I recently acquired a pair of Lido 14s. One of them is in good shape and able to carry the original mast and rigging. The other has problems. It is missing the centerboard and rudder mounts and a portion of the stern where the mainsheet is usually mounted is cracked.

I converted the problem boat an unstayed mast.

Using a hole saw, I drilled a hole just forward of the original mast step of the same diameter as my Laser mast. Then I sanded down and laid fiber glass on the area directly below the hole for strength and epoxied a PVC pipe cap on top of the fiber glassed area that roughly fit the base of the Laser mast.

I tried to make a flat area out of epoxy for the PVC cap to sit on. I used the PVC cap more as a core to lay up stronger materials rather than relying on the cap alone. After the cap was embedded, I shaped gussets around the PVC cap with epoxy putty by hand.

I added a collar on the mast using a hose clamp at the point mast goes through the deck. From the collar I attached a line leading to the bow where the original forestay connects and two more leading aft to where the original shrouds connect. The three lines were adjusted and tensioned using a mid shipmans knot. My hope was to use the original rigging points to keep the mast from putting too much stress on the deck itself.

The sail is sheeted to directly to the main block. It is the same sail I made for my Laser over 2 years ago. It was sitting outside in the elements on the docks at a friends marina and still works just fine. It got a little moldy, but I rolled it up nicely, it seems to have stayed in working order.

The centerboard right now is a chunk of wood from Hope Depot sitting at an angle swept back causing it to be about half the depth of the original centerboard. The rudder is tied on to some holes on the stern and flops around quite a bit. This is a work in progress, and I am open to any ideas and suggestions about anything on the boat.

Once the other Lido is outfitted with the original rig and sails, I plan to race them against each other.

Here is a video of the first test sail of the converted Lido.

Lido 14 Junk Rig Conversion - YouTube

- Colin Clayton