My brother lives in San Jose and has a Force 5
dinghy. Every time I visit I shame him into getting out on the
water. Here is the April trip.
Launching - The
boat trailer isn't really set up right for
single hand launching - it was a freebie - so two folks muscle it onto the
water. Later on during the April trip we got energetic and fixed the
trailer so now he can launch the
boat on his own - No excuses! Josh had fun drilling, sawing and hammering and eventually made a small cross bow from off -cuts. He was shooting dowel arrows 50 feet. Dad's are so irresponsible.
Setup - Josh manned the boat as we walked it around to the beach. The
single sail rig with the battened main is very colorful and quite cool. For a
dinghy there are a lot of control lines -
outhaul, cunningham, vang and mainsheet. It always takes us a while to remember how to rig after a year lay off.
Sailing - Eventually we get her on the water and my brother and Josh wring her out. Josh keeps pestering to go out on his own but my brother is nervous. Josh is a decent sailor and after a few
dock landings my brother finally agrees. Josh takes off and shows the old fogeys how to put her on her ear. My brother can't bear to watch and hides his
head in a
pfd.
Dad's Turn - Josh decides to take me for a ride and we have a good but unexciting trip around the small lake. As we complete our large turn to port and approach the
dock I get the bright idea to stand on the (tiny) foredeck with the painter in my hand to make fast the boat. Right as we reach the dock the sail tacks, is sheeted in pretty good and, of course, with my weight up on the
deck,
mast in hand we are at serious risk of capsizing so I end up in the water. Josh is way amused...
All in all a really fun 4 hours on the water. Dinghy's are way fun!
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