Detuning a Penultimate International 14?

[Multiple edits desperately trying and failing to fix the formating...]

Hi all,

 I would like to get your feedback on a somewhat weird idea:

We are looking for a dinghy for sailing on a little local gravel pit with the usual “all-over-the-place” wind.

 Requirements

- Selfdraining, center/daggerboard close to the water when capsized, low tendency to turtle for capsizing fun with the kids

- Sufficient buoyancy to support 180 kg crew without excessively dragging transom in light airs when sailing with friends

- Single trapeze to entertain kid (when sailing with one adult, not the whole family at the same time)

- Cheap “beach toy”, we got another dinghy for “serious” (whatever that means ) sailing

- Sail area big enough to keep moving in light airs

-  Sail area small enough to not require trapezing 

- Overall sailing weight light enough to launch/retrieve with one adult only

 The cheap “local” dinghies (e.g. “Korsar”, “Pirat”, “Yxilon” in Germany mostly lack the doublefloor and/or are too heavy. “British” "family" dinghies like RS Vision are rare and priced accordingly 

However due to the strong international 14 class association there are quite a few outdated international 14s around and now a 1987 Ovington Benedict 4 is offered for little money.

It would already bring a (relatively) low weight, double floor, absence of side tanks and trapezes with it.

Would it make any sense to cut down the (aluminum) Rigg by  3 foot (or 4 foot if someone changed it to a “big rig”) and look for some smaller/not fully-battened/second hand sails of e.g. an 470 to make it somewhat more “manageable”? (Including some flotation in the mast top when sailing with a kid, the gravel pit is way to small to make the risk of the capsized boat drifting away too quickly an issue...)

Int14s are generally supposed to support more crew weight than say an RS500 or a 29er, does anyone remember if this specific design did?

Thank you!

PS: I do have a soft spot for international 14s but not enough to think an arbitrary Penultimate with clapped out sails is worth saving/maintaining it as “int14”

Edited by skslr - 18 Mar 21 at 10:56am

I think you may be asking the impossible. ISO or L4k could be an option but they're never going to be family boats and anything roomy enough for there or four is going to be too big for one and a child.

Nothing wrong with getting out on the water in anything, but;-

Fore and aft balance is IMHO greatly exaggerated. Look at the number of one design classes with sails that barely fit the boat since rake has been increased so much since the designer drew it. On a modern dinghy side load is shared between rudder and daggerboard. Move the rig back and forward and the helm completely automatically increases or reduced the angle of incidence of the rudder by a fraction to compensate.

The N12 rig on a 14 mentioned above (which I set up for him) is perfectly satisfactory - indeed to my astonishment even the jib sheeting angle was good and it didn't even need a barber hauler added. I'd be mildly surprised if a 470 rig didn't do a good job. I think I'd try and source a complete rig rather than chop up the 14 spars though. A 29er rig might be the best option, but more trouble to find than a 470.


Edited by JimC - 18 Mar 21 at 2:32pm

Out of interest what is the number?  I had two