We took a wee trip over to Scotland on the ferry a couple of days ago (from Northern Ireland) and bought a D17 that had been sailing on Lough Lomond until a few years ago. Since then, she's been sitting on her trailer and gathering green algae. We intend to clean her up and take her sailing around Ireland as often as we can, including some river trips (down the Bank from Lough Neagh to the sea).
The sail number is 61, so I'm guessing she's one of the earlier boats built, and she has a cuddy. Because of her association with Lough Lomond, and our surname (Clan Buchanan consider the area around Lough Lomond their ancestral home) we've decided to call her Clàr Innis, which was supposedly the clan's ancient battle cry.
This is our second D17, but the last one was an open boat. We sold her about 10 years ago and have regretted it ever since, so we've been on the lookout for another one for a while.
Her floor is a bit soggy in places, so the dreaded bulkheads might need some attention, but otherwise she seems in really good condition and has clearly been loved and maintained by someone in the not too distant past. The man we brought her from said her previous owner had died and that the boat had been sold to him by a sailing club on behalf of the owner's widow. Maybe someone on here has seen her when she was still being sailed? I'll try to put some photos up on the website once I've figured out how!
Anyone still sailing a D17?
Re: Anyone still sailing a D17?
Still sailing D17
Hello yes still sailing my dockrell 17 you can see her in the photos called Trug and based in Cornwall near to Plymouth. I had her built in 1986 . A young man then. Having known Bolton Dockrell and having many a conversation with him I know he sold a few D17s to a sail training school in Northern Ireland so there must be some left over in your home waters. Good luck with your soggy decking. Al.
Hello yes still sailing my dockrell 17 you can see her in the photos called Trug and based in Cornwall near to Plymouth. I had her built in 1986 . A young man then. Having known Bolton Dockrell and having many a conversation with him I know he sold a few D17s to a sail training school in Northern Ireland so there must be some left over in your home waters. Good luck with your soggy decking. Al.
Re: Anyone still sailing a D17?
That’s amazing! How wonderful to have had the boat from new and still be sailing her.
We’ve had a couple of wee outings in Clàr Inis so far, and modified the trailer with guides for easy retrieval. She’s a dream to sail and so stable! I’d forgotten how rewarding Dockrells are to sail, and she’s as comfortable as our long keel Barbican 33 in terms of moving around, but so much easier to raise and lower sails.
The only slight reservation we have is the cuddy. It makes raising and lowering the foresail difficult, so we’ll either try to source a furling system or (more likely) make the cuddy removable. It needs to be removed to sort out the joint between it and the hull anyway, so we might try a season as an open boat before deciding if we’ll put it back on!
You’re right about the sail training Dockrells. Our first one had been part of that fleet, and my husband actually learned to sail in one of them on Strangford Lough as a boy.
Trug looks beautiful. I like the red trim.
How do I go about putting photos on the website?
We’ve had a couple of wee outings in Clàr Inis so far, and modified the trailer with guides for easy retrieval. She’s a dream to sail and so stable! I’d forgotten how rewarding Dockrells are to sail, and she’s as comfortable as our long keel Barbican 33 in terms of moving around, but so much easier to raise and lower sails.
The only slight reservation we have is the cuddy. It makes raising and lowering the foresail difficult, so we’ll either try to source a furling system or (more likely) make the cuddy removable. It needs to be removed to sort out the joint between it and the hull anyway, so we might try a season as an open boat before deciding if we’ll put it back on!
You’re right about the sail training Dockrells. Our first one had been part of that fleet, and my husband actually learned to sail in one of them on Strangford Lough as a boy.
Trug looks beautiful. I like the red trim.
How do I go about putting photos on the website?
Re: Anyone still sailing a D17?
Mine is in Saltash, down South. Used all year round, love taking her to sea around the Eddystone and back! Such a lovely boat, and gets many admiring looks and comments from owners sailing by in their rather £££ yacht!
Re: Anyone still sailing a D17?
Yes. I wanted a boat to keep on a mooring in my local harbour, to use myself (and with/by my son) and also to take the Sea Scouts out in. They currently have Picos, which are great when they can sail, but not easy to teach complete novices in. Also, we can't launch, sail, and retrieve dinghies in the time available of an evening, and the harbour charges £16 (I think) for each launch, so very expensive for a handful of boats with one scout in for an hour. The Dockrell is very stable, very simple, very forgiving and big enough for a few Scouts and a Leader to fit in at once. However, because she's ballasted, I can't take Scouts in the Dockerell on my Dinghy permit, so I'm out practicing for a keelboat assessment. Been reefing, anchoring, and trying to figure out the transition between motoring and sailing.
Re: Anyone still sailing a D17?
I would like to get the hang of sailing the Dockrell single handed. To date, we have been motoring clear of the harbour, and one of having one of us hold her to windward whilst the another hoists the main. She has a lee helm, and will naturally bear away if I leave the helm to go forward and sort the sails, so I can't figure out how to do it on my own. The best idea so far is to put out a sea-anchor from the bow. This would hold her to wind whilst I get the sail up, but seems like a 'faff.'
Do Dockrells generally have lee helm? I wonder whether there's something wrong - perhaps a chunk missing from the centreboard or something like that. She also points really badly -today a Drascombe Lugger was about 20 degrees tighter to the wind then we could get. A damaged centreboard could perhaps explain both the poor windward performance and the lee helm. Perhaps I should dive beneath and check it.
Do Dockrells generally have lee helm? I wonder whether there's something wrong - perhaps a chunk missing from the centreboard or something like that. She also points really badly -today a Drascombe Lugger was about 20 degrees tighter to the wind then we could get. A damaged centreboard could perhaps explain both the poor windward performance and the lee helm. Perhaps I should dive beneath and check it.