International Flying Dutchman
UK - GBR

Oppie sailor tries an FD

Flying Dutchman sailing

On Wednesday 14th of April I went sailing in my WYA Optimist. When I finished Julian Bridges offered me the chance to go sailing in his Flying Dutchman with him, I said yes I jumped in and put the harness on.

First I did some trapezing on a beat, and we did at least ten tacks and then we bore off on to a run.

On the run we pulled up the kite after finding the right sheets and did a few gybes.

Then we did a small beat with Julian trapezing and me helming and then we did a beam reach back to Port Dinorwic sailing club.

I like Flying Dutchman because I think sailing in a double handed boat is more fun because there is someone to talk to but single handed sailing is just as good. There are a lot of differences between a oppie and a Flying Dutchman the Flying Dutchman is much bigger than an oppie, opppies dont have a trapeze, Flying Dutchman have a kite and a jib and oppies only have a main sail. Catamarans are more similar because cats have jibs and they have a trapeze but two hulls !

I enjoyed sailing the Flying Dutchman because I love trapezing in boats and I like sailing in double handed boats because I like someone to sail with.

I was a bit uncertain when I got in but I was fine afterwards. I was happy sailing the Flying Dutchman I under stood the control lines after a while and then it was easy.

The Flying Dutchman is much faster than my oppie.

I enjoyed sailing the Flying Dutchman with Julian.

Kate Williams 11 years old oppie sailer

Julian Bridges Flying Dutchman

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This page was last updated on 06 December 1998 - Please send contributions and comments to Richard Phillips mailto:100446.2371@compuserve.com . For more sailing links see www.sail-cd.demon.co.uk/index.htm