Nesting/sailing dingy

[hangfire]

I have seen homebuilt nesting/sailing dingys. I have a sailing dingy and it is a bit much to put on deck. I know the plans are in a book in the public library and I just don't remember the name of the book?Please help, thank you.

[Charlie Jones]

Don't know about a book, but this designer has 6 or 8 different nesting dinghy designs, from 8 to 12 feet, pram bow or pointed, sail, row or motor.

http://bandbyachtdesigns.com/

Look for the Catspaw or Spindrift lines.

Not expensive for the plans either and a great guy to work with. Also a builders BB that you can go to.

[Jack Tyler]

Hangfire:

There are many nesting dinghy designs; they come in 2- and 3-part hull designs and a web search will give you much to choose from.

Having built and used one, I think it's worth carefully considering how the two (or three) hulls are joined when you're in the water and everything is bouncing around; the 'mating' and 'disconnecting' events can be difficult in anything other than placid conditions.

Also, don't overlook the height a nested dinghy will take on deck. They typically are more of an obstruction to forward viz than a single-hulled hard dink, and you may need to consider boom clearance as well.

A final cavaet: Most of these designs use thin plywood with reinforced gunwales, corners and thwarts, and with the ply sections being epoxy coated. In truth, a ply dink can take quite a beating out on unimproved parts of the cruising trail; they are not as robust as a GRP lay-up...nor as easily repaired. If to offset this, you cover the ply with a layer of GRP, the weight goes up and one piece of a nesting hull may weigh what a full-length GRP dink weighs. Just one of the trade-offs worth thinking about; for local or 'easy' cruising this is not a big issue.

FWIW one of the successful recent nesting dink projects, well documented and with a savvy guy to follow up with Q's, is Terry Sargeant's on VALHALLA. Look for it in his projects collection: http://www.yachtvalhalla.net/index1.htm

Good luck to you; it's a fun project.

Jack

[YachtVALHALLA]

Jack sez "I think it's worth carefully considering how the two (or three) hulls are joined when you're in the water and everything is bouncing around".

That's a good point, Jack, and in my case I find the stability of the front section is dicey so I get into the aft section to install the three 1/2" bolts which hold mine together. If the conditions are a bit rough we do the assembly on the foredeck and launch everything together (using a three legged bridle and spare halyard run through a turning block to the windlass).

As for construction, I chose to fiberglass both inside and outside mainly since the only available ply was about 3/16" thickness. The added weight is acceptable and the wear and tear has been minimized.

Terry