Response

Re: HELP needed on a hull.

Not exciting maybe not but, it can be very stressful though. Sail boats don’t always go where you want them to go. You have to read the wind, control sails, and TURN! It is not pull back the throttle put the rudder over and off we go. Speeding around is not exciting to me. It takes skill to sail a scale boat, pilot cutters best scale though. 2 pilot cutters, sailing trawler & trading schooner in my harbour. Believe me you will enjoy. 😀

5 years ago by hammer

Response

Re: Graupner Optimist 1978

Hi Garth,You can find sail winches (drum or servo types) on line easily enough. The ones the 1m etc use are some ridiculous price (around $500 ? ) but are very fast. Try looking under class racing clubs, you might find some for sale a bit cheaper. I bought 2 cheap ones from Ali Express but they are crap, don't center properly, just sit at the center and hum (unless there is no load at all on them) I'm going to try them anyhow and if they fry, I'll try something else. The Optimist sails quite fast for what it is and is worth getting on the water. I have re- rigged mine with .4 mm stainless solid fishing trace which will never need replacing. The original multi strand cable in the kit kept fraying and breaking. I found the best way of fixing the wire to the turnbuckle is to feed it through a short length of small copper tube, through the turnbuckle, back up through the tube, arrange to the finished length you need (leaving enough adjustment at the turnbuckle both ways), and crimp the tube (fishing trace crimpers are ideal for this) then bend the short end back down over the top of the tube and trim off, leaving about 2mm. Then using your soldering iron, run solder into the tube and you'll have a permanent repair for life. John B

5 years ago by jbkiwi