C-20 report card
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 11:45 am
For the benefit of any interested parties I thought I would share some thoughts of my first couple of months sailing my Chrysler C-20 which I bought in the dead of winter here in Ontario.
As is usual with some clutzes like myself, a new toy better get used to some rough handling before I get the hang of everything. Cannonball certainly has received its share. Water level was down on the lake this year. The only ramp capable of launching at that level still required several tries and a rough trip over the bunkers which fortunately only did a slight bit of cosmetic oops to the previous paint job. Boat still floated and more importantly sailed me for 6 hours on the maiden voyage to its new home.
I had this crazy idea that since we have recently acquired waterfront, I could install a dock and tie the boat to it. Lake Ontario had other ideas. 3 times the wind and waves grounded the boat. The last storm I sat and watched helplessly for 12 hours while the boat was bouncing up and down on the bottom. I wasn't about to manhandle 2200 lbs on an angry beach by myself. So, with a couple of tears trickling down, I had pretty well resigned myself to writing off the purchase price of the boat with the consolation of having a trailer and decent outboard left in the deal. Well, my brother arrived as the worst of the weather gave up, and we refloated the boat and finally put it on a proper mooring in 10' of water. It still floated. No cracks. No water in the bilge. (A month later, still no water in the bilge.) The keel had a rock jammed in the housing which took some ingenuity to dislodge. The rudder had the whole leading edge ground down to the styrofoam core and the rudder cheeks were drastically bent at the bottom, and the rudder rope was broken off. I straightened the cheeks with a chunk of 2X4, a clamp, and some leverage, reconnected the rope and put a rebuild of the rudder on my to-do list for the winter, but for now just reassembled the parts.
The boat has now been sailing happily for a month since then. What a strong, forgiving little ship.
Oh, and the other day a big expensive yacht with well heeled passengers aboard made several passes by my moored boat and I watched from shore, scores of flashes as they took many pictures of my cheap boat on its mooring against a background of the setting sun.
Yesterday I was singlehanding on a calm sunny morning, loose sails to catch every breeze. Took my first video of the boat (will be posted to you tube when I figure out how), and no sooner put the camera down than the sea all of a sudden whipped into a fury, winds circling around and shaking the sails like crazy. A thick fog and strong south wind quickly established itself. I pointed close while trying to figure out what to do, looking for ports, etc. But I needed to find out what the boat could do, too, so I tightened the sails, braced myself and filled the sails. Well, this boat still didn't come come to burying the rails. It just nicely plowed through the chop and started humming like it was having a great time, damaged rudder and all. I looked around. I was the only sailboat on that tack, others having taken evasive action for the moment. I stayed on my tack for 1 1/2 hours, big grin on my face, until the wind settled into a normal breeze, at which point I decided to head for home again, and a great run back.
Now the boat is not as fast as my previous "Georgian 19" but on the other hand I could not have handled that one in the conditions encountered, and it would have been full of water in those first 5 minutes. Besides I did pace a PY26 for an hour and achieved 90% of the speed of a 33 footer, at 1/100 the cost. And that is with that bad rudder and quick repair job, and old sails.
Final marks: A+ Great boat, sleek lines, excellent sailing characteristics. Indestructible.
As is usual with some clutzes like myself, a new toy better get used to some rough handling before I get the hang of everything. Cannonball certainly has received its share. Water level was down on the lake this year. The only ramp capable of launching at that level still required several tries and a rough trip over the bunkers which fortunately only did a slight bit of cosmetic oops to the previous paint job. Boat still floated and more importantly sailed me for 6 hours on the maiden voyage to its new home.
I had this crazy idea that since we have recently acquired waterfront, I could install a dock and tie the boat to it. Lake Ontario had other ideas. 3 times the wind and waves grounded the boat. The last storm I sat and watched helplessly for 12 hours while the boat was bouncing up and down on the bottom. I wasn't about to manhandle 2200 lbs on an angry beach by myself. So, with a couple of tears trickling down, I had pretty well resigned myself to writing off the purchase price of the boat with the consolation of having a trailer and decent outboard left in the deal. Well, my brother arrived as the worst of the weather gave up, and we refloated the boat and finally put it on a proper mooring in 10' of water. It still floated. No cracks. No water in the bilge. (A month later, still no water in the bilge.) The keel had a rock jammed in the housing which took some ingenuity to dislodge. The rudder had the whole leading edge ground down to the styrofoam core and the rudder cheeks were drastically bent at the bottom, and the rudder rope was broken off. I straightened the cheeks with a chunk of 2X4, a clamp, and some leverage, reconnected the rope and put a rebuild of the rudder on my to-do list for the winter, but for now just reassembled the parts.
The boat has now been sailing happily for a month since then. What a strong, forgiving little ship.
Oh, and the other day a big expensive yacht with well heeled passengers aboard made several passes by my moored boat and I watched from shore, scores of flashes as they took many pictures of my cheap boat on its mooring against a background of the setting sun.
Yesterday I was singlehanding on a calm sunny morning, loose sails to catch every breeze. Took my first video of the boat (will be posted to you tube when I figure out how), and no sooner put the camera down than the sea all of a sudden whipped into a fury, winds circling around and shaking the sails like crazy. A thick fog and strong south wind quickly established itself. I pointed close while trying to figure out what to do, looking for ports, etc. But I needed to find out what the boat could do, too, so I tightened the sails, braced myself and filled the sails. Well, this boat still didn't come come to burying the rails. It just nicely plowed through the chop and started humming like it was having a great time, damaged rudder and all. I looked around. I was the only sailboat on that tack, others having taken evasive action for the moment. I stayed on my tack for 1 1/2 hours, big grin on my face, until the wind settled into a normal breeze, at which point I decided to head for home again, and a great run back.
Now the boat is not as fast as my previous "Georgian 19" but on the other hand I could not have handled that one in the conditions encountered, and it would have been full of water in those first 5 minutes. Besides I did pace a PY26 for an hour and achieved 90% of the speed of a 33 footer, at 1/100 the cost. And that is with that bad rudder and quick repair job, and old sails.
Final marks: A+ Great boat, sleek lines, excellent sailing characteristics. Indestructible.
