The life of N2632 Dinsdale. Design: China Doll, designed by: Phil Morrison in 1967
Built in 1972 by Brian Rowsell and was sailed by Chris Gillard with some sucess in the Thames Area and at Salcombe Week
Didsdale was bought off eBay in January 2007 by John Murrell and is in need of a bit of TLC. New decks and c/board case to start with! Overall the hull hasn't suffered too badly over the years.
A photographic diary will be kept of the rejuvenation.
Owned by Sue Pelling at one time. Crewed for Sue in it 1986 Burton Week at Exemouth.
Then went to Earlswood Lakes SC.
believed to have been owned through the years by:
1972 - 1974 Stuart Westaway
1975 - 1977 Chris Gillard
1978 - 1984 Andy Dove
1985 B Tipping
1986 Sue Pelling
1987 P J Spicer
1988 - 1991 Not Known
1992 - 2005 J Peason
2006 Steve Couch
2007 John Murrell
Thanks to Michael Brookman, Stu W and other who have helped fill in holes and find the story so far!
The owner of this boat between 1992 - 2005 was John Pearson (not as spelt in the list above). He was a member of Earlswood Lakes S.C. and sailed in one or two of the Vintage Twelve Open Meetings which were sailed there. When I last saw the boat in the 2000's it was in excellent condition. I understand that John moved to the West Country.
Ken Goddard, N.2300.
I was very interested to read the discussion. Could I add that I owned Dinsdale from 1979 to 1981. My first National 12. I was still a teenager! A beautiful boat in immaculate condition. I sold her to Barry Tipping in 1981 but she came back into our family in 1984. My sister, Sue Pelling sailed her from 1984 until 1987. Very pleased to hear that she is back in loving hands. When we owned her she was red and had lovely sapele decks, with contrasting sycamore gunwhales.
So here we go.....
Firstly I can't believe that it's over 7 years ago that I bought Dinsdale on e-bay. My initial intention was to get the boat back on the water quite quickley and enjoy some Tweleve sailing again but.......................
Whilst the hull had stood the test of time regrettably not much else had! The decks were shot, those lovely sycamore gunwhales had been replaced at some time with ash ones, the plate box had rotted, the foils - well I won't go there.
So the cunning plan was to strip Dinsdale back to basics and start again. The strip out went well, all the old fittings went to ebay, a Winder c/board purchased from Meds and then 2 knee replacements got in the way so in my garage Dinsdale languished gathering dust for 5 years.
And then after badgering from 'er in doors who shall always be obeyed (Mr Turner, does this sound familiar?) who suggested that a viking funeral was the way to clear the garage I realised that time and will had left me behind, but not all was lost, for some reason Kevin Driver took pity on Dinsdale and last November the boat went on an extended holiday to the east Devon resort of Seaton. Kev has now finished his winter work of building Grads, Solo's etc and Dinsdale has taken up residence in his workshop.
Hopefully the rebuild will be finished by the end of the month when I will get back a bit of bespoke furniture but in the mean time here are some pictures of the work in progress.
More photos from Dinsdale's holiday sunny Seaton................................
Work is progressing well........................................................
Back to sapele decks, sycamore gunwales and a more modern look to the transom
Kevin's doing a brilliant job and it looks like Dinsdale will be coming back from holiday very soon.............................
Now here comes a thought - with a name like Dinsdale should the boat be a she or he?
The only Dinsdale I know is one of the Piranna brothers the other being Norman, or was he the giant hedgehog who was after Dinsdale.
And now the varnish is going on - 6 coats of 2 pack and we will go from there....................................
almost there...............................
It's amazing what 4 weeks has done.
.........................
We have found this picture of Dinsdale in 1975 or 76. Definately Salcombe, and the Fairway bouys were then too!!
that’s almost done………………
Dinsdale is, with one or two very minor adjustments, ready to sail again!
So what has happened to the boat? Well apart from the obvious rebuild of the interior and new decks, the plate slot has been widened to take a Winder Foolish plate that rotates around a captive bolt so no visible pivot point. The mast sits in a Merlin style mast step on a P&B mast plate with all the blocks attached to that. There is a dangly pole, the jib sheeting angles have been tightened with new stringers and track and ratchet blocks attached to that â€" the sheeting angle is approximately the same as a DCB â€" and the sheets lead up and through the side deck, again Merlin style.
I still had the original Rowsell rudder and stock but in very poor condition, so whilst the boat was on holiday in Seaton I broke it down into it’s component parts (actually it fell apart!), stripped all the old varnish and paint off, faired it and epoxied it all back together again. Also I have a Winder carbon stock with a suitably profiled blade.
All the controls are lead to the thwart and there is a split end main sheet. I have worked a way to fit lowers but a trip to Seaton will be needed to have a small modification done.
As I want to be able to sail in vintage and CVDRA events I have a choice of rigging. Either way the mast is a Proctor Alpha minus (hands up who remembers those!) but I have a tin Superspars boom as well as a carbon one; 5 minutes to change from one to the other! The sails are white of P&B Talbot Rd vintage with little use and first measured in May 2014(!)
To keep the inside tidy there are buoyancy bag covers, a tale in itself. The transom flaps, modern plastics with Kevlar sail repair tape as hinges.