Our
boat is 60’
aluminum with large strong
davits and a sugar scoop stern. We are looking for opinions on dinghys and
dinghy designs. Stability is the primary requirement. Please, no
inflatable or folding boats.
Here are the three we have now.
Dinghy #1 The tank. 14’ welded
aluminum wide body Sea Ark with 25 hp
fuel injected Yamaha. 4’ beam on bottom. Carries manatees easily. High freeboard. Pounds a bit in big chop.
Motor works perfectly. Very fast
boat...but boat is stern heavy a bit and does not self drain. Too big to carry
offshore. Sticks out past scoop. So stable a drunk manatee couldn’t make it tip. Stay at Home Port
work boat not designed to take
offshore. When we are done building, we’ll sell it.
Dinghy #2 The Pearl. 10’ Trinka. We carry it easily over stern
cabin upright. Great two person boat with 2.5 hp Yamaha. Rows nice. Will change sail plan to gaff rig.
It’s a bit tippy and four manatees will sink it. Will probably keep it. Great second dinghy when we need two.
Dinghy #3 Lettuce. 12’ Trinka ...As in “let us “try a bigger Trinka. Nice boat. Pros. Self bails, nice freeboard, sailing, moves ok with 2.5 Yamaha. Pretty like all Trinkas. Good fit under
davits, just heavy.
Cons. Too big to row alone. Lot heavier than the 10’. Had to build a forward thwart 4” up as side seating is too close to bottom. Original rig too tall got to change. Good boat for
learning to sail,
kids. Skinny flexible people.
Can stand off center but still not flat bottom stable...still tippy. 12’ is longest for carrying under davits,
motor off. Thinking of selling soon. Close to best, but not quite perfect. Tippy if you are old and trying to get in and out at a
dock.
So...we could easily sell the tank to fishermen ...it’s just a home port
work boat. We will never sell the 10’ Trinka. Looks so nice on our
deck, rows and
sails nice...just it’s difficult with guests and we are getting old and stiff ourselves and requires being very careful boarding. All around it’s great, just a bit too small.
If we found a replacement for the Trinka 12 what do we want to see in the design.:
12 foot max ...Aluminum preferred. Holds 4 manatees, takes 10 -15 hp. Good high freeboard. As close to four foot bottom beam as looks reasonable to not be tippy. No full flat bottom that simply pounds you to death. Strong design. Self drain no motor would be nice. Everything else we can TIG on like lifting points.
So what beautiful designs have you seen ?
Happy trails to you. Thank you in advance.
Mark.