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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.

Summer time

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Summer time and not a lot going on in the active Minisail micro community, except for some MS Sprints that were (are) for sale in Holland and Belgium.

A nice looking Monaco Sprint MI in Belgium (mind the interesting red bungee chord between the bow and the center of the boom).

 

 

A Monaco Sprint MI in Holland -including the original roof rack (?)

 

 

A mint MS Sprint MII in Holland, now bought by Frans S.

 

 

Makes one wonder who bought these 40 years ago and how they got along with them.

Hang on, with now three Minisails In Wormer Holland I could tow three Belgians there and a Holland-Belgium MS-race would be in the making!

 

 

It’s blue II

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IMG_6722
With the hull the right way up, the amount of blue surface is pleasingly less prominent. Good, it looks fine now.
Notice the aluminum bumperstrip added. I wasn’t going to at first but after only six or seven days sailing the unprotected bow had taken a good beating. The bumper should take care of that.
The leaks at the transom have been taken care of, some dents and bruises were buffed out, the split sliding seat base is mended (happened when trying to roll over the hull not knowing the seat extended).
She’ll be fine for next weekend.

One Monaco down

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Minisail Monaco Ostend 2009Minisail Monaco hull repairThe mastfoot of my first Minisail gave way this afternoon.

3 to 4 Bft wind, the boat went really well and I was enjoying the comfort of a footwell for a change. Practising Monaco sailing to be ready for the Nationals next weekend I was hard on the old boat hiking out like a ninja to keep the boat level upwind, including doing some fast gibe manoeuvres.
In the middle of the pond planing during a fun reach the mast went to leeward with a cracking sound but the hull kept level: Mastfoot gone.
The mast held on to a 35 angle to the hull and I was able to continue on a broad reach making berth without any help.
It was a weird 5 or 10 minutes sailing with no sail control at all (boom and rear of sail dragging through the water, the mast swinging slightly back to forth) the only thing I could do was steer and keep fingers crossed. Actually the last minutes were quite fun coming in cheered on by the audience from our club’s terrace.

I took the yellow Monaco out this afternoon because I suspected it might well be the last time before for a long while to sail her. Shortly Minisail 2848 -another Monaco- will arrive and replace it. Must be a coincidence it collapsed on it’s last sail.
The old Yellow Monaco will now be transformed into sort of a “Meson”; A GRP hull with a wooden deck.
Could be a while before it hits the water once more though.

We did well…

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Image: Dean M.

Image: Dean M.


Image: Dean M.

Image: Dean M.


Image: Dean M.

Image: Dean M.

This year my club has introduced handicap sailing for mixed class racing.
I always loved our simple rule “first one crossing the line wins” but it resulted in a handful of Fireballs and a Finn participating. Hence the club racing scene was fading away.

Our first race was last Sunday 27 April and we did well. We is me and the Sprite 9000.
How well we did? A win overall.
Must say the competition was light since five of seven competitors hadn’t sailed since last autumn, one trained youngster in a downsized Europe Moth like dinghy, a “Spirou” was doing very well also.

The images were taken by Dean who was racing the Sprint MKII Minisail. Thanks Dean, maybe strap the camera to 9000 next time we sail so we get some action pictures of the Sprint.

Lets see what the rest of the season brings but one win has made my year already.

A trailer for the Minisails (Part II)

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Old trailer

Old trailer for light dingy

The old worn out trailer in my workshop I used for years to park hulls on (and maneuver around when needed) will have to go. I can stack boats up to a point but not trailers. I’ll use it’s trailing boom and bolt it to my Lama trailer frame. Took some pictures just before I disassembled it. Don’t know exactly why but I was always charmed by it’s symplicity and somehow it looks well designed. It’s dating from a period where steel was cheap, the item is heavy. The wall thickness of the boom is 5mm and you can happily stand on the fenders, neither the supports or the fenders will be impressed. Might pull the hubs off this winter and see if it’s possible to fit a new set of bearing-hub-wheel-tyres. After all it’s a fun oldtimer that’s only missing a fresh set of nuts and bolts. Greetings, Ronny IMG_5831 IMG_5829 IMG_5833 IMG_5838 IMG_5850