boats kidsandsailpram

Theres an interesting variation of the modest rowing pram and it is the sailing pram. It has, at one time or another, been a class of racing yacht at the Olympics, though its popularity as a one person sailboat has been supplanted by the Lightning.The sail pram, though, is a weatherly little craft that can handle far more than people think it can. When we were younger, in fact, we did have a sail pram that we spent time working on. Of course, it was in our younger days, and time has a funny way of rounding the edges of the things, but we do remember the fun we had scuttling around the inlets and harbors near Boston, where we grew up, in an eight-footer. It was built from a kit our Dad bought for us.Building it was all he more fun because as boys of 8 or 9 it really didnt matter to us if we happened to walk into the kitchen covered with marine primer after a good paint fight (our Mom didnt speak to us for days) and as has already been discussed in using a motorized pram building a pram is a rather straightforward affair.The smallest of the keelboats, it draws less than a foot of water so you can bring it quite close to shore without munching up the bottom too badly.When we laid it out on the sawhorses in the driveway (this is where Dad got upset with us because he couldnt put the station wagon in his parking space as we converted it to our boatyard. He neednt have worried because we had the keel and frame laid and toenailed up within a couple of days, adding the stern and bow pieces as soon as we could for stability.Indeed, building the pram was a pretty straightforward affair until we got to the more complicated parts. The hull panels went together very neatly and, of course, my brothers left it to me to caulk the seams. They always had this knack of disappearing when there was real work to be done (spending hours on your hands and knees caulking the seams wasnt a picnic). The same was true of the painting and of the more complex building parts.Because it was a keelboat the sail pram would have been pushed wherever the wind decided to push it, no matter where we set the daggerboard holder and dagger board, as well as the rudder.Maybe it was because I didnt mind working with those things and handtools, I really didnt mind building the frame for the daggerboard and I didnt mind building the tiller and rudder and setting the brasswork. It also meant that instead of waiting forever for the work to be done, it was done properly and quickly.The daggerboard holder was built into the tiny crafts hull just behind the point where we stepped the single mast of the cat-rigged pram. Because it was such a small boat, the brass boom slide and holder was easy to mount to the mast and, of course, they left me alone to dress the sail and finish any last-minute adjustments to the daggerboard holder and tiller. When it came time to put her into the water for her first shakedown they even let me do that as they figured they owed it to me, I guess.Still after a couple of days in the water, the hull had absorbed all of the water it was going to absorb and the wood had swollen so now she was ready to sail and when I wanted to sail her, my brothers just were not to be found and neither was the little sail pram.As all little boys do, I complained to our parents and, lo and behold, I actually did get to sail her on a bunch of rather nice days. My brothers never wanted to take her out unless the weather was fair so I was always the one who proved she was a weatherly little craft, which she was.We had a couple of good summers out of that small sail pram but a late summer hurricane in the late 1950s put an end to her. All we ever found, aside from the sail was one sidepiece and the tiller. And that was the end of our sail pram. But, while we had her she was a trim little boat that ran nicely close to the wind (or as close as we could get it) and we always did remember to pull up the dagger board when we reached the beach near our home. Fortunately I was a rather strong kid and I could actually lift her onto the trolley we used ourselves to bring it home and put it back into dads parking space, but he understood by then. We were all just as devastated when we lost her to the storm. After that the heart went out of our sailing days and we moved on to bigger boys toys.