Fah Kiew Tu
Curmudgeon, First Rank
I put 2 drain holes in my nesting dinghy, one in each section.
Now for extra yoga brownie points, reach those bungs when the dinghy is in the davits...
FKT
Hard dinks, nesting dinks, and why we like them
- Thread starter 2airishuman
- Start date
Now for extra yoga brownie points, reach those bungs when the dinghy is in the davits...
FKT
Yes for our dinghy in davits (ok stern arch) I could JUST reach over the top and unscrew the bung on the inside. Took a bit of a leaning over the water and cursing.
Usually I'd have to do it on day 2 of an offshore passage when I realized I had forgotten to do it before hoisting.
Again.
Usually I'd have to do it on day 2 of an offshore passage when I realized I had forgotten to do it before hoisting.
Again.
That sounds like having to untie the mizzen cover on my yawl. Everytime. And everytime I swear i fit a long enough rope to lead it back inboard, this is obviously forgotten when I put it back on. Nothing more funny than climbing out 1.5 meters on a skinny boom in a chop.
mckenzie.keith
Aspiring Anarchist
So, I may be in a better position to attempt to build something now. When it comes to building stitch and glue boats I have only watched videos. Never built one. This one seems more challenging than the simpler ones like Zonks's GV 10 for example. I do like the concept though. Do you have any idea how heavy it will end up?
Without pitting you guys against each other, what do you think are the main tradeoffs with say the GV 10 vs the split vee? They both seem like they would do the job I need them too. I THINK I can fit the GV 10. This one would be easier to fit it looks like.
Rasputin22
Rasputin22
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The first 'tunnel split Vee' I built was 1/4" marine ply and was 9'9" long and weighed 99 lbs glassed on the outside only. I powered it with a Yamaha 2 stroke 9.9 HP and I named the design 'STRAIGHT NINES'. A surveyor friend asked if he could digitise the boat and create DXF files that he printed out full scale on the office pen plotter. He spray tack glued his nested parts file to plywood and quickly cut out with a jigsaw. He even arrayed the holes along the edges for electrical tie wraps and stitched up the pre-glassed panels in no time. Pretty much self jigging and pretty soon I had several liveaboards from my anchorage wanting one to replace the ageing inflatable dinghys and tinders. The surveyor scaled his length up to an even 10' and scaled down the beam a couple inches so it would fit between a hatch and a bulwark on his big ketch. Mine had a foredeck hatch that was cut so as to fit perfectly over the V-berth hatch on the front of the cabin house on my Passport 40. The 3rd was 12' in length for a 25 HP motor and the 4th of the series was 15 length and ran a 40 HP. By then the tunnel proportions had gotten out of the optimum range and that boat tended to bow steer overtaking waves and did a couple of faceplants. The V deadrise was too steep and it also tended to spit out the front in just the right chop/swell conditions. It was pretty sexy but lost a lot of the stability and utility. I think the original proportions were pretty much spot on and we soon found just how far one could alter that.
Tacoma Mud Flats
Have star, will steer by
GIN, VODKA, ABSINTHE, BRANDY AND BLACKBERRY LIQUOR MIXED TOGETHER IN EQUAL PARTS
Oh sorry, thought it said hard drinks - DYSLEXIA is aflicttion terbble is.
Oh sorry, thought it said hard drinks - DYSLEXIA is aflicttion terbble is.
Hale Moana
Member
I didn't read this whole thread. Me bad. Not. When I was cruising in Mexico I started out with a small 9' rib. It was too small and you got soaked in the short steep chop that invariably always seems to come up when you don't want to get wet. After lots of thought I went with a Sam Devlin guppy design. Since I didn't care about sailing and only wanted to row and power. I modified it. I made the stern the same as the midship frame. I ended up with a deep V hull that easily handled any chop. And it rowed well too. Short distances I rowed. Longer treks I put the outboard on. And it towed well too. Light weight. Maybe 80 to 90 lbs. Fit on the bow too.
The first outboard was a 9.9 hp Nissan. It was so fast that it was scary. Next was an 8 hp Nissan. More than fast enough to get where you needed to go. It was old when I go it and after lots of hard use and little maintenance it got replaced by an ancient Mercury 4 hp. The Merc was adequate and never got you in trouble like the Nissans could if you weren't playing attention.
One really nice feature was I extended the hull on each side of the motor. You could stand on the extensions and the transom didn't go under water. Very easy to get in the dink over the transom. I copied this feature from some Sam's duck boat designs.
Here are some pictures.
Sadly do to my piss poor construction coupled with 24/7 365 days a year use, rain or shine, it started to come apart. After a few patch jobs it got cut up and thrown in the trash.
Without a doubt it was the best dinghy that I have ever owned. Some day I will make another. There is only one change I will make in the next one. For better balance with two people on board the seat needs to be configured so that the people can be more centered in the boat. Replace the center athwartships seat with a long seat down the center of the dink.
The first outboard was a 9.9 hp Nissan. It was so fast that it was scary. Next was an 8 hp Nissan. More than fast enough to get where you needed to go. It was old when I go it and after lots of hard use and little maintenance it got replaced by an ancient Mercury 4 hp. The Merc was adequate and never got you in trouble like the Nissans could if you weren't playing attention.
One really nice feature was I extended the hull on each side of the motor. You could stand on the extensions and the transom didn't go under water. Very easy to get in the dink over the transom. I copied this feature from some Sam's duck boat designs.
Here are some pictures.
Sadly do to my piss poor construction coupled with 24/7 365 days a year use, rain or shine, it started to come apart. After a few patch jobs it got cut up and thrown in the trash.
Without a doubt it was the best dinghy that I have ever owned. Some day I will make another. There is only one change I will make in the next one. For better balance with two people on board the seat needs to be configured so that the people can be more centered in the boat. Replace the center athwartships seat with a long seat down the center of the dink.
mckenzie.keith
Aspiring Anarchist
I guess I need to tag Zonker. Hey, @Zonker should I build rasputin22's split vee or your GV10? I am leaning toward the GV10 because it looks about as easy as it is possible to get to build. I guess I could do what Hale Moana did, too, but even though that is a great story, I am not sure I want to improvise on the Guppy plans that much.
3 cheers to those old enough to remember pen plotters. On Friday afternoon, drawings are to be sent by courier, trying to get the ink to flow from the thin ones.
GV10 pros: very big inside. Like 6 adults at non planing speed and still have reasonable freeboard.
Would actually row OK if not too heavily loaded (2 adults) and you used long oars.
Fast. With a 15 HP 2 stroke and 1 person it would do 25 mph (I use mph because all the powerboater peoples I am designing for understand mph and not knots).
Super stable. "Stand in one aft corner and pee over the transom when slightly tipsy stable" That is an ASTM standard by the way.
Pretty easy to build I'd agree.
Well proven sets of plans, designed for a total beginner to do well.
Cons: The 2 main transverse frames are not cut from 1 big piece of plywood but are assembled from L-shaped pieces of ply with separate uprights and a horizontal piece. Like a truss. So that adds a bit to construction time (but saves you 2 full pieces of plywood so I think it's worth it).
The deadrise is relatively shallow.
So it will be a bit harder riding in steep/big chop than an RIB with deeper V hull and tubes that deform to cushion wave impact. Pretty big if you only are carrying 2 people all the time it is a bit overkill as a dinghy
If you're often carrying 3 or 4 or (2 + a few hundred pounds of groceries or dive gear) you will appreciate the size.
I get a royalty from plans so support your local NA
OK please don't let that be a factor. Choose the boat that you think will suit you best.Build it in Okume if you choose it. I was at Edensaw in Port Townsend picking up wood and they were out of it and I used a different tropical marine ply. Considerably heavier in the end, but the boat was still only about 120 lbs when all done and painted.
Hale Moana
Member
The modifications I did to the guppy design were not hard. I exchanged some emails with Sam before I did it. I took out the curves from station 6 back to the transom on the bottom. I believe that I did the same for the sides. But it has been over 15 years since I made the dinghy and my memory is a little fuzzy on how I cut the sides.
Like I said it was the best dinghy that I had ever had. It did everything I wanted it to and then some. I am getting tired of the issues with my current 1960's 10' glaspar. Time to make another guppy.
I shouldn't complain too much about my current dink. One of my best friends that I met in Dana Point had one of these with a 6hp Mercury that he would routinely take to the isthmus from Alamitos Bay when he was in 5th/6th grade. If Mom and Dad were going to Catalina for the weekend Greg would leave as soon as the wind died after school on a Friday and be tied up to their mooring when Mom and Dad got there on Saturday morning. Can you imagine what would happen to you if you let your 5th grader do that these days?
Like I said it was the best dinghy that I had ever had. It did everything I wanted it to and then some. I am getting tired of the issues with my current 1960's 10' glaspar. Time to make another guppy.
I shouldn't complain too much about my current dink. One of my best friends that I met in Dana Point had one of these with a 6hp Mercury that he would routinely take to the isthmus from Alamitos Bay when he was in 5th/6th grade. If Mom and Dad were going to Catalina for the weekend Greg would leave as soon as the wind died after school on a Friday and be tied up to their mooring when Mom and Dad got there on Saturday morning. Can you imagine what would happen to you if you let your 5th grader do that these days?
Our now sold 2 part nesting dinghy was sold as the 9 foot foot dinghy stowed OK under the boom on our 37 foot steel sailboat...
BUT
Assembling the dinghy on deck was not possible and assembling in all but mirror calm was risky.
Moved back to an inflatable which was sad as the nester had a mast daggerboard and kick up rudder.
We used an aluminum pipe spreader bar attached to a halyard to raise and lower the dinghy. That allowed rasing the boat upright and rotating it 180 degrees before lowering on deck.
With sufficient space on the foredeck we would have stored it there but an inner stay prevented that option plus we would have covered the sail locker.
Hale Moana
Member
Another reason I did the transom extensions was to have room around the mast. Didn't really need it because the dink was a perfect fit between the inner forestay for the storm jib and the mast. Just dumb luck on that.
I had a bridle to pick the dink up at night. Dinks left in the water over night in Mexico had a tendency to be missing come morning. To put it on deck (and for towing) I put an eye on the stem and lifted it with the spin halyard. Another dumb luck thing was the sheer allowed the bow to rest on the deck and the gunnels cleared the cabin top. A strap from the eye to the deck fitting for the inner forestay kept the bow in place and lines from transom to the handrails kept the stern in place. This survived green water coming over the bow on the bash up the coast of Baja when I came back to California.
I had a bridle to pick the dink up at night. Dinks left in the water over night in Mexico had a tendency to be missing come morning. To put it on deck (and for towing) I put an eye on the stem and lifted it with the spin halyard. Another dumb luck thing was the sheer allowed the bow to rest on the deck and the gunnels cleared the cabin top. A strap from the eye to the deck fitting for the inner forestay kept the bow in place and lines from transom to the handrails kept the stern in place. This survived green water coming over the bow on the bash up the coast of Baja when I came back to California.
mckenzie.keith
Aspiring Anarchist
In my previous trip we kept an inflatable Avon on the foredeck. It was our dinghy and our lifeboat. It was not a RIB. It was an inflatable keel sportboat. There were go bags under it. Launching it without the motor was pretty easy for us (we were two 20-something males at the time). Getting it back on board we used a halyard. Getting the 100 lb honda outboard installed was kind of difficult if the sea was not calm, but we had a pulley up high on the transom and we could use that to lower the outboard under some semblance of control. Of course in an abandon ship situation we would not bother with the outboard.
The Avon survived shipping green seas and a gale of wind in northern Australia. It was held down with three lines secured to padeyes with spinnaker shackles. That proved adequate.
The Avon survived shipping green seas and a gale of wind in northern Australia. It was held down with three lines secured to padeyes with spinnaker shackles. That proved adequate.
Hale Moana
Member
I used a stanchion gate and some angled rail fittings that I got from Minneys to make a lift for my outboard. Worked good. Very easy to pick up my outboards. I put my long distance wifi antenna on top of the support tube. Could pick up wifi signals up to two miles away at times. Especially in La Paz where you can log onto wifi once a day for up two hours. Free. I'll take a picture of the lift next time I am at the boat.
Hale Moana
Member
Found a picture of the outboard lift.
