The Winklebrig Forum

A progress report. Having got the boat home and in the barn I’ve had a good look around and am delighted, there is some work to do but nearly all cosmetic so a nice winter project in store. I was very pleased to discover the rig is a high peaked gaff which personally I would prefer although I appreciate there are pros and cons of both rigs. The sails are in good condition although cream in colour.
We have been successful in gaining a mooring on Coniston Water or at least an allocation. The old mooring has disappeared so a new one is to be laid.
I’ve had to do some work on the trailer, a Snipe break back. It came with two new tyres, I’ve added a new spare wheel and tyre. Unfortunately the handbrake mechanism was missing and several hours on the Internet failed to find a replacement so I have modified and welded on an old Series 1 Land Rover handbrake I had spare. If I ever find the correct replacement it will be easy to fit, nothing irreversible has been done. New bearings and seals in the hubs, now I’m waiting for two stainless steel Bowden cables to arrive.
I’ve also added side marker lights on detachable brackets so I can take them off for launching. The trailer is 2.0 m wide and apparently any trailer over 1.6 m needs side marker lights apart from boat trailers. An odd regulation but it seems safer to have them.
The interesting bit will be the rigging. It’s all off the boat and spars and in bags, there may be some questions ahead!
Finally the name. WB 93 was called Be Bop a Lulu some time ago but I believe has passed through two owners since then and I have no idea if they renamed the boat. As it is out of the water which I understand reduces the risk of catastrophic consequences associated with renaming, we have called her  CRESSY which uses the initials of our 4 grandchildren.

Thank you Martin.
We are collecting the boat next Monday and then taking it the 250 miles up to Yorkshire.
Really looking forward to having a good inspection and getting familiar with all the features.

A successful day, I have bought Winkle Brig no.93. Very unfortunately the previous owner passed away having carried out a great deal of work on the boat and never managed to actually sail it. It is in excellent condition with an almost new outboard, recently serviced. The trailer is also much better than I had expected and 2 new tyres will be fitted.
Obviously very excited about all this and undoubtedly I will be posting all sorts of questions once I get the boat home and get to know all about it.

Hello John,
I hope the two vessels on your list are yielding positive results.
Provided they are basically sound, which due to their robust construction, they should be, anything else can be fixed with a little patience, hard work and enjoyment. The forum provides 'fixes' for most problems.
David.

Hi John,
To add my bit to what Martin and David have said, both of these WBs have plywood bilge plates with cast iron shoes.  The plywood can deteriorate/split/warp/rot and the cast iron can rust, both leading to plates getting jammed.  Thoroughly check their condition.  The earlier WBs had grp plates that do not deteriorate.  Baggy sails, we still have the original (now very baggy) sails which still get us around fine, especially down wind. I am a topsail fan, more ropes to have fun playing around with and the topsail makes a WB look so much better, personal opinion.  Although we now have a 4hp 2 stroke Mercury, we have used a 2hp on a couple of occasions, fine if you are not wanting to get somewhere quickly or punching in to waves/wind/current.  Apart from possible impact damage, the only possibly serious grp damage might be , as Martin says, at the foot of the mast, caused by having the rigging too tight and trying to pull the mast through the cabin roof.  Small gelcoat cracks are generally not a problem.  As these are both later WBs, there will not be the problem of delaminating/detatched bilgeplate housings, a big plus point.
I was visiting Roger Parish last week, former owner of Partan.  How he regrets selling her and he was looking at these two and feeling very tempted!!   
Dave Cawston