The Dinghy Thread

[DesertAlbin736]

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In your case I would seriously consider snap davits. The A27 has its 9' 6" beam carried all the way aft, so you wouldn't have to worry about the overhang issues that the A25 has. The main advantage they have is that when you go to launch you just drop the dinghy down and leave the latches attached and you can stand up in the dinghy, walk around, load gear, install an outboard whatever with complete stability. Then when you're ready to go just unlatch and shove off. Stowing is just as easy, hook up and pull the dinghy upright & attach your standoff rods. Plus you can add your boat name on the bottom of the dink, which looks really cool. Our lift davits work well, but in some ways I miss the snap davits. If I had an A27 or any other boat with at least a 8 foot wide square transom I'd go with snap davits in a heartbeat. The only real downsides would be the added LOA for dockage costs and the fact that you couldn't leave an outboard motor attached unless you added one of these "Weaver Leaver" swinging motor brackets, which cost an arm and a leg.

Weaver Leaver-Arc_15.jpg

[denchen]

The old inflatable has seen better days and with it hanging past the sides of the stern of my 25ft, it made it difficult getting through locks, so I decided to have a go as a winter project to make my own.
The new dinghy had to be as short as possible so when on the davits it did not hang over the sides more than need be. It had to be light and it must be capable of carrying at least 2 guys of generous proportions. Speed was not a necessity.
I`ve just finished the boat and done some `trials`. The finished length is 6ft 7 inches, with a width of 4ft 2 inch, the finish weight is 24.5 kg. Not bad for a wood boat covered both sides with woven fibre glass.
The boat is VERY stable and would be very difficult to tip over. With my old 34lb push electric motor it runs with hardly a ripple at a bit faster than walking speed.
It now hangs on the davits of my Albin 25 ready for the season.

[WillieC]

That is a thing of beauty, made by a real mariner, out of real material. Looks a bit rough to row, but with a motor, no problem. and it fits the A25. Nice work!

[denchen]

With just me sitting on the thwart(seat) there is about one inch of the round bow in the water. The photo does not show it, but there is a slight chine (V) along the length of the keel, to give stability and strength. With power it handles easily and is easy to keep on a straight course. I`ve not tried rowing, but then it was never meant for long distances.

[JT48348]

Nice job; That's impressive! Need more photos

[DougSea]

That's sweet. I second JT's motion - more photos!

[denchen]

A couple of shots taken during construction. To get the bow to `bend` both ways took a bit of thought. The transom formed the rear frame during the whole construction time, and stayed in the dinghy. The rounds along her length was 7 inch radius at the transom, 8 inch in the middle and all 9 inch radius in the bow part. The transom and bow are 40 inch wide, the midship former being 48 inch wide.

[denchen]

This is her side just before `speed trials`

[denchen]

I think it sits well...

[Pitou]

Great looking rig!

[DCatSea]

I recently acquired a neat little 8ft dinghy (See pix) to sling off the back of Mazboot. It is in pretty good shape, but like all Craigslist stuff, needs some TLC.
2 questions:

1) I need to spiff up the hull a bit, so does anyone know which paint is best used on "plastic" boats (like Walker Bay), especially below the waterline?

2) Do small boat manufacturers have any idea of what real people weigh?

Thanks

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[Jim lanza]

Our Dingy is a Boss 8.5 Hard dingy. It came with our Albin, but I previously knew of the Boss tenders. It resembles an inflatable and has all the pros (and none of the cons) of a inflatable, but it's fiberglass. The Boss is no longer built, but Rigid Boats now makes 5 models of the old Boss design (I think their 8.5 is built from the Boss forms). It's powered by a 9.8 Tohatsu outboard, and it flies!

With Cyn and I aboard, we've comfortably transported both of our Dahon folding bikes. The beauty of the Boss (and now Rigid Boats) is that you can actually stand on either of the 'pontoons' with no fear of capsizing (See last photo).

Dingy 1.jpg

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[DCatSea]

In previous postings, DesertAlbin, 2manyboats and sunsetrider comment on solving the tipping issue with small dinghies by attaching multiple fenders and/or WB tube kits.

I need to address this issue with our 8 ft hard dinghy, and have found a (less "goofy-looking"??) solution that offers a range of possibilities. The Seoladair company offers a range of sailing accessories, but also makes "easystow" fenders and sponsons, which may be a cost-effective way to add stability and extra flotation to small dinghies.

I am going to order a set of 6" sponsons, (which at $235.00 are worth trying); if they don't work as planned I'll have a pair of 90" x 6" roll-up fenders, which may come in very handy. I'll keep the thread informed.

http://www.easystowfenders.com/sponsons.html offers quite a bit of information about the product, including pix, sizing and installation. I really like the idea of being able to remove, stow and use elsewhere.

[Bearkeley]

snap davit.jpg
20160626_202426 (1024x576).jpg


In your case I would seriously consider snap davits. The A27 has its 9' 6" beam carried all the way aft, so you wouldn't have to worry about the overhang issues that the A25 has. The main advantage they have is that when you go to launch you just drop the dinghy down and leave the latches attached and you can stand up in the dinghy, walk around, load gear, install an outboard whatever with complete stability. Then when you're ready to go just unlatch and shove off. Stowing is just as easy, hook up and pull the dinghy upright & attach your standoff rods. Plus you can add your boat name on the bottom of the dink, which looks really cool. Our lift davits work well, but in some ways I miss the snap davits. If I had an A27 or any other boat with at least a 8 foot wide square transom I'd go with snap davits in a heartbeat. The only real downsides would be the added LOA for dockage costs and the fact that you couldn't leave an outboard motor attached unless you added one of these "Weaver Leaver" swinging motor brackets, which cost an arm and a leg.

Weaver Leaver-Arc_15.jpg

We have an A27 but looks like our transom is only 9, not 9'6. We are seriously considering a takacat but at 9'10, we would have tubes overhanging. We are checking to confirm the actual size of the floor to see if it would overhang....if it doesn't, do you think davits would work or would we need to find another way to store it? http://www.takacat.com/our-range/takacat-lite/photos/

[DesertAlbin736]

"We have an A27 but looks like our transom is only 9, not 9'6. We are seriously considering a takacat but at 9'10, we would have tubes overhanging. We are checking to confirm the actual size of the floor to see if it would overhang....if it doesn't, do you think davits would work or would we need to find another way to store it?"

Oh, those Takacats look pretty cool! I want one! Not Sure I'd worry too much about 5" overhang on each end, especially with the squared off hard chine hull of the A27. But that's up to you to decide. Might be better to find a way to carry it on a hard top roof. As I always say, ya pays yer money, ya takes yer chances. Looks like these Takacats are fairly new to the USA market. Wish I'd known about them before. In any case 5 inches of over hang is a big difference from what we had to deal with, an 8 foot f/g dinghy behind a 6 1/2 foot transom, translating to nearly a foot of overhang on each end. In fact it was worse than that, since the round hull curves in at the waterline, so 6 1/2 feet was at deck level, probably closer to 5 feet at the water line.

Here was the old dinghy mounted the old way...

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And new dinghy (with homemade MacGyver floats) mounted the new way. Have to be a pretty big following wave to get pooped with this setup, anyway much rougher water that we'd have any business being out in.

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