'Wee Mo' and 'Wee Jo' - two small yachts join the Fisherrow Yacht Club fleet

 Caption: Looking into what needs to be done on “Wee Mo” Left to right: Max Blinkhorn, Chris Jagau, Will Wong, Simon Blakely, Stuart MacDonald. Photo by: Inez Visser

Looking into what needs to be done on “Wee Mo”:  Left to right: Max Blinkhorn, Chris Jagau, Will Wong, Simon Blakely, Stuart MacDonald. Photo by: Inez Visser

 

Fisherrow Yacht Club is delighted to have been donated a small Kinsman yacht as a companion boat to the Kinsman yacht which was bought in the middle of last summer.   The donated boat called “Wee Mo” was given to FYC by Jim Baird who has owned her for twenty years.  Jim was glad to hand her over knowing that she would be given the car and attention she needs and in return Jim has been given complimentary membership as a thank you for his very generous gift “Wee Mo” is easily recognizable as looking a bit like an extremely large dinghy amongst the boats tied to moorings in the Fisherrow harbour.

In the middle of last summer Fisherrow Yacht club bought an identical class boat: a small six meter day sailing yacht with no cabin and as it has a lifting keel it can lie on the mud and low tide and when out on the open water has 700kg hull weight to give the boat great stability so is great for family sailing and sailing novices.  This first Kinsman had no name until “Wee Mo” was donated to the club at the end of the 2021 sailing season: immediately club members started calling the unnamed boat “Wee Jo” a play on Mojo.

Both Mo and Jo were built approximately 35 years ago and with continued exposure to elements both require some renovation to ensure another 30 years of successful sailing. The most effective way to renovate a boat is to call upon a team of volunteers but few club members have any boat renovation skills so it was decided that a workshop based programme of practical classes would be held from January in the club yard.  The workshops will be supervised by Stuart MacDonald who leads practical construction projects at Castlebrae High School but perhaps more importantly Stuart knows “We Mo” very well as he had actually owned her himself for a few years and had rebuilt the interior completely in marine ply.  Stuart intends to teach the technique of plywood construction as part of the renovation programme.

The first workshop held on Saturday January 15th got off to a great start as an extremely mild, windless, midwinter day meant the team could work outside in comfort.  After Stuart’s safety briefing the eight person team removed “We Mo’s”   tall mast taking care not to hit the actual building of Bush House where the club has the ground floor and owner occupiers live in the upper apartments.  After that they got to work on removing the boat chandlery so that renovation work can commence on the cockpit.  Stuart was able to stand back and let the team get on with most of the tasks stating, “It’s great to see everyone working on their own initiative.  It’s also good to get ideas on how we should refit the boats for the comfort and safety of the members.  Since “Wee Mo” was purchased last year it is noticeable that having a more stable family boat is attracting new members to join but now with two identical boats racing sailors can compete at class level.”

Fisherrow Yacht Club’s 2022 programme of training days, racing events and funsails is being devised and will be soon be published on the club website  www.fisherrowyachtclub.com.