Dart 15 Forums

Sail No: 1488
Current Owner: David Ball
Type: Monaco
Name: "That was close!"
Home Club: Marconi SC

I purchased this boat second hand in June 2006 from a sailor at Cardiff Bay. The sail number and colour scheme suggest it was built in 1989.

A new trampoline and larger diameter tracks were purchased from Windsport in Oct 2006. These were fitted by Steve Sawford in Nov/Dec 2006 as part of a general renovation, after which the boat was prettier, drier, stiffer and faster!

As part of this renovation the boat was also renamed from "Screamer's Dance" to "That was close!". The new name was inspired by my then-3-year-old daughter who would utter these words with impeccably amusing timing after any close shave. Origin of the former name is unknown.

At the helm of this boat I have only the Marconi Challenge Cup (annual pursuit race) to my name. I hope to start making Sprint 15 traveller events in 2008 if work and family commitments allow.

I believe the Cardiff owner purchased the boat from somone in the east of England - possibly a member of Grafham Water - circa 2000.

Sold to Dave Land of Seasalter SC in August 2012

I was prompted by an FB post to look back here and realised I missed out some history after making this statement in 2007

At the helm of this boat I have only the Marconi Challenge Cup (annual pursuit race) to my name. I hope to start making Sprint 15 traveller events in 2008 if work and family commitments allow.

I attended 4 una rig nationals in 1488 between 2008 and 2011, including a 2nd place finish at Netley 2010. Also attended a handful of TTs including two wins at the Marconi TT events of 2008 and 2009 (quite windy if I recall).

Here's some additional info from Pete Ansbro via the "Sprint 15 sailors (Dart 15) (Spark)" Facebook group.

Ownership appears to have been:

• From new (~1989) - Pete Ewing (Laser Centre Sales Manager)
  1990s? - Pete Ansbro (Grafham)
  ~2000 - Cardiff Bay sailor
  2006 - David Ball (Marconi SC)
  2012 - Dave Land (Seasalter SC)

Pete Ansbro says:

I'm the Grafham sailor. I did a few traveller events, with my young son Max we did the two-up cup at the Pentewan Nationals in 1995 and I also built a genny using a length of sailboard mast and the benny from a Byte!

Although I sold the boat I still have Pete's gennaker kit in my garage (never used it myself). I think the gennaker is from an Iso rather than a Byte.

I'm responsible for this boat's former name "Screamer's Dance": it was from the name of a song by Ian Dury and the Blockheads and if youtube links are permitted here's the original.

https://youtu.be/vMmvbGMVaQA?si=0chmsB64z6ltoBwd

Thirty years on am I embarrassed? Not a bit! I'm embarrassed that events from 30 years ago take a bit of digging out of the memory banks