Nesting Dinghy

[Tom Vanco]

Carl,
I am in the process of building a nesting dinghy for my CD 28. It is 9 feet with a 4 foot beam, will row and sail, or you can use an outboard with it. It is of the nutshell design. I got the plans form B&B Yacht Design. They are on line at the following site http://www.bandbyachtdesigns.com/yachtt.htm

I am very happy with the design but I did make one VERY important design change with the way the two halves connect. B & B uses bolts with wingnuts to connect the halves. I don't think this is a good design because of having to aline a small hole and then there are the pieces that you know are going to be dropped over board at least once in a while. In place of this I used an idea from Dave Gear's book on boat design. He uses a machined keyhole slot combined with a threaded rod on the other half of the dink. These are part of the boat so there is nothing to lose and you have a big keyhole target to hit in place of a 1/4" hole. He uses this method on his 11 foot nesting desigh pram. I can say that when you tighten these down it is like the boat is one piece! They hold it tight. Sorry I can't remember what the title of Mr. Gear's book is but I'm sure you can find it in your library.

Hope this helps some.

Tom Vanco

s/v ANNIE



ktvanco@juno.com

[Warren Stringer]

Sorry I can't remember what the title of Mr. Gear's book is but I'm sure you can find it in your library.

Dave Gerr, "The Nature of Boats." Excellent book.

Warren




wstringer@aristotle.net