Across the Pond

The Minisail isn't just a UK class, as Scot Spencer reports:

The “British Invasion” of the USA was more than just ROCK STARS!   Not only did the so-called British Invasion of the 1960‘s and early 70’s include the likes of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, it included an amazing little boat called the Minisail.  Imported from England to the U.S. in the early 1970’s by George O’day’s  Gemico Corp., an unknown number of fiberglass MiniSail Monacos still ply the waters “across the pond”.

Here is the story of one such boat: 

Purchased by my brother in 1972 my little rock star sailboat made it into my hands sometime in the late 70’s.  I recently asked my brother why he purchased a MiniSail vs. a Sunfish or Force 5  and his exact response was “because it was cheaper than a Laser!”  I had never though of it as being a competitor to the Laser (especially since it was the Sunfish that intrigued Ian Procter) but maybe the rectangular cockpit made it seem so in 1972.  He remembers paying $450 for it.

She started her American life at Avon Sailboats, a small sailboat dealer near the Detroit suburb in which we lived and with my brother’s help made her way to our garage.  I remember him building an intricate hoist that was supposed to allow him to store the boat on the ceiling of the garage then lower it down onto a waiting car to be transported.  It never worked quite as easily as hoped.

During the first four years of her life she was sailed mostly on lakes a short drive from Detroit but did make one fateful visit to Lake Michigan. On that trip she turned turtle and the lower half of the mast somehow came detached and fell to the bottom of this Great Lake.  From that time forward she has been sporting a silver lower mast and gold upper mast and boom.

In 1976 my family purchased a small lakeside cabin in Northern Michigan (commonly referred to as God’s Country).  This is where she would call home for the next 35 years.  I sailed her regularly as a teenager mostly trying to make her go fast in heavy air and informally racing my friends on their Sunfish (I always won).  It is a fun little boat in heavy air but I always struggled maintaining balance in light or shifting air.   Lately my two sons have been putting her to good use fooling around in the lake and learning how to sail.  Learning how to get back in the boat after a capsize is part of learning how to sail!

Celebrating her 40^th birthday she has yet to be given a name but is currently in process of getting a facelift and other minor repairs.  At the end of 2011 I brought her to my home 20 minutes from the Saginaw Bay and am in process of painting the hull and am planning on rubbing out and polishing the deck.  I have sanded the original rudder and centerboard and will be adding multiple coats of varnish. 

In addition I plan on installing new hiking straps, the original bright red straps are now more of a nasty pink and I am not sure how much strain they could bear.  Somewhere in her life the round ring that stabilizes the hole in which the mast is stepped disappeared so that will need to be replaced as well as repairs will be needed to the yolk on the end of the boom.  

In all the years the boat has been in my family the mainsheet has been attached to an eye on the rudderhead never a traveler.  I don’t believe this boat came with a boom vang and so we have never used one.  The first time I saw a MiniSail with a boom vang was on the class website.  This is an upgrade that I think is much needed and on my list for the future.

I do not know if there was ever a MiniSail one design class in the U.S. and if there was it must have been small and short lived.  I think that with the passage of time taking it’s toll on the imported U.S. boats (as well as the Rolling Stones), and the fact that it was not hugely popular here to begin with, getting a critical mass of MiniSails together to form a class today would be difficult. 

I think after my little rock star sailboat’s facelift time will have proved to be a better friend to her than it has been to Mick Jagger!