09-04-2010
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overdue at Sans Souci
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Midland Ontario
Posts: 167
Rep Power: 5
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I've had a Walker Bay 8 for quite a few years. This summer I decided to do a sailing conversion. My club's junior program was getting rid of some old Optis so I bought a rig with sail, rudder and daggerboard. I needed to add a plate to the transom to mount the rudder, and the Opti daggerboard was surprisingly oversized. I had to cut its chord length down by several inches to get it into the slot. The mast step was a semi-elaborate construction using pvc plumbing. The Opti sailplan was a little low for the Walker, and would have been like tacking a Finn. Given how much smaller the board area was, I presumed I could get rid of some sail area. A friend with an industrial sewing machine who does canvas work removed a lower panel so the boom could be raised.
After all that, I've hardly had time to use the rig. In hindsight, I'm not sure I'd remove the panel again. Its windward ability may be a little theoretical. Instead I would increase the rig height by lengthening the mast. But since the whole experiment cost me $75 to get the old Opti bits from the club and then a handful of dollars for plumbing parts and hardware, it's been an interesting experiment. If you can get your hands on some leftover Opti stuff, it's worth pursuing.
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"Diva"
C&C 27 Mk 1
Midland Bay Sailing Club
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It did add the stability I was looking for but the cost and aggravation was not worth it. This was back on my previous C320 and when I bought the Nauticat it came with a dingy so I ended up selling the Walker Bay.
