Ranger 12'

[newranger]

Hi everyone, I'm talking to someone about purchasing a Ranger 12 and it looks pretty good but he's mentioned a water ballast under both benches and that it can help with stability but is something you want to empty out for towing or rowing.

I've seen that there is almost no information about the R12 out there, but does someone have direct experience with this feature on this boat, how it works, and if there are issues I should consider?

He mentioned there is currently water you can hear sloshing under the seats, so I need to know how it works. On an older boat I'm also worried about cracks and how to maintain these tanks if one of them needs repair.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[FastOlson]

Hi everyone, I'm talking to someone about purchasing a Ranger 12 and it looks pretty good but he's mentioned a water ballast under both benches and that it can help with stability but is something you want to empty out for towing or rowing.

I've seen that there is almost no information about the R12 out there, but does someone have direct experience with this feature on this boat, how it works, and if there are issues I should consider?

He mentioned there is currently water you can hear sloshing under the seats, so I need to know how it works. On an older boat I'm also worried about cracks and how to maintain these tanks if one of them needs repair.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Those are floatation "tanks" and if there is water in them it needs to be drained. Maybe the boat sat out in the weather a while and there was a crack in the seam where there are laminated to the hull.
There is NO water ballast as designed. Period.
There is a galvanized steel contemplate, tho.
The Ranger hull was originally "splash molded" from an actual English sailing dinghy brought over by a commercial airline pilot as 'cargo' in his large airliner, for his own pleasure.... kind of a humorous story among the sailing folk in Seattle. Or so went the tale.

(I was a dealer for Ranger, a lot of decades ago. Small company molding out sailboats among other products from what was then that newfangled fiberglass material, founded by three bomber crew guys from WW2.)
Like the other sailboats from that company, those were all hand layup, and quite well built.

 

[newranger]

Hi, I just picked up and R12 and am getting it cleaned up to sail Thursday evening!

Two questions:

• Is it ok to walk inside an R12 while it is on a trailer? Or does the hull have to be supported by water to stand in it?
• Is there a reference for what thickness the different lines should be on an R12 with aluminum mast and boom (exactly like the drawing posted here)? Or can people share what has worked well for them? I saw both jib and main halyards should be 1/4" but I'm wondering too about other lines like downhaul, outhaul, jib and main sheets, boom vang, and centerboard. I've noticed a lot of the lines don't really fit in the their blocks or cleats, so definitely wrong sizes.

Thanks!

 

[FastOlson]

Hi, I just picked up and R12 and am getting it cleaned up to sail Thursday evening!

Two questions:

• Is it ok to walk inside an R12 while it is on a trailer? Or does the hull have to be supported by water to stand in it?
• Is there a reference for what thickness the different lines should be on an R12 with aluminum mast and boom (exactly like the drawing posted here)? Or can people share what has worked well for them? I saw both jib and main halyards should be 1/4" but I'm wondering too about other lines like downhaul, outhaul, jib and main sheets, boom vang, and centerboard. I've noticed a lot of the lines don't really fit in the their blocks or cleats, so definitely wrong sizes.

Thanks!

Walking inside while on the trailer should not harm the hull. I would hazard a SWAG that on a boat that size 3/16 or even 1/4 would do of all of the smaller control lines.

 

[TamBamK]

I've got the Ranger 11, All my lines except the outhaul appear to be 5/16 and that seems to fit all the blocks and cleats. When I went to replace the mainsheet 1/4 seemed like it would work but I thought the 5/16 would be more comfortable and it fits just fine.

 

[newranger]

I've got the Ranger 11, All my lines except the outhaul appear to be 5/16 and that seems to fit all the blocks and cleats. When I went to replace the mainsheet 1/4 seemed like it would work but I thought the 5/16 would be more comfortable and it fits just fine.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. The larger lines for sheets work great. The most irritating one honestly is just the line for pulling up the centerboard. It doesn't really fit in the v jam cleat.

Also I finally got mine in the water yesterday and it sailed great! Really nothing that needs immediate updating, ready to go for the summer.

 

[Old Ranger]

I recently purchased an R-11 that appears to be in pretty decent shape. The shake-down sail went pretty well, except for a split tiller. But the boat moves very well under sail and while rowing.

One question, I don't really know how the main sheet is supposed to be rigged. There's a traveler line that crosses the stern. After passing from the boom, through the traveler, and then back through two small blocks on the boom, should I just hold the main sheet in hand, or tie it off, or am I missing some hardware? Any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas are very much welcomed.

 

[FastOlson]

Note that the dagger board has two separate "down" positions, so that you can balance the CE sail area with only the main up if you want to sail that way.
Ray Richards, N.A.M.E., was a great designer. (IMHO)
Note also the "family resemblance" to his Ranger 20 and 24 hull designs.

That "slotted" teak gunwale was a factory option, BTW. ($)

 

[newranger]

Can anyone post up-close pictures of the transom on their Ranger R-11? I'm painting mine and figured I'd restore the transom as much as possible since someone removed the teak cap and painted over everything at some point. I'd like to at least know what I should be shooting for.

Thanks!

 

[newranger]

Here are some close ups of the transom. If I don't get some good deails here or elsewhere I'm just going to sand back the paint on all the wood to see where it starts/ends and so I can finish it more nicely. Then after repainting I'll add a wooden cap to make it look even nicer and to protect the top of the transom.

The other can of worms I've opened up is I decided to refinish the gunwhales which were looking tired and repaint the hull which had a lot of old runs in it.

As you can see, (1) the gunwhales had glued themselves to the hull in places and then tore off a little fiberglass and (2) the top edge of the fiberglass hull is a little frayed in places.

My plan is to sand everything down, inside and out, for adhesion and to get rid of the old runs, prime with Total Boat's Wet Edge primer on any bare fiberglass spots, then paint inside and out with Wet Edge topside paint.

Here are a couple questions about painting and fiberglass:

• Should I put a fold of fiberglass over that top edge or is it ok for it to be a little frayed like that?
• Does that prime/paint plan sound ok otherwise?
• I've also got a couple holes from hardware I got rid of (koosie holder) that I plan to patch the same way.

About the gunwhales, can anyone tell by looking if these are teak or not?

If they are, I can definitely see sanding off the paint, gluing the cracks where needed, putting new oil on them and they'd look ok. Otherwise, they are pretty beat up and I'd consider at least just making new ones.

The other gunwhales question is again about the banged up top edge of the hull, should I consider putting a cap on the gunwhales?

Thanks everyone for any tips or thoughts!