Advice on buying an Otter

Discussion forum for the Otter class of sailing dinghy

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springer5
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:21 am

Advice on buying an Otter

Post by springer5 »

Hi folks

I'm new to the forum and I hope this is the right place to post this. I'm just looking for a bit of advice please. I posted it on another thread a few days ago which probably wasn't really the right way to do it, so my apologies for that. Here's the same post o a new thread...

I am thinking of buying an Otter just now (sail no. 640). I am not new to sailing dinghies generally, having had a few over the years, but I've never owned or sailed an Otter.
I'm wondering if anyone with more experience of this calls could possible advise me of typical pitfalls to look out for as these boats get older "things that often go after a while" that sort of thing.

I'd really appreciate it if any of you have any pointers for me before I commit to buying the one I've seen. I'm hoping to take a look at it next weekend (8th July) and it would be tremendously helpful to know if there are any well known weaknesses I should be looking out for.

Many thanks for your help.

Kind regards

Springer

cweed
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 10:18 pm

Re: Advice on buying an Otter

Post by cweed »

My pointers to you would be :

Inspect the anchor points for shrouds, forestay and sheet fairleads,
Check the mast step, especially if the mast is a rotating gunter rig. If so, check the pin which the mast rotates on, and the pin pivot point on the foredeck. Check the bottom of the mast to look for splits where the pin may be stressing the wooden spar.
If wooden spars, check the glue joints are sound.
Check the joints of the buoyancy tanks to the floor of the dinghy and the sides of the hull as the floor may flex and weaken the fibreglass joins.

Otherwise, the usual inspection should be OK.

Good luck.

springer5
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:21 am

Re: Advice on buying an Otter

Post by springer5 »

Hi cweed

Many thanks for the tips.

Sorry I wasn't very specific with the details of spars etc. which might have been helpful. The mast is metal so hopefully that will reduce some of the things on your list, but obviously others are still relevant and I'll certainly look out for them.

Thanks again.

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