Pintail an old 6 meter? | Classic Pond Yachts

Classic Pond Yachts

Pintail a 6 Meter ?

Another Beale Park purchase! I could not resist this boat. She is called Pintail, beautifully planked in Mahogany with brass fastenings, she is 54 inches LOA with 11.5 inch beam, general opinion is that she is a 6 Meter, but quite short, I have read that some 18 footers were re rated as 6 meters when the 18 ft rule died, there are a lot of similarities to 'Molly', another boat on this website, I wonder???.

A very pretty boat, no history as usual ! sadly the 6 meter register was lost some years ago, the only 6 meter register that survives is for the Scottish 6 meters, she has a beautifully done name on her hatch, along with PMYC, so worth a try, the Scottish 6s were known as Wee sixes, and she is wee!

The hatch is stunning, the name and picture background have been done in gold leaf, it looks amazing in the sun.

She has a lovely cream lined deck, she has been fitted with rudder only radio control.

The radio has been nicely fitted, they have made a GRP pot that houses the rudder servo, , on the plus side it appears to be water proof so will stop water entering the hull, the mast is deck stepped, so no holes into the boat. on the down side, it wont take much to fill the pot with water flooding the battery, receiver and r

udder servo!

She has a nice wooden mast, with a pair of old wire shrouds, which I think I can use again, no sails, main or jib booms, but the mainsail and Jib tracks are fitted, that will give some idea of the sail plan, I will have to print of the 6 meter rules and start measuring to get sail area etc.

A view of the radio installation, the hatch covers the top of the slots the rudder linkages run through, so the holes not as big as they look. I will remove the hatch and GRP tray and check inside the boat, also a lot of silicon on the deck needs cleaning up. I think the metal hatch surround is made out of alloy, very neat.

Good quality deck fittings, I am surprised she does not have a keel stepped mast, but there is no sign of any alteration to the deck, so assume she has always been like this. The mast fitting is very vulnerable until the standing rigging is fitted, and it has been bent, but will straighten easily. I will have to remove the radio pot/hatch, the deck flexes where the mast step is ? I think she needs some support under the mast step, it will also be good to have a look at the construction detail inside.

A few general pictures, the caveta line is carved and picked out in Gold, it would be nice to do in gold leaf, she has a transom and shear to die for.

Not a lot of work to do with Pintail, I will rub down the topsides and give her a few more coats of varnish, remove the hatch and deck gear, clean up the deck, check all is well inside, fit a mast support inside, the deck does move generally, I can't feel anywhere solid, i.e. over a deck beam, so a look inside is required, but she has lasted this long as she is, so I don't see any need to alter anything. I need to have a look at the 6 meter rule and sort the sail plan, make a main and jib boom, varnished Terylene sails and go sailing. She does need a mast support, Pintail is going sailing and I don't want to damage her after all this time, not sure how old she is, between the wars maybe?

25 April 21 - I could not resist letting the screws around the hatch go and see if it would come off, it lifted off straight away, it was down on a silicon ? grease, I undid the bolt on the brain quadrant and the whole thing lifted off.

Quite a neat way of fitting radio, the screws were not biting in the deck, which is very thin, there is a thin ply backing ring been made. I will glue some more ply to the ring where the screws go in. A slight issue with the GRP moulding, the GRP is thicker around the front of the hatch, where it has been screwed down it has deformed the deck, I have fitted a temporary support under the deck to push the deck back into shape, I will file the GRP so it is the same thickness all round.

Once the hatch was removed I could look inside, and discovered why there was so little work to do, she has already been restored ! the hull has been glass sheathed inside, done quite well apart from some ragged matt where the mast step was, the whole of the hull seems to have been sheathed, which means the deck had to be removed, but it has been well done, it was not obviously a new deck, so well done to who ever did the work. I have enough access to tidy the ragged cloth by the mast step. For what ever reason no mast support has been fitted, but a simple job

Views fore and aft inside, she looks in really good condition you can see the new deck. Not sure how I feel about the grp inside the hull, the main thing is to remove the hatch, flush the hull after sailing and allow to dry out before putting the hatch back on. If she is left damp, water will make its way under the cloth, it may even get through a plank or two from the outside, if she is allowed to stay damp it will cause problems, planks going black etc. but with the way the hatch is fitted very easy to remove it after sailing and leave her open for a few weeks. I will sand back the outside and put several extra coats of varnish to make sure she is well protected, she is still a cracking boat.

This is the bad bit, I can see something that has been glassed over, you can see the ragged glass cloth, the fitting may have been where the mast support fitted, I wonder if she had a keel stepped mast originally ? I will leave her as she is, just fit a mast support under the deck, with her being glassed the less water getting inside the better. On the plus side the glassing has been done well, it will add a lot of strength to the hull, you just need to keep her dry inside.

Another hatch picture, this time in the sun, it is stunning. Pintail is a superb boat, it would be nice to find some history, she looks to be well built, she has had a really good restoration done, a few bits to sort, but easy stuff, the radio installation is very neat, and nothing has been fitted to the boat or altered in any way to fit, all I need to do is make a second hatch frame, and she is back to braine steering, it can be swapped over on the pond side. I think Pintail is one of my favorite boats.

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