squeakywaffle
New Member
Hi-
I just bought a used laser yesterday... I don't have much (about 3 or 4 times out, all in bytes) experience sailing but I was down at a sort of sailing club (the WAC at the UW for those of you in seattle) with my friend, and I was rolling her byte back up to storage when a lady came along and asked me if I wanted to buy a laser. I'd been wanting a boat of my own for a while and the offer seemed too good to pass up, so I went ahead and wrote them a check.
I rigged and sailed it for the first time today, and I love it, but it had a couple of strange issues:
First, the little retaining spring for the rudder was bent... not knowing how it was supposed to go, I started sailing and suddenly my rudder popped out, bringing the boat round for a nasty surprise jibe that could have knocked me out if I hadn't been on the ball. The only thing that kept my rudder from sinking to the bottom was the tiller extension, which caught on the traveler like a sort of hook. I couldn't get the rudder to stay in, so after unintentionally jibe-capsizing three times, I decided I would have to swim the boat back in to shore. That sucked. But my question is, should the rudder pop out that easily when not held down by that spring, or might the recievers for the hinge pins (gudgeons?) be worn? That's an issue I would like to fix if it's actually an issue at all.
Second, at the back of my cockpit where I expected there to be an auto-bailer gadget of some sort, there is instead a small hole that seems to just let water in. Is there a plug or something that I'm missing, or is something broken down there?
Third, one of my mast sections (I think it was the lower) seemed to be full of water after my little swimming excursions. What's the best way to seal those up again?
And finally, a question... what's the best way to get water out of the mast step without getting someone to help me turn the boat upside down? Thankfully, mine doesn't appear to leak at all (in fact the mast step shows absolutely no cracking and little wear after 22 years, which is awesome and is part of the reason I was so happy to buy the boat) but the downside to that is that it fills up with water and I haven't been able to get it out of there. It's probably still full of water, but I'm going to go sail it tomorrow and hopefully I will have figured something out by then.
Thanks!
I just bought a used laser yesterday... I don't have much (about 3 or 4 times out, all in bytes) experience sailing but I was down at a sort of sailing club (the WAC at the UW for those of you in seattle) with my friend, and I was rolling her byte back up to storage when a lady came along and asked me if I wanted to buy a laser. I'd been wanting a boat of my own for a while and the offer seemed too good to pass up, so I went ahead and wrote them a check.
I rigged and sailed it for the first time today, and I love it, but it had a couple of strange issues:
First, the little retaining spring for the rudder was bent... not knowing how it was supposed to go, I started sailing and suddenly my rudder popped out, bringing the boat round for a nasty surprise jibe that could have knocked me out if I hadn't been on the ball. The only thing that kept my rudder from sinking to the bottom was the tiller extension, which caught on the traveler like a sort of hook. I couldn't get the rudder to stay in, so after unintentionally jibe-capsizing three times, I decided I would have to swim the boat back in to shore. That sucked. But my question is, should the rudder pop out that easily when not held down by that spring, or might the recievers for the hinge pins (gudgeons?) be worn? That's an issue I would like to fix if it's actually an issue at all.
Second, at the back of my cockpit where I expected there to be an auto-bailer gadget of some sort, there is instead a small hole that seems to just let water in. Is there a plug or something that I'm missing, or is something broken down there?
Third, one of my mast sections (I think it was the lower) seemed to be full of water after my little swimming excursions. What's the best way to seal those up again?
And finally, a question... what's the best way to get water out of the mast step without getting someone to help me turn the boat upside down? Thankfully, mine doesn't appear to leak at all (in fact the mast step shows absolutely no cracking and little wear after 22 years, which is awesome and is part of the reason I was so happy to buy the boat) but the downside to that is that it fills up with water and I haven't been able to get it out of there. It's probably still full of water, but I'm going to go sail it tomorrow and hopefully I will have figured something out by then.
Thanks!