Disco Turtle Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Howdy. Not sure if there is anyone here. Just picked myself up a Windrush 14 with mainsail and jib for $600. Jib fittings need attention, but I can do without a jib to begin with. I used to have a Windrush 12 about 25 years ago, and I remember it to be awesome fun. Since then I've not owned a sailing craft, so i figured I can't go wrong with a Windrush 14 as a reintroduction. I don't plan on racing it. Just sailing it with my wife, and kids on the bay. Maybe some of the larger lakes around the place. I'm in Geelong. I've found a pretty good video on Youtube on how to set up a Trac 14, which I'm guessing is very similar if not identical, and it doesn't seem too tricky. I do have a couple of questions though. Back 25 years ago, I was a much youger, and foolhardy man, so if it was blowing a gale, I'd still go out cos back then, flipping upside down, and zooming along on 1 hull was all part of the fun. Now days I'm a little less brave, and much less resilient as far as the body bouncing goes, so my first question is this. What sort of forecast wind speeds do you recommend as minimum and maximum for a comfortable, relatively stress free day on the water? No doubt I'll have more questions as time goes on, and I've had a good chance to look over my boat better. (picking it up later this week). Hoping someone is here and this site is still active. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darcy1945 Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Occasional whitecaps,10/12kts, OK. wall to wall whitecaps, 18 plus kts, stay on the beach unless rescue boat available (As it would be if club racing). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Turtle Posted January 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Cool, Thankyou. I can deal with that. Not sure there is a club in Geelong for these but will have a look. Is there anyone here from Victoria? Do you know if a trailer that appears to be purpose built for the Windrush actually needs to be registered? The guy I am buying it from said he never registered it, and said he was always told that if it's under 750kg ATM then it doesn't need registering, but I can't find a definitive answer, other than the Vic roads website saying "other than a trailers designed for boats", but it seems to relate more to registered motor vessels and tinnies rather than trailer sailers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darcy1945 Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 I don't know anywhere in Aus ,where anything towed behind a vehicle, does not need to be registered. I would not risk it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rigidigi Posted January 22, 2019 Report Share Posted January 22, 2019 Hi Disco I live and sail at Barwon Heads Sailing Club. We have 7. 14ft windrushs. Races are restricted to high tides lots of fun. Plenty of summer campers have club moorings and store sails in club house. We have mixed fleet with plenty of Lazers too. A couple of hobies and maricat. Plenty of older Skippers. You could see racing there Aust Day Weekend. Portarlington Sailing club on the bay is a Great club as is St. Leonard's. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Turtle Posted February 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2019 Cool. I've worked out how the rigging all works, with some help from the seller. She's ready to put in the water and put through her paces. All I need now is a spare day!! That's the hard part! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Turtle Posted February 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2019 Well, we finally found some time to get her in the water today. It had been about 2 weeks since the seller showed me how all the rigging worked, so when we were on the beach putting it all together, I had forgotten 1 part, so we just did the best we could to make it all secure, and out we went. The part I had trouble with was the Becket Block indicated in the picture. The one that goes from the foot of the mast to about 1/4 of the way along the boom. Couldn't work out A) how it was supposed to stay secure, and B) what it is actually for. I've been watching as many videos as I can, but some don't seem to have it, and others just have it as loose as a goose. Anyone have a photo or instructions on that part for me please? Anyway, we set out from a quiet little beach (near the lagoon at Geelong Grammar for the locals). Winds were light, about 12kts according to my weather app on my phone. We headed out, and hit a sandbar and got stuck. Lol. No big deal. I did see it before we beached on it, but I wasn't sure if we'd get over it or not. We didn't, so out we got, turned her around, and headed in the other direction. Not before catching the edge of the boom in the side of my face! (Nothing major. Just a small cut, but could have been much worse.) After telling the missus all morning to watch the boom so she doesn't get hit in the head! Lol. Around all the moored boats, and into the lagoon we went. We found some shallow areas along the way, with the odd slight scrape of the bottom, but we managed to stay afloat, and picked up some decent (decent for us!) speed. Turned around, and headed back the way we came. Got used to the feeling of when I lost the wind, and the main sail was looking to swing around. All in all a great hour or so on the water, and even managed to land back on the beach EXACTLY where we had set out! Wasn't brave enough to let a hull lift out of the water yet, but no doubt that will come. Another newbie question. The rudders were ridiculously heavy to hold and turn the boat. Are they supposed to be basically vertical in the water, or more trailing out the back? I had them trailing out the back, but am thinking more vertical might make things much lighter. The only issue being, if we sail over a shallow spot, they'll just dig in. Here she is in the water just before we popped our life jackets on and headed out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knobblyoldjimbo Posted February 14, 2019 Report Share Posted February 14, 2019 From a Maricat sailer so observations only. 1. Rudders need to be as far down as possible. On the Maris we have them tucked under a bit. This results in a nice light touch. Going upwind just a little weather helm provides a positive pressure so that if you let go the boat rounds up into the wind. 2. That Becket you mention looks to be a vang. In the Maris nobody uses them any more. I tried for a while and it does provide a small speed improvement dead downwind. Big hassle if there are two people though. It also causes problems if you capsize as it prevents the leech, back of the sail from letting the water out as you right. 3. Cat rigged, or just the mainsail we use two forestays one per hull. This reduces the squeezing of the bows which sometimes causes cracking. We also take the mast more which also helps weather helm by moving the centre of effort back closer to the rudders. I used to fight for last place with an older guy in a windy, his style of coming into shore was full speed and see how far up the beach he got - don't think he liked getting his feet wet! Enjoy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Turtle Posted February 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2019 Thanks for the info. Next time I'll try the rudders down a lot more, and hope I don't rip them off on anything shallow lol. I'll do without that becket. I've seen enough videos of cats without them, that I don't think it will effect my use of the craft. I had assumed there would be a forestay for each hull, and the previous owner mentioned it was rigged for a jib, which i assumed was the reason for the lack of 2 forestays?? I can see how it could cause cracking by squeezing them together. However, I am SURE I read somewhere that nobody uses 2 forestays on W14's anymore. I may be wrong, but I was sure I read it somewhere. About 30 years ago I had a Windrush 12. I loved nothing better than to race into the shore with 1 hull in the air, and beach it that way lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darcy1945 Posted February 15, 2019 Report Share Posted February 15, 2019 The rudders on your boat were only produced for a short time, you won't be able to get spares. The current style lift automatically if they hit anything. And yes, they must be locked hard down to negate heavy helm. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billygoat Posted March 29, 2019 Report Share Posted March 29, 2019 Victoria has weird rules allowing standard 6x4 box trailers to not be registered. The rule is specific to length - a 7x4 needs rego - and I believe a trailer designed to carry a boat is also specifically mentioned as requiring rego. So your cat trailer fails on all fronts, and should be registered. There's enough confusion and apathy about trailer rego in Victoria that you can probably get away with it for a while and plead ignorance. I know of quite a few Victorians whose boat trailers have number plates, but which haven't paid rego in years. Looks official enough, and apparently the fine is comparable to the annual rego cost anyway if you do get pulled up on it. I'm in Ballarat and sail a Maricat. Been meaning to bring it down to the Bay for play but never happened yet. Now I've started Laser racing so the cat isn't getting out much at the moment. Silly slow tippy things these monohulls are... but thats what the local racing scene is about so that's the game I'll play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted December 8, 2019 Report Share Posted December 8, 2019 Hi DT, Your post struck a chord since I am at Barwon Heads and used to sail a Windrush 12 there as a kid (actually called a Surfcat). It was the precurser of the Mk 1 Windrush from the 1970's I believe. My cousin recently gave it to me after faithfully storing it intact for some 30 years. I'm restoring it now and will have some fun re-launching this summer. It looks very like yours even down to the orange stripes but they had quite a different way of fixing the mat frame (4 SS bolts). The stays were different too and the rudders old-school, fixed ply. A few of the fittings need replacing but its in quite a good state for a 45 yo craft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Turtle Posted December 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2019 Hi Sim. Yours looks very similar to mine. Unfortunately I had to sell mine due to moving to a new home, with no room to keep it! Sold it for only $580 I think from memory, but nevermind. I actually bought it with a Point 69 2 man kayak, for $1000, and I still have the kayak, so I actually bought pretty well, and sold reasonably well too, considering the kayak only ended up costing me $420. A fraction of what they go for used these days, I hope you get more use out of yours than I did out of mine. I think I had it in the water 3 times in total, and only the 1st time was there enough wind to get it going lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted January 21, 2020 Report Share Posted January 21, 2020 Hi DT, I have had some fun over summer after a long list of repairs, culminating in a 2.5 hr race up the Barwon. It gets a good handicap because its so old and outlasted some of the more modern cats who broke masts etc. It needed the main pulley replaced, the rudder link bar, the main sheet, all the old rivets to mast & boom, hulls cleaned and filled on the bottom edges, mat relaced, jib has new pulleys to give it a better shape, rust stains removed from sails, top decks polished, etc etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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