best Venture of all
I bought my first V-21 in 1969. It was my first boat. This summer, I bought another V-21 - hull 2347 - which I am in the process of restoring and preparing for PHRF racing. For me, the boat was a huge confidence builder. I went through just about every kind of situation you want to name, including being twenty miles from home and nailed by a fierce squall ahead of a cold front that drove me onto a lee shore where there was no choice except to anchor. I then spent the night there using up every last shred of cloth aboard to keep the rode from chafing to threads. This was on Lake Ontario. I'm not kidding about this. Picture me crawling up onto the foredeck at two in the morning, in six foot rollers, towel in hand, then struggling to pull in enough anchor line to relieve the chafed spot and wrap the towel around the new contact point. Through all this, the V-21 behaved herself, hardly 'hunted' at all, and didn't try to kill me very hard. Yes, in learning, I took plenty of knockdowns - until I figured out it was a good idea to keep the mainsheet in my hands all the time when the wind was up. I nicknamed it 'the alarm'.One time, a friend was out with me and we got blasted. The cockpit half filled with water. "Hey, Art," he says as he clings to the high side, his feet in the freakin lake. "This is FUN!"Of course, he WAS home from Viet Nam on a psychiatric discharge and later went back to a VA hospital - where he probably still is.My first boat was masthead rigged and had all four sails - including the chute. I recommend this configuration because it is very very fast.The V-21 was the first Roger MacGregor design, and from a performance standpoint (in my opinion) the best of all his boats.Oilcanning - The V-21 hull is extremely stiff along the longitudinal plane. This is due to the long keel trunk. The solidity extends to the beginning of the curve of the chine, then the laminate thins and you might observe some deflection where the boat meets the forward ends of the bunks. I've owned quite a few boats. They were all the same. They're stiff where the need to be, and flexible where they need to be. As long as it keeps the water out, not a problem IMHO.There's danger of the plywood underlaying the decking becoming saturated. THAT'S a problem. If you've got it there's nothing to do but dig the old stuff out, replace it with modern foam, and glass over it. I'd say you've got a great little boat. Get rid of the two-cent rigging, run the halyards inside the spar, put the spreaders 60% up from the deck and shorten them so the shroud is straight under pressure and you've got it.