Please help identify this sailing dingy

[airbuster]

Hi all,

There is a boat on craigslist that is listed as free. I'm not sure I'm interested in it, but curiosity has gotten the best of me, and I'm wondering if anyone knows the make and model.





FYI the original posting is here, in case it's still up: https://easternshore.craigslist.org/boa/5630711340.html

[Fiveslide]

Looks like a Flying Scot.

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[Paul J. Nolan]

Originally Posted by airbuster

Hi all,

There is a boat on craigslist that is listed as free. I'm not sure I'm interested in it, but curiosity has gotten the best of me, and I'm wondering if anyone knows the make and model.

You kiddin' me? That is a Flying Scot, designed by Sandy Douglass, a terrific small boat sailor, designer, and builder who also designed the Thistle and the Highlander. If you like that boat, take her. They are enormously strongly built. The only things I can think of to check in the hull are the small area in the bottom that is balsa cored (roughly the area under the cockpit) and the wooden tabernacle that supports the mast step under the deck at the forward end of the cockpit. If the centerboard, rudder, and spars are there, well, you have stumbled on to a real find. They are so overbuilt that if they pass a visual inspection, they are most likely fine. Even if you have to buy a trailer, she's still a "good buy". By the time you've painted the hull and deck (What? A month?) you will probably have found a trailer (I once bought a trailer for my J24 for $200. They're around.)

If you want to go sailing/racing in a great family-oriented class for the absolute rock-bottom expense...there's your chance! Good luck!

Paul

[airbuster]

That's really exciting, and kind of what I was hoping someone would say. I was looking forward to getting a used FS as my intro to sailing.

Unfortunately, just looked up the price of a mast and sails (none are shown in the pictures), and I might be better off finding a more complete specimen :-(

Or is a mast and sails easier to come by than dropping $2000?

[Fiveslide]

This is one of the times a free boat might be worth it. They are still being built, so new parts are still available. There are some very active racing clubs, so used parts and sails are available, if not plentiful. If you're patient with your shopping, you could have much less than $2,000 in it.

I've seen seen ready-to-sail Flying Scots priced between $2,000 and $6,000.

The ad indicates it needs to be removed from a company owned property, perhaps a rental property. I'd call them and see what else may have been left. I'd go get it if I weren't so busy and didn't already have 4 sailing dinghies.

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[foufou]

Looks like a Flying Scott but they are 19' I believe. The CL ad says this is 18'. ...

[jeremiason]

Here is a complete Flying Scott with sails and mast for $2000 to give you an idea of worth.

1980 Douglas Flying Scot sailboat for sale in Massachusetts

[Redpcx]

Just a guess, but Chrysler jumped into my head. Yes, there was a Chrysler sailboat company. Yes, they definitely built something similar to this 40 or so years ago.

And another yes, they built an 18'.
http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=3292

If it is indeed a Flying scott, better for somebody with one to grab it for spares.

Free boats are the most expensive kind

[Paul J. Nolan]

One of the many benefits of an active one-design class (and the Scot is an active class) is the ready availability of used sails. The top skippers in the class will frequently buy new sails and sell their lightly used ones. In my opinion, a price fair to both parties for a suit of sails with one season's use is about 50% of the price of new sails. This boat's spars are around somewhere; find 'em.

A trailerto get the boat home can probably be borrowed from the local fleet even if you're not a member. Scots don't have a lot of deck hardware, (as opposed to a 505 or Star, or even a C scow), so you won't be spending a lot there, even if you want to race. Used trailers exist.

Good luck!

Paul

[Ukeluthier]

Looks like a Flying Scot to me as well.

The very boat I learned to sail on 40+ years ago.

[airbuster]

If this hull truly has no mast, sails, rudder, keel, as the picture indicates...

I recently had a conversation with a boat dealer who convinced me that the hull was probably shot - and that's why it was stripped of all hardware. Once the hull was repaired, rerigging it, even with used parts (half the price of new) would run close to the $3000 mark.

Given this, I'm not sure it would be worth it, if there are other examples of this breed out there at around $2K.

I hereby surrender my "dibs" on this little guy :-P

[thomm225]

Wow, that " free " boat got expensive real quick and you haven't even priced in the trailer yet much less all the repairs needed on a boat that's sitting in someones yard for who knows how long.

Looks like someone is trying to save the expense of getting the boat to the dump.