MS 206

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Early may 2022 another dishdecked Sprite surfaced.
A friend and vigilant MS fan, Robert, found on E-Bay the MS Sprite and posted the ad on our trusted Google groups Minisail page.
Shortly after the current owner (Matt-W-s) posted the ad on Fb ; Titled Please see this listing for my late father’s mini sail.

Let me go slightly off-topic for a moment.
My father passed away recently also. Me and my sister are now looking at an inventory that’s virtually worthless. His books, his kitchen (he was a cook), the old car, the pré-war furniture, name it, it’s there.
The value of things is only contextual.

As is the value of this wooden Sprite 206.
It’s listed at £26. I guess if it was MS 209 it might have been £29. The minimum threshold value.

But look it’s all there: Hull, mast, boom, sail, rudder, daggerboard.
No sign of ropes and pulleys, but every dingy owner has a box of spares (or two) of these laying around.

Looking at the pictures the restoration could (and might) result in a near complete rebuilt with little of the original wood remaining, but it’s all there. And really it’s not difficult to replicate and/or put together the parts.
Bill of materials for this project, count roughly €1.000 to €1.500 to remake this boat as new (epoxy, varnish & paint, wood, new sail, hardware & strings, tarp etc…).
Depending your likes it could be a workout tool or a showroom boat, no matter, the award for saving this item and taking it out on the water will be a thing for you to cherish and is your very own boat (with history).

If I hadn’t two of these already I would be on the road to get it.
To the one considering reviving MS206: I’ll make you a sliding seat for free.




Racing the Meson again at last

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It has been a while my Meson got wet, the pestilence got in the way.
But look, one highlight on the calendar seems to pop up again, the Beschuitstoren regatta at Wormer, Netherlands.

It’ll be on Sunday 12 September (2021).
Will need to dust off and sort out many Minisail spars and rigging parts hiding in the workshop and I am looking forward to the event.
Previously this event hosted a remarkable amount of Minisail sailors, Not sure how many will attend this time.

Ah well these have been strange times, our UK friends having to deal with Brexit shenanigans making it hard for them to cross the small pond, and us Europeans haven’t been there for a while either.

A new boat

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One year of posting nothing new here is quite enough.

Let me show you the last boat I built.
It’s a “14 foot sail & row” as discribed by John Gardner in his book Classic small craft you can build.

A post about the first to be built was published here in 2011: Building of Bertha.
The recently built is largely documented on the dedicated pages called the Berthas Blog.
Scroll way back down to the beginning.

The new boat behaves on the water exactly the same as the first one, no wonder it’s the same boat, a tad faster maybe. From a distance even I can’t tell the difference which’ boat ‘is’ the newer or the older one.
With the alternative balanced lugsail however things change: it’s the same girl but in a new dress and it suits her just fine. Als if it were meant to be.
Tadaa:

Going Pro

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1 December 2023 UPDATE: The business is no longer
After 20 years of amateur small-boat building I thought it was a time to take the plunge in the cold water and make it my daily occupation as boat builder.
The business is named “BERTHAS”.
Check out Berthas.be to find out what it’s about (Maybe with some help of Google translate for now, the website is not multilingual yet).

Anyway, this blog will stay here, and will keep generating random subjects about sailing and racing small boats, slightly Minisail orientated.

… And if it happened that you would like to order a replacement part or even a complete hull (for any of the wooden dinghies), I’d be delighted to discuss with you the object of your desire.

There is now a sister blog: Berthas Blog.


La semaine du golfe 2019 -Part 3

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We went over and had a great time. Weather predictions promiced a “last jugement” kind of circumstances but once arrived there and got sailing it went all right.
This scow showed to like a bit of wind, and good for us really since it was blowing hard during the first days at La Semaine.
A confession to make: We were in the sail&row category (Flotille 2: voile et Aviron), but our boat didn’t seem to be adapted to do both. Once rigged for sailing it was hardly possible to get the oars out to do any serious rowing and vice versa.
Mmm we had a tiny 2-stroke Yamaha Malta handy, not really in the spirit of the fleet we were in but handy anyway.
Enjoy the images and believe me, participating at the “Semaine Du Golfe” is an addicting pleasure.

some more: