Classic Pond Yachts
Dolphin 6 Meter yacht
Another Beale Park purchase, I saw this boat and was really taken by the quality of the hull moulding, and the build quality, the white boot top is moulded into the hull, very difficult to do well, also the deck is made from solid timber, Obechi ? nice mohogany timber trim around the deck edge, a quality boat, and I think very pretty. She is not, and probably never was a competitive 6 Meter, but a very nice boat to take sailing at vintage meetings etc. I beleive she was sold by Tony Abel, a lovely guy, when I first got into Model yachts in the late 1980s, Tony was the first person I came across, he sold model yachts and fittings, he was very helpful to this pain in the bum who kept phoning him for information, he introduced me to Peter Wiles at PJ Sails, after Tony sadly died, I started pestering Peter, and still do to this day!
When I started to look at the deck varnish I tried a test with some varnish stripper, it would not touch the varnish, I suspected it may not, the existing varnish was still very hard, it is two pack polyurethane very hard, so I started sanding, I sanded back the deck fairly hard to get it flat, there were cracks along the line of the grain where the varnish had split, so I started to build up layers of two pack varnish, sanding back between coats to fill the grain. I have got the deck t an acceptable level, it looks like a nice grain to the timber, but I know it is where water got into the timber and it has stained.
This is the boat when I got her home, she had been sat somewhere damp for a long time, the varnish on the deck was split and the timber grain lifting. Also the white vinyl deck patches had gone hard and brittle, I took a while with a hair dryer and then white spirit to remove the glue. I then removed the deck fittings.
When I bought the boat she had an alloy mast and some OK looking Dacron sails, no makers name, but the mast was very chunky looking, so I built a Carbon Groovy mast, not to go racing, but the boat looks so much better, I used an old Marblehead C rig for some of the bits, and some fittings from P J Sails and Sails etc. She also had a piece of string holding the jib boom to the forestay fitting, I wanted to do something better.
I took a 10mm stainless bolt, drilled a hole through the center to take 1.5mm brass rod, and I put in a small countersink in the top. I then hacksawed along the threaded part of the bolt.
Then slide in a length of the brass rod, clamp tight in the vice so the cut bolt clamps the brass rod. Apply heat and gently tap the top of the rod into the countersink to form a rivet head.
I then put the head of the rivet into a small nut with two washers under to help the jib boom swivel, then form the end into a hook, not as good as a roller bearing system, and I would not do it on a race boat, but it works fine, and if you don't have a roller thrust bearing to hand!
I was re-using the original alloy main and jib booms, but replaced the spring wire outhaul adjusters with some old school wire ones, I like these they are easy and repeatable.
I machined up a plug to go into the end of the jib boom, with a small hole and a loop of dyneema, the jib topping lift can then be rigged through the loop, I fitted a length of bungy to take up any slack while sailing to stop the topping lift getting caught on the spreaders.
The boat had a jib slot adjuster fitted, a separate control on the transmitter which enables the jib sheet to be eased/hardened. The pictures on the left show the servo controlling the slot size, all the way in, and the jib sheeted in, the pictures on the right show the servo all the way out, and the jib sheet eased, this can help you to sail higher up under a boat to windward to try and make him tack away, but it is at the cost of speed, so be careful, you may just get rolled ! also good for a situation where you are almost laying a mark, and can't tack.
Almost ready to go sailing, waiting for a mast ram and spreader fitting from P J Sails, fit the Deck patches and she is ready to go, as soon as we are allowed out!!
The picture above left is with the slot adjuster out, the picture on the right is with the slot adjuster in.
I am very pleased I bought her, I think she is a very good looking boat and will look lovely on the water. I mentioned about when you are trying to find information about one thing you often find out something else, whilst trying to find some history on Cymbeline my old A class, I bought Robert Hobb's excellent book '1001 international A class yachts' there was an article about Bob Underwood, a brilliant GRP boat builder, in the article it mentioned that Bob moulded the hulls for Tony Abel's Dolphin 6 meter, you go looking for one thing, and find another !
30 March 21 - Took Dolphin out sailing on the river Hamble, She sailed from the marina in Warsash up to the ferry hard to test all working, then we headed out of the river.
Dolphin sailing out of the marina, being followed by Classic Pond Yachts launch/rescue boat! We sailed her around to test everything worked, then headed out of the river.
Turning to windward out of the river, she sailed beautifully, well balanced both upwind and down wind, she was probably sailing for 2 hours, at the end she had very little water inside.
This picture of her sailing through the tide rip in the river entrance by the double pile, we opened the slot slightly to power through the bigger waves, no problem at all.
Rounding Bald Head buoy, Calshot spit and Cowes in the background!, you can see the tide running on the buoy, a long foul tide run home! There are videos on our 'Classic Pond Yachts' you tube channel, click on the link on the home page, we did the whole trip on one battery pack, we did not touch her at all, when I checked the battery at home after, it was almost flat!!. Very pleased and impressed at how well she sailed, I knew Tony Abel who is responsible for the Dolphin, a lovely guy, he did a really good job she sails very well, he would have loved to see her sailing on the Solent, well Southampton water, maybe the Solent next time, the model will be fine, it is the launch that is the concern, really a river launch.