"Peter Duck" SF18/227                                     

 

The Sailfish 18 is probably the best of the small trailer-sailers that can be launched, sailed, and retrieved in a single day. In wind and sea conditions that a family would
typically venture, the Sailfish will comfortably out sail other notable boats of the same era, such as the Bradwell 18s, Skipper 17s, Leisure 17s, and Lysanders.
Its lightweight design and well profiled underwater lines allow this boat catch the wind and ghost along when others are whistling GreenSleeves.

  

My Sailfish moored off Wild Cat (Peel) Island on Coniston Water in 2004. She's moored close to a group of submerged rocks requiring both the keel and the rudder to be partially raised. The "Landing Place" featured in the Swallow & Amazons film can be just seen to the bottom right. Children will just love exploring this island! Coniston is just great if you like to mix sailing with hill walking. The main draw back is the poor access to the lake. The Lake District National Park employee at the 'Blue Bird Cafe' launch site padlocks the gate between the road and the lake at 5.30pm.

It's 8.30am on a Saturday morning in June 2004. My Sailfish18  is secure and ready to roll. Instead of ropes, I now use webbing-straps, which are easy to use and get a tight grip on the boat every time. A key to super smooth  family trailer-sailing is to get the boat ready with time to spare, and to then use this time to help your other half with the  sandwich making and getting the children ready.
 

The trailer seen above is the original MAXIM marine trailer (very dinghy like). I've recently spent circa £400 on the components to up-grade with inertia operated brakes, swinging-rollers, and standard sized road tyres.

There's plenty of room in the cabin considering the boat's an 18 footer! The initial  bright sparten look helps to maintain an airy feel when the cabin's full of kit. The children like it best when  the forward hatch is removed. The foredeck and cabin become their den when  underway. Some stowage netting around the sides would be nice to have.

 I removed the keel in order to overhaul the lifting mechanism and to search for possible cracks in the keel housing. Water had been seeping through the hull and wetting our clothes stored under the quarter berths. The water would eventually pass into the storage area under the companion way steps and slosh around among our provisions. After a thorough inspection of the keel housing  no obvious damage was found - it all looked well constructed. I finally discovered the water coming in through small holes where screws had fallen out. The missing screws were those meant to fasten the brass rubbing strips to the skeg.  Amazingly, I was able to blow into one of the holes with ease. Well, if air can get in, then I suppose water can too!

Note the improvised tool to relocate the keel back in its housing. It worked a treat!

Sailing back into the mouth of Loch Sween after a trip out in the Sound of Jura (August 79). The crossing of the Sound of Jura to Lowland Man's Bay is an excellent mini sea crossing for a reasonably experienced lake or inshore sailor.  These days you will probably have a GPS receiver/3G mobile telephone providing additional comfort when the coast looks far away. Needless to say the Sailfish 18 is the ideal vessel in which to complete such a mini cruise.

The 3/4' 316 stainless threaded shaft, seen above, is perfectly capable of holding its 250lbs keel. A drawing found in the 1976 Sailfish association handbook shows the keel filled with foam above the lead ballast. I found mine to be hollow above the lead ballast,  and that, on the water, it slowly fills adding a bit of extra weight when needed. I must say that I was amazed at how well the marine grade stainless steel parts had endured over the boat's 28 years.

An engine crane is used to raise the Sailfish on to my home-made supports.  The 3"x3"x 8' length of timber used to create the cradle cracked noisily when the weight was taken up. To the resue came an old 20lb weight-training bar, which when lashed parallel to the timber, pulled the boat up without a murmer.

After cleaning and sanding the keel, I applied a coat of West System epoxy over damaged areas. Some more serious fibreglass repair-work was required where the keel had hit the bottom and got pushed back into the casing, and where the two moulded halves were coming apart. Finally my keel got a coat of International Brightside polyurathane paint.  The coupling  fastening the keel to the crane was fabricated from some scrap metal. Having the keel hanging in mid air helped make life much easier.

This is the much discussed Sailfish keel lifting mechanism. An engineer (who kindly helped me source a replacement thrust-bearing) assures me that this marine grade (316) stainless steel component is capable of carrying significantly more weight than that imposed by the 250 pound SF18 keel. However, a design vunerability exists in that the nut and locking-pin at the top of the long screw serves not only to lift and lower the keel but also to keep the keel in the boat. Forcing the crank-handle transfers all the strain onto the 2mm diameter locking-pin that fastens the nut to the main shaft. If the handle refuses to move, the keel is either fully up or down. By forcing the handle you are, in effect, trying to severe the locking-pin between the main nut and screw shaft. Needless to say that when the nut comes away  the keel drops away!  As the story goes, back in the industrially turbulent 70s, the builders couldn't lay their hands on the required marine grade stainless steel (critical to this light weight design), and unfortunately a small number of boats were allowed to leave the yard with a low grade alternative. One or two of these boats, after a couple of years on the sea, lost their keels suddenly. The Sailfish Association provides a  'belts and braces' modification incorporating a safety chain that stops the keel from falling away should the nut come off. There should be no question now of this boat being equally as safe as any other boat its category.

My father's brand new Sailfish (705) is launched for its maiden voyage on Morecambe Bay in May 1979. As you can see, family and friends helping with the launch (including me in the white T-Shirt) are usually accustomed to un-hitching a dinghy at the top of the slipway and man-handled to the water. Yes, some habits die-hard. Strangely enough, lessons were learnt from the speed boat fraternity. These guys could nonchalantly, and whilst puffing on an 'Embassy No .6',  launch a 21 foot boat with a six cylinder Mercury towering over the transom, in a near instantaneous Transit Van assisted action.

Was this a pleasant evening on Loch Sween in August 1979 where a passing boat kindly  photographed our Sailfish? Well, not really. I was ordered into the Avon with a camera and instructions to finish up the roll. I think you'll agree though, it wasn't a bad idea.