Dart 15 Forums

Benny wrote:

Help me! I have just bought a Dart 15, but I have never sailed this boat before. I presume that when you buy a new Dart you get an instruction how to rig and sail it. Is there anyone that can help me with a tip how I can find one?

George Stephen replied:

Benny,

When I bought my (used) Dart 15 I too didn't think to ask for a rigging manual. As it happened, I roof-racked it that night to a Dart15 Teach In where I learned quite a lot (but not that such a document existed!). I made do by buying a copy of Brian Phipps "Catamaran" book. I can't remember who I got my rigging manual copy from - it's only 18 A4 pages (photocopied double sided), and a cover copy with no useful info. Laser Centre supply the real thing, but at a ludicrous price. You might even find that the seller of your cat can find his/her copy for you, as well as the measurement certificate which will show the hull numbers (useful when you have to order matching colour gelcoat for minor repairs.....

Otherwise I suggest you contact someone local to you - a fellow club member, maybe - who can also help out in the practical matters. If you do get such help, try to DO EVERYTHIMG when you put it together, albeit listening to the advice given. Don't let them do things for you or you 'll be pushed to remember how at a later time. If they're any good, you'll also get quite a lot of all those practical tips that the manuals never mention.

Depending on your overall sailing experience, you can consider buying Phipps book (good for basic cat sailing instruction, but not very good on downwind una-rigged D15 sailing - see Tips in the D15 site plus some advice buried in the Chat pages) or learn from another D15 sailor/ the D15 Teach In or Kim Furniss book which contains a lot of useful help of a more advanced nature (but again short on specific una-rigged D15 advice).

VERY briefly and assuming that you have some monohull sailing experience and that you will sail singlehanded, D15s can be sailed like dinghies EXCEPT that :

You have to be much more positive when tacking, which will take much longer than for a dinghy of the same length because of the resistance of the water on the long thin deep hulls. Always try to tack at speed - if you've already luffed up and slowed down, bear away to get up speed and then start the tack with a steadily pushed (but not jerked) movement of the tiller extension. (If you do sail with the jib, leave it cleated on the old tack to start to push the bows round for a very short time before uncleating it and re-sheeting/cleating on the new tack.) Don't be surprised or discouraged if you end up in irons a lot to start with - you get out by reversing the rudders and slackening the main
sheet as you go backwards, before straightening the rudders and pulling in the main sheet to get going again. If it's very windy, so that you beat to windward with the traveller let out a lomg way, pull the traveller in as you go into the tack to maintain the airflow over the mainsail and hence boatspeed into the tack, but remember to let the traveller back out on the new tack.

It's best to sail una-rigged to start with, so you've got less to think about and do. This means that when you sail offwind you don't follow the usual cat procedure of very broad reaching plus gybes (tacking in reverse), you sail almost, but not quite dead down wind (this is probably the most difficult to do well - best ask the National Champion).

If you do sail with the jib, then offwind you generally do broadreach and gybe to reach your downwind objective. It is a matter of judging the best overall downwind rate of progress, not just overall speed, reacting to shifts in wind direction and strength continuously to maintain the best possible progress.

If you want to sprint (singlehanded with jib and trapeze), get in some trapezing practice by crewing for someone on, say, a Dart18, or get someone to be on the D15 with you. Some "dryland" practice helps. Remember you need to be an octopus to sprint, and any shortage of limbs below eight means making other limbs, especially hands, do rather more than one thing at a time.

On going faster, D15s seem to go best with an upright mast (there is a school of thought that says "rake the mast back in stronger winds to reduce the power of the rig", but I've given this up in favour of letting the traveller out). But all seem to agree that you should sit well enough forward to keep the transoms just clear of the water (to minimise drag and get the immersed waterline as lomng as possible to help ointing to windward) except in waves (when the bow will dig in too much and slow you down) and/or stronger winds when you shift further back, right back on a broad reach or a run to keep the bows from digging in - you can pitchpole or cartwheel a D15).

When una-rigged, reckon to have on maximum downhaul when beating/reaching, loosening a bit when running or when sailing in very light winds. Initially, just tension the battens in the main - don't bother about more tension for force 3 to 4 until your other skills mean you can really use the extra performance.

I choose to have the mast close to vertical, with just enough slack in the rig to allow the mast to rotate through 90 degrees.

You should be confident about recovering from a capsize. At the earliest suitable opportunity (ie with knowing presence of your club rescue boat and experienced advice) you should deliberately capsize and undertake a recovery from complete inversion. There is a recent series in the Chat pages on this, where some particular issues got discussed that don't normally even get raised. Beware of righting advice from Hobie 16 sailors - it's not usually quite right for Darts.

Good Luck, Good Choice of boat!

George

Bob replied:

Hi Benny, where do you plan to sail the Dart 15. I can probably get someone to show you what to do if you are near some of our members.
Cheers
Bob Carter - events secretary.
PS We will be running a training course at Stewartby,Beds on 27& 28 April next year which you should try and attend, but we should get you going before then.
PPS You should have received a blue ring-binder with your boat. It has a parts list and rigging instructions inside.