New Widgeon Owner

AdventuringWeGo

AdventuringWeGo

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Apr 20, 2016
8
O'Day Widgeon Paola, FL
Greetings all,

I'm fairly new to sailing, and recently acquired a '74 Widgeon from a friend of mine, figuring it would be a good boat to learn on. I've had it out on the water on our lake a few times now, and so far have kept it upright the majority the time.

Have owned a few boats over the years, however with this being my first sailboat I'm definitely enjoying learning about rigging, maintenance, setup, etc. and I'm looking forward to restoring her to original condition.

Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself. Seems like there is a lot of great information on this forum, and I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can and hopefully being able to contribute as well.

At the Dock

At the Dock

On the Water

On the Water

 
BudGates

BudGates

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Apr 19, 2012
1,043
O'Day Daysailor 17 Nevis MN
Welcome AdventuringWeGo. It looks like you have a very nice boat to start sailing on. It should be great for lake sailing and you will learn a lot faster on a small boat than you would a larger boat. Things happen a lot quicker on a small boat and the worst that usually happens when you mess up is you get wet.
 
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Sunbird22358

Sunbird22358

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Jun 2, 2004
1,944
Oday Day Sailer Wareham, MA
As a former WIDGEON owner and present DS II owner, you have a great little boat, despite having about 18+ years of sailing experience before buying my Widgeon, I still learned a lot sailing her, and might I add..... having LOTS of fun! The number one rule when sailing any small centerboard boat like the WIDGEON, ALWAYS KEEP THE MAINSHEET IN HAND! use the camcleat to hold the tension, but keep the mainsheet In hand to allow instant release if a gust of wind hits, that was one reason that in the 8 years that I had my Widgeon I never capsized.... had a few "close calls", but never went over. Well, I did capsize once, at the mooring, with the sails off...OOPS! Well, I was used to a keel boat (1970 CAL 21, family boat) and so when I noticed that one of the spreaders on my Widgeon had slipped down the shroud a bit, I decided to fix it. Mistake was that, when I stepped up on the seat to reach the spreader, my weight was too high and off-center and the boat sort of rolled over tossing me in to the water. The boat actually quickly righted (about 1/3 full of water), but I found myself half swimming, half walking ashore (maybe 100' or so) pulling my small dinghy with me. After putting on dry clothes, I bailed on the boat and all was fine. (Of course, I never made that mistake again!)
I have made up an expanded version of the original O'DAY Owners Manual (rigging guide), If you are interested, let me know and I'll private message the details to you. (I do charge $20 for printing and postage) I include copies of the various O'Day Widgeon brochures that I have, including 1974.
 
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AdventuringWeGo

AdventuringWeGo

.
Apr 20, 2016
8
O'Day Widgeon Paola, FL
Thanks all for the warm welcome.

Joe, I'm certainly no expert but I'm pretty sure it's just the camera angle. I was using a GoPro which has a pretty distorted wide angle view. I could definitely be wrong though, I will take a shot of the jib sheet rigging next time I go out to make sure.

Sunbird, I would definitely be interested in the manual, rigging guide and other documents and $20 certainly sounds fair. I've read about keeping the mainsheet in hand at all times, and learned that lesson intimately the first time I took it out. I also learned the valuable lesson(s) of:

  • making SURE the centerboard goes all the way down
  • making sure I bring something other than a sponge to bail water with (luckily I was close to home)
  • prepare to get wet
  • leash the rudder to something, it sinks pretty quickly
We are definitely having a ton of fun so far! So far I've just taken my oldest son (18) out and have started teaching him, but I hope to start taking my 8 year old son out now that I've had a few successful trips on it.
 
Joe

Joe

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Jun 1, 2004
8,196
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
I don't see the lazy sheet passing in front of the mast so I think it must be lying in the gap between the mast and the fore deck. No need for alarm. If it was wrong you'd have known it on the first turn. Heh, heh.
If you have any problems with it snagging.. you can bridge the gap with a short piece of stretch cord.
 
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