Topic: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Hi Adrian,

I have seen that boat for sale over a long period of time.  I don't know anything about her though.

With regards to your traveller comment, the traveller must be that high to accommodate the vertical movement of the tiller.  Mine is at least that tall and probably farther aft.  This creates several problems;  Leverage on the base plates as well as increased load due to the mainsheet's angle to the boom.

You can take a look at my base plate, which is less robust than his if I bring the boat out this weekend.  Mine has stood the test - I sailed it in over 35-40knots AWS which destroyed the aluminium track, pin-stops and 2,000lbs snatch blocks with no ill effect on the traveller support.

Second, the angle to the boom can be compensated for by purchasing cars&tracks that will accept the side-load, or angling the track&car on the bracket so that the load to the boom is perpendicular to the support beam.  I took the former, Little Minute took the latter.  His looks nicer but wasn't going to work without some major rejigging on my boat.

In other words, the traveller is awesome, don't sweat it.

The boom looks like the proper height to me.

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Well, I'm not surprised she's been for sale for a long time - she's priced like a top-end post-83 example that's more or less fully loaded and ready to go! I don't think Rhiannon sold for that much, and she was in mint condition and equipped for some serious travelling.

Interesting about the traveller. I am really looking forward to seeing how things are done on different boats. I made no modifications to #322 when I had her, mostly content to sail with the stock setup in order to see what changes I would want to make. The main sheet was always on my list of things to contemplate, since the stock factory setup always seemed like a bit of a faff (not to mention a thousand miles of line in the cockpit).

That said, I also liked to fold my tiller up and out of the cockpit when in port. Seems with the traveller there the tiller can't be moved out of the way so easily?

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Correct.  The tiller can only be pushed to the side and not up / out of the way.

I do prefer a traveller and think it is the better setup.  George Gurr also has a nicely built traveller bracket on his boat.

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Can you push the tiller over far enough to clear the cockpit?

And to what extent does the traveller improve the sail handling?

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Adrian
I've also seen that boat listed for several months. It looks gorgeous in the pix.

I was told that it was originally named "Karl Scott", was navy blue and was moored at the NYC. If true, I can give you the name of somebody who rented it for a summer, perhaps five years ago, before the refit, when the previous owner was out of the country.

The Kubota engine is sold as a Beta. I'm told it is very good and very reliable, twin-cylinder and a cheaper alternative to the Yanmar. They were selling for something over $5,000 at the boat show last winter.

I'm told they are a credible alternative to a Yanmar.

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

I just did some basic research on the Kubota in that boat. It's a model OC60-E, a 6HP, single cylinder engine that is apparently 'oil/air' cooled. I find this intriguing. First, I think the 6HP might be a bit low for this boat, though on the other hand, I am all about sailing instead of motoring, and 6HP should be enough for the situations in which a weekend warrior like myself would used an engine.

Even more interesting is that this engine may never come in contact with water, since it's air cooled. I wonder how much it heats up the cabin. Would be great on those fall days, but imagine that  on one of our 35 degree days? Wouldn't it just start rusting to hell in a salt-water environment?

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Air cooled in that tight space?!  Yikers.  You're going to need some good air movement to keep that cool.  I'm going to stay away from that.

Sailing near fresh water lakes that have really cold water, I'd say that would be my choice of cooling. Quiet, effective and plentiful.  On the ocean, I may reconsider.

Why not stick with a Farymann?  7hp, still available, solid lumps.  If you can live with 6hp, then you could live with 7hp and it fits right in without any rejigging.  The price is reasonable as well.  Although you aren't supposed to buy these for marine use in the USA (EPA regulations), they will ship them to Canada with no problem.

Re: Anyone know anything about Little Minute?

Absolutely. Seems to me that the space is too tight for air cooling, unless you built ducting and had a fan, etc. Seems all around much easier to just stick a marine engine in there?

Rumor has it that the Bukh 7hp engine is in fact simply a marinized Faryman 18w.