13' SuperMinto Sail & Oar Dinghy (1980) - JUNE

JUNE is one of the boats that just kind of fell into place.

My brother and I have been longtime fans of the Ranger Minto, the quintessential Pacific Northwest dinghy/tender (at least, until the PT11 came along). After sailing our two Mintos around for a few years, always on the prowl to expand our fleet, this funny orphan came up for sale online. It looked just like a Minto, and was clearly different than the other “supersized” dinghies we’d seen, like the Ranger 11 and 12. I happened to have a camping trip planned for the following weekend to the island on which it was for sale. When I met the seller, it turned he was an R2AK alumnus too, and had planned to use the boat to recreate the “100 Days in the San Juans,” a legendary adventure by my hero June Burn and her husband, recorded in the newspaper and later reprinted as the eponymous book. The seller didn’t end up doing the trip, but I already knew what the boat’s name would be, even before (not very much) money had exchanged hands.

JUNE came with the sail and rig from a Quartermaster 10, another forgotten PNW sailing dinghy, but it was poorly suited to the boat, with a heavy aluminum mast and wilting old mainsail. My favorite regular Minto, SWEETPEA, had been restored with a home-built balanced lug rig, which we love – it sails better than a stock Minto with the marconi rig! So, it was a no-brainer to dream up a big lug rig for JUNE. Again, the pieces fell into place… a racing sailor friend donated a retired Moth mast (yes, the foiler!)… I found a huge, 4-reef lug sail made out of poly tarp… an old windsurfer mast would serve as the yard… and the original boom fit just right to make it a standing lug.

So now JUNE has a huge, easily-reefed sail, a lightweight rig, two rowing stations, and takes a 6hp outboard just fine… what a multi-talented boat! She’s a great tender that can take twice the people/cargo of a 9′ Minto, is a blast for an afternoon sail, and has performed admirably as a crabbing skiff and whale watching boat!

For all of her great qualities and stories, nothing can beat surfing down a freighter wake behind orcas as they leapt out of the water…