This week we started on a month long project to maintain our optimist dinghies and prepare them for the season. The children from our sailing school are assisting in the maintenance and repair tasks.

One of the first job we carried out on Saturday was to de-rig the sails from the masts and booms. this task took most of the session, because rather than cutting off the sail ties they had to untie each reef knot. Why you might ask did I insist on this. A reef know is always used to tie the sails on because provided it is ties correctly it can always be untied, however if a granny knot(miss-tied reef) is used you will need to use a knife. There are also times during the season when you need to adjust the sail ties, remove sails for traveling, and there is no point in wasting rope.

I pleased to discover that amongst the six sails there were only three instances where a granny know had been used and we had to use a knife. Hopefully when the time comes to re-attach the sails the children will take extra care to tie the correct reef knot.

The second stage was to strip down the masts and booms, drawing up a list of what fixtures and fitting need replacing before we can re-rig the boats. The sails were also examined and will probably need to be sent to a sail maker for repairs.

On Monday the children started to look at the hulls of the dinghies, examining the results of damaged caused by collisions and contact with rocks. Corners that had been covered with black tape revealed much damaged gel coat which will need to be repaired before fitting rubber corner protectors.

David Ogden
Sailing Master