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Old Solos

No excuses. Get those old Solo's racing at your club's Open Meetings. Thank you to all those in the Southern Area who have welcomed me to their clubs. Yes, I've often been amongst the last to finish, but there is a lot of fun to be had at the back of the fleet... See the Southern Area results so far...Solo 1435 Martin Hampshire

7 comments

Comments (7)

Maarten van den Broek

Oct 07, 2022

Hi Martin, Can you check to what extend the details of your Solo are correct within the Online Solo Register I'm trying to keep up-to-date? Solo online

Ian McDonald

Oct 07, 2022

Replying to

Your hard work for the Class in the register is both very useful and much appreciated by us .

Dank je wel !

Martin Hampshire

Oct 08, 2022

Replying to

Good evening Maarten,

The details on the Online Solo Register are correct. Additional information to add - The fibreglass hull was made by Industrial Fibre Glass Specialists Ltd , Kingsbridge, Devon and the wooden deck and fittings were by Slaters of Christchurch, Dorset. The boom is the original Holt-Allen boom, it is circular in cross-section with the outhaul on the outside of the boom. The boat came with a 45 year old Moutfield sail which I occasionally use, I have been using a second hand Wavelength sail most of this season and am about to start using a second hand HD laminate.

Thank you for setting up and maintaining the Solo Register.

Kind regards, Martin Hampshire

Zoe Brittain

Aug 09, 2022

Beautiful boat, Martin!

I'm wondering if I could pester you for some up close photos of how you rig the lines? I recently purchased an old wooden Solo and am struggling to get it rigged up as it doesn't have all the fancy bits and bobs that the new ones have. From a distance yours looks to be a match.

Thanks!

Ian McDonald

Aug 09, 2022

Replying to

Definately worth spending less than £100 and upgrading to continuous controls . Its easy on most wooden boats and makes sailing much nicer and easier

Martin Hampshire

Aug 09, 2022

Replying to

Hi Zoe,

when I bought the boat (from Gumtree) the rigging was as simple as it could be. The outhaul was via a pulley attached to the end of the boom and then to a V cleat on the side of the boom. Impossible to adjust on the water so you just had to choose your setting for the day.

The tack of the sail was held in place by a pin at the front of the boom.

The kicking strap consisted of a lever system as used on early enterprises and GP14.

The cunningham appeared to go to another v-cleat on the mast below deck level. Again not adjustable easily on the water.

There were no control lines for the centreboard. It just relied on the friction from the piece of hosepipe screwed in the top to hold it in place.

As Ian says - converting to more modern control lines is possible with some basic skills.

Definitely worth going for a more modern cascade system for the kicking strap.

I have ended up adding some wooden blocks each side, just in front of the the thwart, and attached three clam cleats to these and set up continuous rigging. It makes me think I am going faster....the reality is that it probably has made little difference.

Talk to the older Solo sailors at your local club. I am sure they would be delighted to help.

Hope this helps.

Martin

Ian McDonald

Jul 10, 2022

I agree Martin and inland a later woodie is very happy competing with the " white jobs". Lets not forget the change to plastic was not about making a faster Solo- it was also to resolve a lack of decent ply.

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