The Ideal Tender for a 31" yacht

[PeterR7]

I am interested in finding the best option for a tender to be used mostly in sheltered waters, especially D'Entrecateaux Channel, Tasmania. I have a 6' plywood (quite unstable), a 10' Clinker Dinghy (very stable but perhaps too long). The Pardey's feature their "tender, lifeboat Cheeky" in Cost Conscious Cruiser. Martin Seymour, a friend of mine, who now lives in Wales, has just published a book, Clinker Dinghy Building. In it, he refers to "Dumpling" LOA 7' Beam 4' and having seen his 'finished product', am of the opinion that this dinghy would fill all one needs. It is stable, can be hauled on deck and looks good. As a newcomer, with my first post, I will add a photo, but need to see how to do this first. Here go's!

[onestepcsy37]

sounds like you could keep your 31" yacht aboard either tender...

[PeterR7]

What a difference a ' makes!

[Andrew Troup]

A local radio station had a contest many years ago for which the prize was a 42 foot yacht (which is what we call a sailboat)

I 'just happened' to be in the area when the prize was delivered. My suspicions were immediately aroused when a truck turned up with a 40' shipping container.

The container backed up to the slip (so we couldn't see into it) and the lucky contestant was ushered in, accompanied by the radio host with a microphone.

We could hear their footsteps, echoing in the empty space, as they walked all the way to the front end.

There was a loud burst of laughter, before the lucky winner reemerged holding aloft a small model yacht, with twenty-one little protruding feet, each with a little shoe, arranged down each side of the bottom of the long keel.

[olaf hart]

Take a look at a Bolger Nymph.
I widened one from 3'6" to 4' beam, it was great.
You could probably fine a way to fit it on deck as well.

[tbodine88]

Originally Posted by PeterR7

I am interested in finding the best option for a tender to be used mostly in sheltered waters

I have a 10' Walker bay plastic tender which I would either tow behind or haul up on top of my foredeck on my Ericson 32. It worked great. I could either row her or motor her with a two horse power motor.

[onestepcsy37]

please DON'T take a look at the bolger nymph. (sorry olaf, but keep reading).

i built one as a 'winter' project. then i tried to use it in the spring. almost completely unstable; i've been in canoes with more stability. wound up giving it away. a few years later bolger 'redesigned' the nymph to be much wider, and hopefully more stable. think he called it the 'fat nymph' or something like that...

[olaf hart]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

please DON'T take a look at the bolger nymph. (sorry olaf, but keep reading).

i built one as a 'winter' project. then i tried to use it in the spring. almost completely unstable; i've been in canoes with more stability. wound up giving it away. a few years later bolger 'redesigned' the nymph to be much wider, and hopefully more stable. think he called it the 'fat nymph' or something like that...

The Reuben's Nymph was a foot wider. Mine is 6"wider, works well.
Agree with the comments about the standard width.
I learnt my lesson about the narrow beam after I built a Bolger Elegant Punt.

[Pete7]

Peter, were are you store a hard dinghy on board?

We are also 31 ft and use a 2.6m inflatable for this very reason.

Pete

[onestepcsy37]

look at the portabote. some people love them, others just ignore them. but a long time cruising friend of mine, with a 40 footer who could have easily kept a hard dinghy aboard, swears by his portabote. has had one for maybe fifteen years now.

www.portabote.com