Express Sailing Dinghy
Messages 1 to 20 of 79.
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re. Express dinghy. I had a letter published in Yachts and Yachting this month with a short history of them. They are great little boats. Did you buy one?? Is so please let me know as I would like to build up an owners list or club. Thanks for your time. Ian Harris [Log in to view email]
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I was given an Express in very poor condition earlier this summer, and since replaced every stick of wood in it down to the keel. It now looks very beautiful, and my ten year old son and I are having great fun learning to sail in it. There was a badge on the deck, now mostly illegible, but I can read the following: Sail no. K274, Mould no. 12256 and 4/77 (could this be the date it was made). I tried to find out a bit about it by posting a message on the reader to reader board of Practical Boat Owner. Somebody replied that it was designed by Gordon Harris of Pegasus Yachts in Lowestoft any relation? I was curious to know if I was missing some sort of base plate for fixing the mast foot to the keel. When I got it, there were just two steel screws 1/2 proud of the keel to prevent the mast from sliding backwards or forwards. Being a complete novice at both sailing and boat building, I just copied what I saw. Since then I capsized the boat and the mast foot came out! I have now improvised a pair of little blocks of teak that seem to be keeping it in place. I have what I take to be the original sails, which are fine if a little scruffy. There is no sheave on the mast for a spinnaker, which seems strange given the chute under the deck. I am intrigued to know a little more about them, so any info would be appreciated Im told that if I can sail it, Ill be able to sail anything. It is certainly quite fast and seems quite unforgiving of mistakes we get quite wet! Jonathan Mason
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I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the Express. My father is the designer, we used to have K2 but he sold it 20years ago and I thought it would be a good idea to try and find it (so I can teach my youngsters to sail too) In the mean time I have found a few other enthusiasts still using the Express. The sails were white main, dark blue jib and red spinnaker, it is exactly the same size as one from a GP14, so you may find a 2nd hand one to fit quite easily. The mast and boom were supplied as tubes that the owners put the extrusions on themselves, so the boat you have may never have had the spinnaker gear fitted. The Tube for the kite is obviously moulded in to all the boats. The little plaque does tell you when it was built, I will ask about the mould reference and may be ablle to tell you where it was from too. The mast heel with 2 screws in it sounds very dodgy. I cannot remember how it went exactly but you should make sure it is secure. If the mast came out during a capsize (and you will in a blow!!) then it may be that your rigging isn't tight enough. Again I will ask my father and see what he says about it. (Have you got the string halyards or wire?? the original rope kit supplied as new was never really good enough, and 25yrs on a change in string technology could work wonders for the boat) A brief history for you, Gordon Harris, MD of Pegasus Yachts, designed the Express back in the early 70's ( he headed the marine section of Rydgeway group) to avoid a 25%luxury goods tax placed by the government. Boats obviously were seen as a bit of a luxury, but the raw materials not so. So the Express was designed to be built at home. Having hired the moulds, you just rolled up your sleeves and layed it up. The mast was a tube, the fittings came it sets and the wood bits as wood not decks or transoms. Loads of schools built them as projects too. They reached about 8-900 in number eventually being built by Anglo marine. Over time they did all the things to the boat that the designer had wanted to change, like the addition of fiberglass foredecks and GRP centerplate cases. But I'm not sure they have the special Express badge on the foredeck! The Express will get a bit excitable at the end of a screaming reach, remember to keep your weight well aft. If you get the Kite going it will make the whole thing 2x as quick and more stable, untill you come to take it all down. Make sure all the kite downhaul etc can be worked from the back of the boat. Its all due too the fine forward sections. You will get the hang of it. Remember that the chap who designed it can't swim! and I only remember being the wrong way up a few times (aged 12) Jonathon please keep in touch, Can you tell me anymore about your boat? and where you sail her? Thanks for your time, and thankyou for keeping one going. Yours Ian
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Thankyou for your info. I may be able to find out who the original owner was for this boat. Cheers Ian
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Thanks for all the info on the express. I'm sailing mine out of Rush Sailing Club in North County Dublin. The club is located in the channel at the mouth of Rogerstown Estuary, just opposite Lambay Island. There is quite a GP14 contingent, so I'm interested that the sails are interchangable. We have tremendous tidal currents in the channel, with strings of moored cruisers to make it into an obstacle course. You may only remember capsizing once or twice, but we do it a lot! All the best, Jonathan
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I bought an Express from a friend a couple of years ago - sail number K223. You're right, it's a great little boat. I've been giving it a lot of TLC this season because it was in fairly poor condition. I was interested to read a bit of history elsewhere in this discussion as I haven't been able to find much about the Express before. Andrew Wyss [Log in to view email]
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I have just aquired an Express and like yours it needs all the wood changing. Just wondered if you have any advice or plans so that my job is easier!! Geoff Kirkham [Log in to view email]
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I don't have any plans I'm afraid. When I started mine I had no knowledge of sailing and no experience of working with boats either, but I did get some good advice on materials from an old boy in Rush (Peter Dunne) who has been building boats for fifty years and from the dinghy supply shop where I bought all the bits and pieces. One thing I learned was that West Epoxy is great stuff - cover everything with it before you fix it in. I took a great deal of care in taking the old bits out, so that I could duplicate them accurately. If I were starting again now I would be a little more 'gung-ho' about redesigning details and would have used less screws and relied more on West Epoxy. It all inevitably involved a lot of head scratching. Here are a few issues, which came up, that might save you some hair! In my boat, the holes for the pivot bolt on the centre board were supported on the inside of the casing by small blocks of wood glued to the ply. Forward of these were two triangles of timber on either side of a vertical extension of the keel. These three formed the front end of the casing. One of the blocks had fallen out at some point, so that the bolt for the centreboard had been tightened against only 6mm ply on one side, causing it to crack. When I replaced all this I fixed the blocks to the triangles with a mortice and tennon joint to prevent the same thing happening again. Whether this was part of the original design, or just a little shaving on materials in the construction of my boat, I don't know, but if I were doing it again I would simply make one rectangular piece on either side of the keel, extending back far enough to support the bolt holes and trimmed at the bottom to fit the hull moulding. The side panels of the casing slot down into the hull moulding, (where they need to be sealed in with black rubbery sealant, which you will get in any dinghy supply shop) and the screws for the aluminium keel band screw up into them. The 6mm ply seemed very narrow to me, so I glued a second narrow strip (15mm deep) of ply to the inside, with a chamfered lower edge coming down to the top of the slot in the hull moulding. I spent a lot of time getting the curve of the bottom edge of the side panels right, to match the bottom of the hull (using the same technique one uses for trimming floor tiles when you come up against a wall!). One other issue was the transom, which was extremely rotten, but difficult to remove, as it had been fixed on with rusty galvanised butterfly bolts. Inside the buoyancy tank at the stern, there was originally a piece of marine ply to fix into from the outside - this had rotted away. I put a circular hatch into this space (closed with a standard screw up hatch cover) allowing me to replace this with a piece of well epoxied, 20mm teak. One point, which nearly caught me out was the need to place the vertical piece of the transom off centre, to allow clearance for the drain plug in my hull. This may not be the same in your hull, but in mine it meant placing the gudgeon off centre on the upright, in order to be central to the boat. Rather than screw fix the transom to the stern, I used long bolts to fix the gudgeon, bolted right through timber fixed inside the buoyancy tank. The other problem I had was with footing the mast on the keel (see earlier in this discussion). After the mast popped out in a capsize, I strengthened the mast foot by fixing two blocks of wood to the keel, fitting snugly fore and aft of the mast. This has been fine so far. One thing I'm still struggling with is the rudder / tiller arrangement. The downhaul was fitted with shock line, which did not work at speed - I found myself surfing on waves with the tiller bending like a bow! I replaced this with line, and promptly broke the dowel which the downhaul passed over to keep it out of the way of the upper gudgeon fitting (it passes over the gudgeon, out to a hook underneath the tiller). I have decided to replace this, and to fit a second dowel with a metal sleeve, bringing the downhaul up over the top of the tiller, to a self release clamcleat on the top, which can serve both the up and downhaul. You may well not wish to know any of this, but there might be something useful in it somewhere! If you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask. Good luck with the work. Jonathan
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dated 1979 which gives the original owner as C Reeder of Cravens SC. The boat was called Morag II. Ian
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and was owned by John Anderson, but I do not know his sailing club. Ian
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Thanks for all the advice, its more than I ever expected. I to am new to sailing and need all the help I get get. The transom on my boat is OK but the centreboard casing is shot. I can measure the sizes and shape from the old one though. The blocks you talk about are the same in mine and I will look at doing the same as you. The mast to keel was a problem that I could not get my head round, thanks for your advice I will do the same. No doubt I will be asking you for lots more advice. Thanks again. Geoff [Log in to view email]
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The Express I have aquired was built by Culcheth High School Sailing Club in 1976. It was supplied by Express Boating and the sail No. is K163. All this info is on a small metal label on the wooden cover for the Spinnaker chute. Culcheth High is situated between Warrington and Leigh in Lancashire. Geoff
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I was given an Express by my aunty last year its K8. Its in great condition both hullwise and sails wise and has a spinny. Ive only sailed it about 5 times as yet but am about to embark on a winter race series with one of my sons.It sails really well and reminds me very much of the National 12s I used to sail in my youth. Having only been out in a Force 4 I havent managed to invert it YET ! although my son nearly did when he had a helm. Do they turn turtle easily ? and how full (swamped) do they get after a swim ? With regard to the mast foot questions on earlier threads, mine does not have any For / aft stops for the mast. The slot in the base of the mast just sits on top of the hog but I would be surprised if it could "jump" this step. Has any one got any advice on spinny set up as I am not quite sure how to rig it as none of my previous boats have had one. I sail at Roa Island Boat Club near Barrow-In_Furness Simon.
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On E bay there is an Express for sale at the moment. only £50 no bids yet, I am tempted to get another one. Simon
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Geoff from above. I sail from Arnside and visit Piel and the pub regularly in a Trident 24 - Sandpiper. Will be sailing the Express K163 when it is restored. Great character behind the bar in your club by the way, what a nice guy. Geoff
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Being a very inexperienced sailor I have capsized my boat regularly! I sail in Rush Sailing Club in North Co. Dublin, where there is a narrow channel into Rogerstown Estuary and hence a very strong tidal rip. The combination of wind and tide has caused the mast to go down on two occasions, but even in such conditions it takes time to go beyond the horizontal. On both occasions it happened because we were being swept into moored boats so fast that we couldn't right it quickly. When she does come up, she needs a little bailing, but nothing too serious - one can sail on reasonably well immediately. Jonathan
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this boat was called exresso and was owned by a Mr Burlison. We don't really remember this chap even though he had an early boat. Re spinnaker. halyard starts at the downhaul patches in the kite, inward then outside the lower part of the sail, then it goes down under the alloy rail in the bow, through the chute, and over the thwart (we think) to the twin wheeled sheath in the back of the centerplate case. It then runs back to the mast through the hell sheathes and up to the kite exit. There is a bulls eye on the case under the capping which the line should run through (on the way down?) to help keep it all tidy in there. A clam cleat on the top of the case is the spinnaker halyard cleat. The pole uphaul downhaul was a shock chord and line, the line had two knots in it to stop the pole falling deckbound, the shock went up the mast to an eye and back down to a fix point. The line came down to an eye on the foredeck. Perhaps you could up date this and make it a little more adjustable. We are scanning the original build plans and when I have them I will post them here. Happy sailing... Oh and when it is upsidedown there is a big flared lip all round the boat to stand on, so its quite easy. The bailers seemed to work quite well I remember. Cheers Ian
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