Hi, George.
On 10 Dec 95 George Skinner writes to Dan Ceppa:
 ->> Sounds more like an egg carton than a sailboat!
 GS> Dan: Belive me I think it was. Actually it was very safe and probably
 GS> cheap to buy. It was more of a simple dinghy sailboat, if I remember
 GS> correctly it also had a motor mount for a outboard.
    I expect that what you guys have been talking about (plastic covered 
styrofoam sailboat) was probably a "Snark".  They're marketed by Sears, come 
in two sizes ... small and smaller, and are *just fine* for teaching little 
ones to sail.  Both my boys were playing with our Snark and learning the 
rudiments of sailing as soon as they were old enough to swim (6 yrs old).  
The boats are small enough that the kids could stay almost within wading 
distance of shore and sail back and forth while I stood in the water and 
coached them.
    Needless to say, I was quite careful about the wind conditions when we 
first did this, but the pay-off was considerable.  When my oldest boy was 
eight he went out with a family friend (adult) in our 14' boat.  The friend 
managed to dump himself overboard on a jibe, and Jonathan had no problem 
singlehanding the boat back around to pick the guy up.  There was about six 
miles of lake downwind of him, so I was hugely grateful that he knew how to 
handle himself.
    The Snark is really too small for an adult to use comfortably, but I 
managed to do alright by lying on my back with my feet to the bow.  
Definitely more of a kid's boat.
    What you may have mistaken for a motor mount was probably the plywood 
reinforced transom where the gudgeons for the rudder pintles fastened.  I 
don't think a motor would be a good idea on one of those things.
                                  RSL
--- GEcho 1.00
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