Danny green chameleon nesting dinghy

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by Snore

Nice! I'm working on a B&B 2-paw nesting dinghy.

Attachment 113194




Sent from my iPhone- please forgive autocorrect errors.

Awesome! I built their Spindrift 9' nesting.... awesome stable little boat, but it ended-up weighting about 130 pounds with all the fairing I needed We replaced with a RIB before we went cruising.

Matt

[AMFE]

thank you so much for your posting your progress as it has absolutely cleared up a few of my questions before I get started. I will try to do the same once i get started to hopefully encourage others.

Cheers

Aaron

[Delancey]

Just a bump for the thread. I am about to start my build and wondered how Captain Obvious was making out? Also curious to hear from other builders if they have any insight as to pitfalls to be aware of or things they might have done differently in hindsight?

Cheers

[MooGroc]

I wish I had used less epoxy to keep the weight down. You can always add more after you have used the dinghy for a season and see a weak spot.

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by MooGroc

I wish I had used less epoxy to keep the weight down. You can always add more after you have used the dinghy for a season and see a weak spot.

Did you glass inside and out? Or just outside? What kind of ply did you use?

I am using domestic fir which is a bit heavy to begin with and is also prone to checking in the face veneers so am inclined to glass both sides but haven't made up my mind. Prolly should.

[MooGroc]

Originally Posted by Delancey

Did you glass inside and out? Or just outside? What kind of ply did you use?

I am using domestic fir which is a bit heavy to begin with and is also prone to checking in the face veneers so am inclined to glass both sides but haven't made up my mind. Prolly should. Would prefer to keep it light but have moral issues with the use of Okume.

I built a Spindrift 10N. It is not covered in glass, just the seams are taped. I used 6mm
Okame (sp?) marine grade plywood. It was great to work with. But I should have made the filet's smaller and used only one coat of epoxy on each side of the ply.

[Delancey]

I take it you painted over the top of the epoxy? Has the boat seen much use/abuse? Or does it get babied, only used occasionally?

[MooGroc]

Originally Posted by Delancey

I take it you painted over the top of the epoxy? Has the boat seen much use/abuse? Or does it get babied, only used occasionally?

It's not painted or babied but it doesn't get much use. Just a few weeks each summer during our cruise. If I was heading south, I'd probably paint it white.

One advantage of building you own dinghy is that you can easily repair any damage that occurs, so there is less of a reason to baby it.

[Snore]

@delancey--Don't go cheap, get okoume! Although "life" has caused me to pause my project the complete hull of my spindrift weigh 20-30 pounds. I can pick it up myself.

Do take the time to compare weights of the different woods.

[Delancey]

Personally I can't accept okoume for two reasons, one structural and one ethical. Cost is not the issue. I have worked with it before and am quite familiar with it's virtues and deficits. But thanks for the input, I can certanly appreciate your concerns with regards to weight.

[01kiwijohn]

There were a couple of items, in the plans, that proved to be out of station, when lofting it onto the ply sheets, but they are reasonably obvious and easy to correct.
I'd follow the same curvature, but increase the radius a little, to increase the clearance that the forward transom has above the waterline, when being rowed with a single occupant.
Reduce the height of the two aft buoyancy chambers by about 1 1/2 inches, so that you can put a cushion on the seat and enable two to sit across the stern, when necessary.
Make sure you bolt the two center bulkheads, as per the instructions, to keep them from moving when filleting them in.
Cover the inside floor of the hulls with light cloth, to protect from abrasion.
I use mine every year, for the past four, for some five months each, as my only tender. It has held up really well, You'll love it.

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by 01kiwijohn

I'd follow the same curvature, but increase the radius a little, to increase the clearance that the forward transom has above the waterline, when being rowed with a single occupant.

Looks like the depth of the curve on the top of the mating bulkheads is 5", how much would you suggest reducing it? 1/2"? maybe 1"? Thanks!

[Matt Johnson]

As I said in my post above, we sold our nesting dinghy due to it being overweight and difficult to move. I ended going with Hydrotek marine plywood and should have chosen a lighter/thinner wood along with less fairing. With epoxy, paint, wood and plans, I had approx $1600 into the dinghy without the sail kit.... where the money went, I'll never know But I'm pretty sure most of the money ended up getting sanded off and in the ShopVac.

Matt

[Delancey]

If like myself you are looking for a dinghy that performs like a pickup truck rather than a SUV built on an automobile chassis consider the following when you purchase your wood:

Weight - Building the rowing only version of chameleon out of Okoume instead of Douglas Fir will save maybe around ten pounds or ten percent of the designers suggested weight of a hundred pounds. A little bit more than the weight of a gallon of water.

Quality - 5 ply 6mm BS 1088 rated Okoume will feature a better quality lay up than a domestic 3 ply 1/4" APA marine grade Douglas Fir. The DF will also likely have a couple footballs on the A-side but if you are epoxy coating you should be painting anyway.

Cost - True Llyods certified BS 1088 Okoume will easily cost twice as much as domestic DF not including shipping. Be advised there are others claiming to be built to the BS 1088 spec from France and Israel but not certified for less money and others made in China marketed as marine grade available for even less money still but of dubious quality. Know what you are buying or beware.

Strength - Douglas Fir has nearly 50% greater modulus of elasticity and 30% greater crushing strength than Okoume. When you are dealing with very thin material to begin with that difference in strength is significant. Be advised the spec for 6mm BS 1088 allows for finished product to be as little as .21" thick. FWIW my domestic 1/4" DF is . 267" thick. True, very thin Okoume will be that much lighter than DF, but it will also be much much weaker.

Durability- unlike Douglas Fir which is rated as moderately durable, Okoume is rated as non-durable. Sure, you're epoxy coating it so no worries right? All depends on how much abuse you dish out and what kind of maintenance you are willing to put into it. Rot happens. Repairing rot on stitch and glue construction can be a pain.

Ethics - Okoume is listed on the IUNC Red List as vulnerable. Douglas Fir is listed as least concern. If you live in the states consider that Okoume plywood starts out life as a raw material in an African equatorial rainforest, gets cut down and shipped across an ocean to a European nation for manufacture, then gets shipped across another ocean to this country before it finally gets shipped one last time to your doorstep so you can build yourself a dink.

Meanwhile the domestic DF comes to you from a temperate forest in your own country which means all your money stays right here instead of being spread around countries like rape capital of the world or it's neighbors where there is little accountability for environmental issues or human rights.

[01kiwijohn]

No No; just the radius of the two forward hull sections, along their keel/ centerlines, to encourage the bottom/ center corner of the bow transom to be just a little higher, maybe only an inch or so.
By the way, don't worry too much about what kind of plywood you use. The outside surfaces will be covered in cloth & epoxy, the other surfaces you can paint with epoxy and still have some left over, if you buy the quantity suggested in the plans. Basically, teh ply is there only to give it substance.