handing. They really are easy boats to sail, witness the fact that an older type (euphemism) like me can have a pleasant afternoon in a Laser, especially when it's blowing...and this despite the fact that normally I try to steer clear of things less that 30 ft. for reasons of comfort. Finally, Lasers have a deck hatch (actually at the forward end of the cockpit) in which a good deal of "stuff" can be stowed.
But enough of this. I'm not a flack for the Laser class; and I rather think that an old Heron or GP 14 or Mirror or Firefly, or, despite their crampedness, Cadet -- all with added bouyancy -- would be very good for today's young sailors. The original Swallow with its lead ballast would probably sink and not be a safe boat.
I'm a bit interested that no one here has taken me to task on the very thought of allowing children to sail unsupervised. That, it seems to me is another very important element, and it never ceases to amaze me that my parents -- who were not at all cavalier -- were brave enough to let me venture out alone on the waters of Lake Michigan at a very tender age in search of myself. Bless them.