Print

[floatyourboat]

Recently returned to dinghy sailing after a 40 year break, looking for a single hander with a spacious cockpit and have been pointed towards a wooden Phantom.

Briefly, do the wooden Phantoms have more cockpit space than the plastic fantastics?  or maybe it depends upon who built them.

I am too tall and too heavy for a Laser, and a lot less agile/supple than when I sailed before.  I am looking for legroom and space between the floor and the boom.  I want to race socially rather than out and out warfare, our club sails on an inland river with the usual mix of dead patches, gusty patches, variable wind direction and restricted space.  Plenty of tacking, little planing, nowhere to get a good speed and hold it.

What are your thoughts?

float...

[JeremyH]

There are various options with variations of cockpit depth.   Most standard moulds of epoxy are full double skin but there are a number of composite builds with expoxy hull and wooden deck with either deep floor or partial deep floor from middle to three quarters area ( i think JJ Boats website shows some good pictures of these options.)   To be honest, I am 6'3" and grossly overweight and have no problem getting under the boom in a 'normal' double floored epoxy boat.   More of a concern to me was  having to kneel a lot downwind which played havoc with my knees, even with vollyball kneepads (a must) but since i got a thwart (several aftermarket available), I am a very happy sailor :-).   I believe the semi deep cockpit are also much more comfy downwind.
Where are you based?  Good idea is to visit a club with a few to see what options are available.

Good luck .... you would not regret getting a phantom.

[floatyourboat]

thanks for your quick response JH.  I am based near to Reading, Berks.  There are three wooden hulled Phantoms at our club which I have seen in use from time to time, at least two of them are single skinned on the bottom.  I did get to see a polyester boat, which had just been sold, while we were on a short vacation in Somerset but it was too far (time and distance) from seeing a wooden one for me to judge the comparative cockpit space.  Basically, if the double skinned plastic boats are not significantly smaller in the cockpit space then my choice gets bigger (and option paralysis sets in) and I would lean towards the lower numbered epoxy boats.  All of the likely ones (apolloduck and here) seem to be a bit far away for me to just pop over and have a look one evening.

I wonder how deep the double skinned bottom is?

I like the idea of a thwart.

float...

[JeremyH]

Hi Float,
double bottom is about 5-6" deep   A look at the photos on the JJ boats website will give you a good idea.   From Reading, there are a few phantoms a Frensham (usually on Saturdays) and you would be able to look at a composite with full single floor, Epoxy and epoxy with Thwart (Mine).   If you fancied a trip to Stone in Essex 5-7/9 when nationals are on you will get to see most variants and chat to many with opinions.

Let me know if you want to pop down to Frensham (45 mins from Reading) somtime for a look / chat.

[floatyourboat]

droool, droooooool, some good looking boats on the JJ site.  Up until now I had been avoiding the composite boats.  I sort of thought that you either accepted a cheap wooden boat and took it home to strip, fix and re-varnish over the winter or you paid a bit more for plastic and just washed it down, tied it down and forgot about it through the winter months.  It seemed that composite boats might have the worst of both worlds, pay more and do heavy maintenance.

I am a bit tied up for the next couple of Saturdays but I note your offer and might yet take you up on it.  At least you didn't suggest Frensham on a Sunday.  Having joined my club late in the season and got involved in some racing I find that I need to race every Sunday to stand a chance in any of the cups.  I still won't have a full race card in some cups but I should reach the required number to qualify.

float...

[jjthefridge]

Hi,
  I sail at Dittasham on river dart, so very similar area, seems boat is brilliant on rivers, I'm 6' 1'' I've got an epoxy boat and find it very comfortable, but I know from sailing single skin wooden boat plenty of leg room, but don't rule out grp boats, they are surprisingly easy, trouble is on knee's a lot.

hope it helps.

jeremy

[gordon Kingston]

Hi Float
I think there are a few boats at Burghfield which is just south of Reading found out what evening they sail and pop along to have a look.
Frensham certainly worth going to see Jeremy and co a very helpful bunch.
Regards
Gordon

[floatyourboat]

will there be any Phantoms in action at Frensham this Saturday?  JeremyH? anyone else?  My reading of the club calendar suggests that there may be,

float...

[floatyourboat]

Hi everyone.  I might be coming around to the idea of an epoxy boat as the advice on here usually suggests.  Two things have happened to cause this;

1) a wooden Phantom in my club suffered from a disintegrating centreboad casing a couple of weeks ago.  This happened just before the start of a race in relatively calm conditions.  I don't know if he caught the bottom of the river or if it just broke.  As I hold the record for the most capsizes per hour of sailing it occurred to me that a centreboard that comes off in your hand may not be the thing to have while trying to get a boat back upright in the water.

2) my partner observed that the money in the building society was not doing any good.  "Why don't you treat yourself to a better boat rather than one that might be a liability?"  I can't argue with that.

I also had another look at the JJ Boats website, and then I rang them for advice.  It would seem that JJ Boats are prepared to take an existing epoxy boat and convert it to their deep cockpit design for a not astronomical price.  That might be the way to go for me.

float....