Sea Lightning

Sealightning

“Sea Lightning” is the name I’ve invented for my Seafly dinghy when it’s rigged with the mast and sail which originally was the small rig for my Lightning dinghy “Seabee”. Normally the Seafly would have a deck mounted, stayed alloy mast. However I have fitted my Seafly with an alternative mast step to take the Lightning rig to enable me to go under the Northam Bridge using my electric outboard, and then mount the mast and continue under sail. The small Lightning sail (the same area as a Laser Radial) is easily enough to get the Seafly planing in a moderate wind, and the matching mast is light enough to easily lift into place while the boat is on the water.

The rig is a good one for teaching people the first steps in sailing since the Seafly (a very forgiving boat in any case) is even more stable with the smaller rig. Also in the event of a capsize, the boat is much less likely to turn turtle with the buoyant carbon fibre mast rather than the Seafly’s alloy mast which quickly floods.