Rainbow 24

[cmartin]

A Rainbow 24 is for sale locally which prompted me to do a little research. I found a site for some good background, http://www.jwkane.com/rainbow24/ . Considering they were produced locally I'm surprised I dont see them all over the place. Maybe I am not looking in the right place.

It seems like a nice looking, simple, safe boat. I only found once reference to a Rainbow 24 on this site, anyone have experience with them?

[Chris Campbell]

Don't know a thing about them - but it looks lovely! classic lines, with a fin keel and spade rudder, hard to go wrong there!

Please share anything else you find out, and of course if you happen to have pictures to share, please do so!

Cheers,

Chris

[Chris Campbell]

Now I know a bit more, thanks to Google:
http://www.sailingtexas.com/srainbow24a.html
http://www.baileywick.org/pot.htm
http://drinian.org/sailing/rainbow/
http://www.sailboattraderonline.com/fin ... 4-84589748
http://www.sailingtexas.com/srainbow24b.html
http://www.sailingtexas.com/srainbow24101.html
http://www.sailingtexas.com/srainbow24100.html
http://www.annapolissailing.com/keelboat.php

Quite a few different cabin/window configurations - all pretty boats, though!

Cheers,

Chris

[Rachel]

Minor factoid: I believe the Annapolis Sailing School used them as training boats.

[cmartin]

Something about this little boat has my attention. Nice lines and simple. I like simple.

I'm sure I've seen a few on the water, I need to pay close attention.

[Tom Javor]

Simple is good - it can be defined as "less extraneous stuff to break down and then consume time that should be spent sailing..."

I've recently joined the "adequate for my needs/available time" boat club, and so far I'm loving it.

[Stubrow]

A Rainbow 24 is for sale locally which prompted me to do a little research. I found a site for some good background, http://www.jwkane.com/rainbow24/ . Considering they were produced locally I'm surprised I dont see them all over the place. Maybe I am not looking in the right place.

It seems like a nice looking, simple, safe boat. I only found once reference to a Rainbow 24 on this site, anyone have experience with them?

Don't want to get myself in trouble for promoting my site:
http://www.sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_ID=130
But I have sailed a Rainbow a number of times. They are still being used as rentals at Haverstraw NY, (on the Hudson). I would call the construction standard as rugged and indestructible, but not elegant.
I've only sailed the 'rental' model with the standard cuddy. (I've never seen a Weekender model) Under sail, they aren't terrible. Compared to more modern boats, you might find them a bit sluggish with somewhat 'dead' helm (maybe because of the spade rudder with a skeg). Not exactly well balanced. The one I sailed had a relatively small jib. With the masthead rig, I would think that a somewhat larger genoa would greatly improve it's sailing ability. Overall, it's easy to see why the rental people like them despite their age. The type of boat that's just 'hard to kill', and hard to get into serious trouble.

[Ric in Richmond]

I have hundreds of hours in them....since I taught at Annapolis sailing school from about 1981 to 1988.

As a youngster I had much disdain for the old Rainbow as it wasn't a J24 or a dinghy.

Now of course I have grown much wiser and fond of the old beasts.

They are , basically, indestructible. At the sailing school all sorts of abuse was meted out and they always took it. They always sailed sweetly and I taught hundreds of people how to sail while casually standing on the lazerette with one hand on the back stay.

Classic Sparkman and Stevens, nice sailng and tough as nails. If I had a house with a dock, I'd have a rainbow at the end of it!!

[Bluenose]

Classic Sparkman and Stevens, nice sailng and tough as nails. If I had a house with a dock, I'd have a rainbow at the end of it!!

Quite a recommendation.

[cmartin]

Good info, thanks everyone.

I was just finishing up this month's Spinsheet and the last article is about Annapolis Sailing School. There is a good photo of a Rainbow under sail.

[Ric in Richmond]

Dave Gendell, the owner of "The Spin Sheet" (a great regional sailing magazine), was a cohort of mine during the days I taught at annapolis sailing school. Very good man.

Ric

[Seafarer]

The Rainbow was a Sparkman Stephens design commissioned by the Annapolis Sailing School for use in their introductory classes. They were rugged, forgiving, and withstood years of hard use. The original design was pretty much a day sailor, with a minimalist cuddy cabin. Later versions had a smaller cockpit and a more spacious cabin. The Sailing School used those as cruisers in their "live aboard" cruising courses.

I have not seen many of these on used boat market, probably because the Sailing School tended to use the boats until they were well past their prime; but also because the boats were seriously overbuilt for a 24 foot daysailor, and simply weren't price competitive with the lighter, cheaper boats of the era.

[Ric in Richmond]

They actually use Rainbows in some of the cruising courses...hardly cruising. More like camping!

Later they used Annapolis 26's (looked like pearson 26's), Newport 30's, O'day 37's. The O'days were tanks that loved a blow!!

My summer job consisted of getting assigned a boat, a crew and we left on a flotill cruise. Annapolis to Dobbins island, dobbins to kent narrow, kent narrows to St, Mikes, st mikes to the rhodes river. The rhodes to annapolis.

Then I'd race on the weekend most weekends then go cruising.

Not a bad summer job.

Rainbows were tanks too. Saw one ram a floating dock so hard the water line was 2 feet past the edge of the dock with no apparent damage!!!

I can't even image how many "miles" those boats have on them.

[crazytrain]

I sailed a rainbow for 2 seasons on the columbia river here in Oregon.
What a great little boat! If it had a self bailing cockpit I would still have it. But portland is no place for a boat that must have a bilge pump to drain itself. I had a big genoa. It was off of a 26ft. clipper marine. prob about a 180 on the rainbow. worked great. In light winds it showed it's small sailplan. But in 10knots plus it really seemed to come into it's own. On the river where all of the boats are running pretty close It held it's position on many larger boats when the wind picked up. While restoring my pearson ariel I have been bugging all of my friends to take me sailing, most are 30ft boats. I really appreciate the short mast and smaller sailplan on the rainbow when going out for a couple hours mid week. The boat is really easy to sail single handed and bring in and out of the slip. Just don't bring anything more than a 6pak of beer! cal 22 mains can be cut down a foot to fit.

[JonnyBoats]

I used to have a Rainbow that I loved. I bought it in Annapolis and sailed it to Cape May, NJ via the C&D canal. I bought it on eBay for $600 snd it was well worth it.

If I could have found a cheap way to get it back to Maine I would definately have kept it. As things turned outI traded it and cash for a Bristol 32 in Cape May which I did sail back to Maine. (As an aside, I also loved the Bristol).