Blue Peter Dinghy - Acquisition

When I started sailing at Reading SC, I discovered that they had something called Pirates which was a fun, non instructed, but supervised activity evening of sailing games on the water. We took my son to this and he really enjoyed it, so we started to consider boats (knowing nothing about them) with lots of suggestions and views from all those around us.

One night, the Gary (who ran it at the time alongside Monica) came to us and asked if we'd be interested in a blue peter that he'd seen, needed some work, but was a lovely and suitable boat. Well, I'd not a clue what this was, and couldn't really find anything on the web, but trusted his and Monica's view, so agreed to take a look.

Incredibly, this boat was being offered by an ex member of the club and someone Gary knew, Brian, for free.

When we went to see the boat, I was (it would be my job), very apprehensive as I could see that the boat wouldn't initially be sailable, had an aft mainsheet (that I learned on my sailing course was the old way of sailing and different to centre main). I was not confident I could get the boat sailable and with a centre main configuration in any reasonable time frame or cost. Luckily I trusted my instincts that people at the club would have the experience I was lacking.

We collected the boat, though, in fact, the present owner, Brian, actually drove it to the club for us which was very kind.

Once at the club, we started to get opinions and advice on what to do and how to fix it. I recall one thing which was that we should repair the gelcoat and tighten the mast step up to avoid further damage (as it was loose), but this was so far outside what I could contemplate at the time, it didn't get done.

I did make a new plate for the rudder pintles to attach to, and fitted a new centre main system in a similar way to as found on the Topper on the advice of members, but, actual gluey stuff... no thanks! I might make it worse!!!!