Sunday, January 11, 2015

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS

Polish OK Dingy 'Puck' sailing to windward.
Puck sailing downwind in 25 - 30 knots.

CLICK THE ICON ON THE RIGHT TO MAKE THE VIDEO FULL SIZE

These two videos take me back a few years to some good, good memories of sailing my own OK Dinghy 'Okere'. What I like about the OK Dinghy is that it is a full bodied boat with good free board and a beautiful shape. They are magic to sail to windward - quick and response on the helm  .. and they run downwind like a rocket ship.

If you watch half of this and get impatient and want it to end, then you are not my sort of sailor (And that's very OK - pardon the ironic pun). But if like me you want the video to go on forever and a day and a kind of sea fever starts to rise like a full moon tide within you, then I understand your very sailor soul.

2 comments:

Ben said...

Alden,
Spectacular downwind sailing! Yes I was patient. To windward sailing magic, without a jib?

Alden Smith said...

No jib. Many single handed sailing dinghies, for example the Olympic Finn, Europe Dinghy, Ok Dinghy, Optimist Dinghy, NZ P Class Dinghy, International Laser etc, etc, etc, etc - all have No Jib with a single mast placed well forward in the boat. Technically speaking I think they are 'Cat' Boat rigged - the name being taken from the small very beamy sailing workboats with single masted gaff rigged mains'l that appeared on the East coast of the USA in the 18th and 19th century.
This rig is a dream to sail having no jib sheets to deal with every time you tack. I think the rig reaches its most beautiful in the Olympic Finn and the OK Dinghy - possibly because the beautiful big mainsails are matched so well with the beautiful hulls.