a little dinghy

[roamer]

Hello all - Heard about the site from the good folks at Lats&Atts.

I am the maker of some new products for inflatable dinghies. A clamp on the transom Human Powered Propulsion unit and a universal sail rig that will make inflatables into great sailing dinghies. We Believe it is possible to have a rippin' good time and still be good to the environment.

Please check us out, www.scully-fin.com


Rom

[Anonymous]

Scully,

Can't help but ask (not trying to be critical...but) what about longitudinal thust? Other than running, don't you kind of need a centerboard?

I've got a sailing dink, and I wouldn't try to use it unless I slid a daggerboard down.

Otherwise, I'm stuck in that old S&G* song..."Slip sliding away..."

Just wondering.

anon

*simon and garfunkle

[roamer]

S&G - You have cut right to the center of controversy. If you check out the site you will see the Patent Pending "Bow Mounted Daggerboard" which really balances out the concept. We tried leeboards of course but moving the resistance forward a little further balanced out the sculling rudder and what is really a motor boat hull design. It also opens up the boat space for people and gear. This is not without precedence, Chinese and Egyptian seafarers have been using the concept for about 2000 years or so, a Swedish gentleman named Sven Lundin has incorporated the idea into a couple of his long distance cruisers. Believe it or not inflatable boats ( with inflatable keels I might add) sail very well. They are light and have very high initial stability so they don't heel in the puffs, they just scoot.
Most important is the proliferation of inflatables. I learned to sail on the family dinghy, an el Toro like sailing, rowing pram. The family dinghy of today is an inflatable so are we are raising a generation of power boaters?