But the World's apart Wayfarers are an old design and there's the old saying never go back, so we ended up with one of these a Laser Stratos centre board, pretty much the Wayfarer concept brought up to date.
It's lighter and the mast is a couple of feet higher, plus without the fore deck and the rear locker there's a lot more space. I also like that it's self draining and has flooding side tanks which are supposed to make capsize recovery easier. Overall while it's nearly 20 years since we had the Wayfarer I get the impression the Stratos is a faster boat and better in light airs.
Despite the high pressure and late afternoon HW over the bank holiday weekend we managed to catch the sea breeze for a fine afternoon sail across to Ashlett creek arriving back just as the wind was dropping away.
Joseph is mad keen to get the asymmetric out but wants to do his RYA course before we do, ignoring the fact that mum and dad sailed half way across the Atlantic under spinnaker - the perception of youth! He's also keen to try the trapeze.
A friend at the yacht club asked why I've bought a boat with no varnish or hemp, but all in all seems like a good addition to the fleet
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LOL... another day another boat added to the fleet... :o))
ReplyDeleteI learned to sail in a stratos. Love em. Haven't been back in one since 2010 but fell in love with it in Greece.
ReplyDeleteNice new boat! Does the water for the flooding side tanks enter through the vents that I can see in the second photo? Are there vents on the other side of the cockpit? I presume the water exits into the cockpit and out the stern.
ReplyDeleteAlden - yes that's exactly it. haven't tried capsize yet, but noticed water drains through the transom really well even at slow speed (we took some motorboat wash over the bows!(.
ReplyDeleteSteve - the only downside so far is size of the mast at nearly 30 feet, it's pretty light but would be easier to get up and down with a tabernacle pivot.
yeah, a friend of mine had a stratos and that became the issue for him, as he reached 60 - he struggled with it and so switched to a cornish cormorant
DeleteSteve, ironic I'm going be 60 very soon, Ive had a Cornish Cormorant for 20 years and have just bought a Stratos - clearly going against the flow.
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