Who carries a hard dinghy while cruising?

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by George Elliott

Hi I built a planing nesting dinghy a few years back and pulled molds off it...

What general considerations did you have to contend with in your nesting dinghy… I have a nicely shaped 9’ fiberglass rowing dinghy that I can tow for local cruising, but am trying to think my way through a way to carry something for over the horizon stuff… I’ve recently thought about carefully measuring and seeing if I could make my current dinghy into a nesting one…

Don’t want to carry an inflatable; partly because I have no clue where I’d put it on a B24, and partly because I’ve “been there did that” on larger boats… I want something that rows nicely and will still carry a “ton” (which mine does), but I don’t think I want the windage for foredeck storage, and the cabin top space actually available is only about 6’ or slightly less…

[imagine2frolic]

dc,

There was a fellow who made a nesting dinghy that fit over his hatch, so it took no space at all. Then he attatched a sailboard sail to it, and sailed it too.

[Squeaks]

"I don’t think I want the windage for foredeck storage, and the cabin top space actually available is only about 6’ or slightly less…"
Larry:
Although I'm building a slightly modified stitch-and-glue ply Eastport Pram for stowing on my foredeck (no room on cabintop due to dodger & liferaft), I always liked Lynn and Larry Pardee's way of stowing their Fatty Knees bow-forward on the cabintop - it kind of acts like a dodger. If one could figure a way of removing the transom it could stow even more over the companionway. Could that work? Just a thought.
John

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by Squeaks

I always liked Lynn and Larry Pardee's way of stowing their Fatty Knees bow-forward on the cabintop ...Could that work? Just a thought.

Yep, I’ve been hoping to store on the cabin top similarly; however, the space I actually have available on a B24 is not large… any sort of stowage will probably conflict with the vang, but I can re-rig that… I could go with a micro-dinghy, but being of the beef-fed size (as versus the Pardey size) , the Admiral and I would each need our own… My current dinghy rows wonderfully and I’ve had both my Bride and me, with the boat’s auxiliary outboard, the outboards gas-tank and a cooler as well as the usual odds and ends for a weekend jaunt, and it seems quite content with the load with plenty of freeboard left… I was toying with new construction altogether, but the current dinghy is so handy, I’ve been attempting to figure out if converting it to a nesting configuration is feasible – I’m just not sure what considerations I need to take into account besides simply sawing the little sucker in half…

[Squeaks]

Larry:
While anchored at Sausalito over the weekend (for a concert -the easiest concert "parking" ever :-), I spotted a small sloop, about 24-ft that had an up-turned hard dinghy on the cabin top, aft of the mast. The transom overhung into the cockpit about a foot or two but it actually looked possible to enter / exit the companionway under it fairly well, especially if the transom were removed and would give excelent wx protection to the companionway. More food for thought for the space-challenged among us!

[Delezynski]

I thought about putting a hard dink on the cabin top, aft of the mast, and making the transom removable. It would be like a hard dodger. But after sailing offshore for a bit I am glad I did not go that way. I would have had to make windows in the bow of the dink to make it work!

I did build a nesting dink. You can see it in our cruising prep web pages (under our projects). We used it for only one season in the states. It rested on the top of the cabin forward of the mast. BUT, it covered the forward hatch, the ONLY other way out of the cabin should there be a fire near the main hatch (next to the stove).

So, being lazy, we opted for the PortaBoat and have been VERY happy with it.

Greg

[dcstrng]

Squeaks; yeah, the “dodger” idea intrigues me, although I think the Admiral would veto any cockpit incursions… she thinks it and the companionway are too small already, and I’ve only been making modest headway selling the notion of a bridge-deck to reduce cockpit volume (different issue, but the Command Bridge will probably see it as the same thing…)

Thanks Greg, I went to your site… I’d looked at one of those Glen-L tenders a year or so back… It sounds like the nesting notion isn’t widely accepted in the long run… I think I may have just a smidgen more cabin top than on your Nor-Sea, but not much, however I think there may be just enough… I don’t want to carry something over the fore’hatch (because of windage concerns, as well as emergency egress…), nor can I figure out where I’d carry one of the folding varieties such as PortaBoat, that would be about perfect, but storage is still a problem -- and don’t want to give up what little locker space I have to carry a serious inflatable besides the fact that they don’t row worth a hoot, they have to be inflated and carrying an outboard just consumes more space… so right now the nesting option, as wearisome as they can be, is all that seems intriguing… just with I understood the dimensional concerns a tad better so I could figure our whether my current hard dink might be adaptable...

[Simes]

Sir,
The item you are looking for is a "Tinker Traveller". It is a neat little inflatable with a marine ply floor, Hypalon tubes, takes a decent sized out board is an RYA Raceing class under sail and rolls into a smallish package. www.henshaw.co.uk
We have had one for years, ours also has a survival canopy compleate with gas tanks for rapid emergency inflation.
It has prooved to be all but indestructable, love it to the end.

Simes

[Alondra]

If you consider buying a Hard bottom, consider bying a Hypalon material one. It is more expensive but they last a lot longer in hot and cold conditions. hard bottom further is TOP. It gives you much more comfort and we would never,ever(!!!!) want a soft bottom again. Don't buy to big. After testing a lot, 3.15 was super for us. We use it with a 15 HP two stroke Yamaha. The reason for that is that the 9.9 is exactly the same weight and four stroke engins are in daily use ( having to take it of when we tow the dingy on deck) ta heavy. Besides, it doesn't weigh up again the fuel efficiency however that may be for the small distances you usually use the dingy for.
Goo Luck!

[anotherT34C]

I use an old 8' fiberglass dinghy (got it for free), unknown make, model or age. It doesn't fit anywhere on deck, so I have to drag the stupid thing when I want to take it (otherwise it lives at the dock, tied up by my bow). It's also very 'tippy'. To counteract the 'tippiness', I lash to it four large old boat fenders, two to a side, tied horizontally. This also protects my hull during boarding.