In spite of the SunCat low drought it would be nice to have a small beachable dinghy... However, towing a dinghy astern of a 17 ft boat can be quite a strenous drag (pun not intended...). So, I am curious as to what dinghies, if any, have been favoured by other SunCat skippers...
My list of the smallest and lightest (and still useable...) dinghies includes, on the "heavy" side: the rigid Walker Bay 8 (8', 71 lbs), the folding Porta Bote 8 (8'6", 79 lbs). and on the "light side": the inflatable Grand Elf E210 (6'10", 48 lbs), the venerable BIC Sportyak (7', 42 lbs) (made in the US by KL Industries) and some Sevylor light inflatables... I do not particularly favour kayaks or canoes but would not mind one of those Kevlar rowing Vermont Pack Boat's from Adirondack Guide-Boats (12' 2", 46 lbs)...
J.
Joseph, with your limited space I propose that you make a dingy custom fit for your boat. Hannu's boatyard has some of the easiest plans for ultra small dingies. And they are all free. I built a Portuguese with 1.2 pieces of plywood. It was my first stitch and glue boat, and I sold it to someone for a fishing boat. (its still working well!)
http://koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial/
Darn you Newt! Why did you have to show me that website? There is no way I could look at all those great little project boats and not build one. Just what I needed, another project on my "must do" list.
I really love the little Portuguese version. Did you ever tow it or use it as a dinghy for your sailboat?
Mike
The Oragami dinghy looks like a fun project too and much cheaper then the PortaBotes.
For inflatables also check out the Achillies LT2 and LT4. Defender has some leftover 2009 LT2s at a good price.
Shawn
Loved the "Bolger Light Dory" from Hannu's Boatyard. I wonder what would be its displacement. Others like the "Half Pea" and the "Origamy" I doubt would be too safe, but then again, wasn't it in a Coracle that St. Brendan made the first north transatlantic crossing...?
J.
Mike, I used that dingy for my Compac 23. It fit perfectly on the front. I would suggest adding a little keel, I used a two by four and shaped it. Otherwise the flat bottom makes it too easy to slide sidewise when you get in. Your right Joseph- some of the boats are too small to be of practical use, but they are fun to look at anyway.
J:
I use a Walker Bay 8. The reason? I found it and it was free! It is the tender that I use to row out to my 23 so naturally it is the dingy I tow when I go off on adventures. It doesn't seem to create much drag, if fact I beat my brother in his O'Day Mariner while towing the W'Bay. I bring that victory up often...ah, how sweet it is!
I would love to build a small dingy but there is too many things on the list already. Maybe Mike Greene will build one for me...he's got all kinds of free time!
Bob23
Bob - ... but you sail a 23...! I also used to tow a WB8 with my Alberg 22 (3,200 lbs and full-keel). With it the WB was great but it did pull strongly when towing in following seas and I can only imagine what that same kind of pull would feel in a boat half that weight and with only a center-board. On the other hand, I would love to get another WB8 just for the fun of it alone... unfortunately it is also borderline on the weight and size that I am starting to be able to handle alone... :(
J.
PDRacer.com
Free plans. It's not the most pretty, but it works great.
True enough, J. I do sail a 23. Just puttin' in my $.02. nMaybe you could lift the bow of the dingy out of the water and tie it to the stern of your boat That way only the back of the dingy would be in the water...reduced drag, me-thinks.
Bob23
Maybe I should consider an Optimist pram and make the entire fleet Clark Mills'...! :)
J.
I towed a 16 foot kayak (Hobie Adventure) on a 2 week cruise in the North Channel of Canada.
(http://www.rahnlawton.com/webpics/NC%20Cruise.jpg)
The next year, I bought a Seyvlor Colorado inflatable canoe which was much easier to tow and board but my son and I really missed the Hobie Kayak and plan to use it on this year's cruise. We will be sailing a Horizon Cat.
(http://www.rahnlawton.com/webpics/Horizon%20Cat-1.jpg)
Rahn - if you could tow a 16 ft Hobie Adventure (70 lbs-ish?) in the North Channel, perhaps I should consider one of their smaller pedalling kayaks... Nice idea. Enjoy the Horizon and the North Channel!
J.
The best pedal kayak for towing would be the Hobie i12S inflatable or the i14T tandem version for 2.
http://www.hobiecat.com/kayaking/models_i12s.html (http://www.hobiecat.com/kayaking/models_i12s.html)
I just came back from few days of adventurous sailing and gunkholing off the East coast of Georgian Bay (Lake Huron). As a dinghy I was lucky enough to be offered to borrow an Amphora (the Amphora is a design of Stevenson Projects, and the very one that Sassy got to tow behind was "Phoebling", featured in the Stevenson Projects website: http://www.stevproj.com/MatAmph.html):
(http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy290/alberg22/IMG_2770.jpg)
This dinghy design has superb lines and looks, but lacks in stability and is rather heavy. Is it not the kind of dinghy I would recommend as a tender for heavy and clumsy old sailors... but on this occasion Phoebling serve the purpose of demonstrating that the SunCat can tow a dinghy of this size and displacement with ease, either on sail or while motoring. So, my concern about needing a very small/light dinghy seems to have been unfounded. My focus has then turned to the WalkerBay 8 with which I already have vast experience.
And in the meanwhile, while I wait for a good deal on a WB8 RID, I may acquire a Sevylor Rio inflatable canoe... Yes, it will not add much in terms of looks but it is light, small (can be carried in a bag), reasonably sturdy, very stable and quite inexpensive. It might also be fun...
J.
Try and find a used Montgomery 6'8". It a small lapstrake pram.
Bert
Thank you bfelton for reopening this old post of mine. I had forgotten about it and failed to update it. The Montgomery 6-8 is a beautiful and very able pram (Lin and Larry Pardey used one as tender to their Taleisin). However, being fiberglass and lapstrake I figured it would be too heavy for my intended use.
Since my posting on the Phebling a year and half ago I have pursued this search further, restricting it to a boat I could lift from the ground on my own but stable enough to safely kedge an anchor in 15-20 knot winds. I have found two possible solutions to this conundrum: first I bought a Sevylor Rio KCC305. It does not have the classic look that the SunCat deserves in its tender, but it is extremely rugged, functional, easily paddled (as a kayak) and its price is right. However, it needs to be inflated and deflated at onset and end of each trip and its thick fabric needs to be thoroughly dried before storage. As an alternative I decided to get a BIC Sportyak I (there is also a larger and heavier Sportyak II). This is an old French design of the 70s made in plastic. This little bathtub-toy-looking boat behaves as a small pre-inflated inflatable and has several advantages over the Sevylor: it can be rowed as a regular pram, there is no need to inflate, deflate & dry it, and it can be transported either on the roof of the Jeep or upside down and sideways inside the SunCat cockpit. I imagine it could be overturned by 2-3 ft. sharp waves but otherwise, it feels amazingly stable.
J.
J.
We had a Sportyak for a while...I gave it to my brother who uses it to row out to his O'day Mariner. It is indeed, being a catamaran hull, very stable. Also very slow and would probably produce noticable drag while being towed.
I use a Walker Bay 8 for my CP23 and I love it. Oh, it was also free, which is why it appealed to me so much! Lapstrake, industructable plastice and is pretty stable. Plus it looks good. Downside is they are not cheap if you buy one.
bob23
Hi Bob,
I had a WB 8 as a tender to my Alberg 22 for many years. Nice design and made of the same material as most fenders. However, I found it too big for the SunCat and also on the heavy side (real difficult lifting it atop the car by myself). Drag-wise I haven't yet tested it extensively but the initial feeling is that it causes less drag than the WB8. Tell you next summer...
J.
In the 11 years since this post, is there by chance a consensus on what's a suitable dinghy (ideally for more than 2 people) for carrying on and/or towing behind a Sun Cat?
I am now a Captain w/o ship... but after 30 years of sailing (12 with a SunCat and a Bic Sportyak II as its dinghy), I still vouch for the venerable French Sportyak II (213), particularly if you also get its single-wheel system (carrying it on land by myself was the only thing I found a bit difficult). The many virtues of this design have already been described, so I will only add that it is also recyclable...
Have fun,
J.
Thank you!
Those who use a dinghy... where is the best place to board & disembark? I had a Picnic Cat and found the boarding ladder only served to get me stuck facing the gallows (and Bimini if up), essentially a dead end. With a dinghy, do you just climb over the side rails midship, or do you use the ladder and pull yourself up and in using the gallows (which seems less than ideal for the gelcoat/ mounts)? These are the questions of an idle New England sailor dreaming of warmer waters in spring.
Along side is best. I use my 12' 1965 Starcraft aluminum rowboat as a tender when needed.
Quote from: Dave-in-RI on February 08, 2023, 07:23:55 AM
Those who use a dinghy... where is the best place to board & disembark? With a dinghy, do you just climb over the side rails midship, or do you use the ladder and pull yourself up and in using the gallows (which seems less than ideal for the gelcoat/ mounts)?
Boarding and unboarding the dinghy, astern via the ladder or midship, was never a problem... until I reached my 70s. The difficulty did not reside on the dinghy itself but on the fact that the leg muscles get weaker and the equilibrium reflexes get slower with age. When this happened I was still able to get a few more years of enjoyment from Sassy and the Sportyak by making a few adjustments. First, I installed a taller seat in the dinghy; although this elevated the center of gravity, it ensured that my knees did not have to bend as much and I could sit faster once standing midship the dinghy. Second, I fasten a line to the stern of the tender, which I could grab from my seat to facilitate a more gradual movement when sitting down and getting upright. Third, I needed to fasten the dinghy tight to the boat in such a way that it would not glide sideways and slip away from her while boarding or un-boarding the dinghy. The best way I found to achieve this was to fasten a line midbeam the dinghy (I used for this the hole for the oarlock) and cleat it as tight as possible to the cleat on the starboard site of the stern of the boat. Then I would bring the pender at the bow of the dinghy around the cleat midship the boat (starboard side) and also cleat it tight at the stern cleat on top the other line. With the dinghy thus affixed, I would slowly step midship the dinghy and once seated, I would release both lines from the boat stern cleat and with the dinghy already underway I would remove the line at the stern of the dinghy from the oarlock hole and replace the oarlock and started rowing. At re-boarding time I would reverse the entire manœuvre. Maybe this did not make for the most elegant of seamanship choreographies, but esthetics was the least of my worries. As the gelcoat goes, the Sportyak being all Polyethylene, if any damage ensued, it was never noticed.
J.