Please don't hate me

[Caboose]

I do own one Clark Mills designed boat and it's a fast dinghy. It's called a Windmill and was designed by Clark Mills in 1953. Go to Windmillclass.org for more info. Last year I started looking for something with a cabin, so I started my search with another Clark Mills design (Com-Pac), and my search did not go well. I looked for 16's and 19's and after many miles and road trips, I started looking at other manufacturing companies. As they say, you don't find a boat, a boat finds you. In a local marina (Yorktown, VA), a boat found me. A little red hull with an uncovered mainsail tied to the boom. It was on the hard and the hull looked good. Nothing that some sanding and new bottom paint would not take care of. I found a ladder and looked inside. It looked dry and in good shape. The standing rigging looked good as well. Found the marina manager and was told the owners want to sell her. Did some research on her and found out she was a well built boat, but the company did not make many of her or her larger sisters. So, a deal was done and my Edel 540 has it's third owner. It's 5.4 meters long or a tad under 18 feet. Eight feet wide at her beam, displaces around 1,200 pounds and 350 of that is the lead keel. It's suppose to sleep 4, but you better be good friends and small. I'll stick with two or three and gear. So, it's not a Com-Pac or even a Clark Mills design, but a small fixed keel trailor sailboat is a small fixed keel trailable sailboat. We still have the same problems with raising or lowering the mast, rigging and unrigging at the ramp. Along with the ramp/trailer problems as well. So, can I still be a member?

[Bob23]

We don't hate you. But to be a Compacless member you will have to send Bob23 the usual $1000.00 entrance fee. Cash prefered but a check will do.
Best to you and your sailing adventures!
Bob23

[newt]

If you can stand the harassment of compac owners as they show off their pride and joy, yeah, your in!

[DOUG142]

Caboose,

Welcome aboard!  We will try to convert you to Com-pac's, they are great sailboats.

Doug and Linda
Cp-16
Summer Escape

[Caboose]

Hopefully a Com-Pac sailor will not try and ram me if they see me out on the water. A nudge while racing can be excused though. I wonder if any Com-Pacs with a LOA of 22 and under are going to do the long distance dinghy race in Virginia? Look for info and register in the Sunfish Race here: http://www.portsmouthboatclub.org/index.htm

[Craig Weis]

"So, it's not a Com-Pac or even a Clark Mills design, but a small fixed keel trailer sailboat is a small fixed keel trailable sailboat."
Not every boat can be a Com-Pac of anysize. Clark Mills or not he's not the only hull bender out there either.
If you liked it on the hard and you bought it and still like it after the sale then the correct decision was made. Looks like a great boat.

Look at those 'child bearing hips' kind of beamy looking. Reminds me of a Seaward Fox.

skip.

[Caboose]

Mine came from factory with a forward hatch and lifelines. Yes, she may have wide hips, but that helps in reducing heel angle and makes more room below. I took everything out and did scrub/clean thing. It's an empty shell on the inside right now. It may not have that new boat smell, but it has the smell of clean.

[zc6840]

Hello Edel owner. Your boat is my dream boat though I am a COmPAC16 sailor .It was made either in France where it was the 1977 sailboat of the year or in Toronto, Canada. There is plenty about the Edels on the internet. You are one lucky fellow .ENJOY! RTH.

[ka8uet]

You are the only one besides me that I ever heard mention a Windmill.  I had one just before I got my Compac 23/3.  I sold her to a friend, and years later was visiting a client when I saw it in the yard!  Turned out that the boyfriend of my client's mother had got it from the friend to whom I sold it.  Small world.  I still prefer the Compac, and have sailed it in Lake Erie for ten years.  I travel to Canada, although I haven't since 9/11/01, because of the increased red tape.  Not to go there, but to come back! 

[Caboose]

Windmill: For an old design, it's still a fast dinghy. Mine is all wood, including the spars. Hull #3542.