A little info

[fenixrises]

Hi all,

A few tidbits.

I forgot in previous posts to mention that I saw a CD31 in Suva, Fiji.
It was tied up in the marina at the RSYC. I never saw anyone aboard so do not know the owner. I remember a previous post about someone who lost a CD31 on a reef somewhere in Fiji...I wonder if the boat I saw was it...ressurected? It did have a splice in the mast, which could have been a repair.

Fenix still sits in Whangarei. I have attended to numerious small jobs aboard. I found weather stripping in a plastics store here in town that worked perfectly for replacing the portlight gaskets and the Bowmar hatch seals. So one more source of small but very annoying leaks remedied.

I have decided to replace my plywood dingy with a RIB made here in NZ. Two reasons: One is because of stability, two for visibility forward when the dingy is on deck.
The one I looked at is about 8' long. It is a "Force 4". It has two very good features. The RIB part is aluminum and the tube part fits to the RIB part with a boltrope similar to a sail boltrope in a mast groove. That way the tube part is easily removed from the RIB part. Then the tube part can be stowed under the RIB part on deck to help protect it from UV. Cost about $1,500 USD

The sailmaker and cushion maker still have not come to look at the boat, it is a very busy time for them and I am in no big rush.

Planning to haul Fenix towards the end of March. Then will have made and install new prop shaft and re-do packing. Touch up a few dings from chain and reef encounters and then some more bottom paint. Will leave Whangarei from the yard and head north to Bay of Islands, check out and head to OZ sometime in April.

Also working on another windvane idea. It is a work in progress as of now. After much thinking I opted once more for a horizontal axis to operate the trimtab. It is very simply made. The trimtab will also be undergoing some minor modifications. It is now removed and will be re-installed when I haul out. Pics to come when all is done.

Whangarei is still a great little town. I know my around pretty well now. The weather is still cool. Everyone says wait till Feb...then it will get hot. More like just the way I like it!

Met a guy named Bill in Amer Samoa on Quest, a Westsail 32. He's starting his 2nd circumnavigation. My age and we have been hitting the same ports. Met again in Suva and now in NZ. Good to have someone with whom to associate and similar interests. And since he has been around once he has some good info.

Take care,
Fred

[Warren Kaplan]

Fred,
GREAT to hear from you. Nice that you are keeping busy with all the upgrades, repairs and improvements. We'll all have to wait for the photos.....but I think I can stand it if you can!!!

[Russell]

Hey Fred,

Curious as to your storage plan for the rib? Do you have a spot it will fit on your CD28? I know yours is heavily modified so I am curious to how it will work.

I have a 8'6" rib which is a pain to store on my CD36, this is why I am especially curious about your plans here. I have been actually considering going the opposite direction, ditching the rib for a hard dink and small outboard. The main thing that keeps me from doing it is the stability issue, that really scares me in a hard dink (and have seen one serious accident due to it). You cant beat a rib for stability, and the speed is awfully nice. But the storage issue is tough.

[chase]

Russell and Fred,

I know you use your dink a lot more than I do, but how about the roll up kind? For one or two people they store on deck, inflate quickly and take a 5hp or so.

I really like the idea of a hard dink with oars, but I don't see where one would fit on our size boat. Perhaps without the club boom, but the roll up is so practical. Russell, do you have davits for your RIB? Perhaps if I used a RIB I'd see the difference, they seem like pretty substantial boats.


Chase

[mahalocd36]

I have a 8'6" rib which is a pain to store on my CD36, this is why I am especially curious about your plans here. .

Hi Russell, I thought we got the same Avon Rib-lite as you.
It fits across the CD36 cabin without overhanging into either
side deck much -> if it's deflated and stuffed in it's Avon sausage bag. It doesn't interfere with the mainsheet or anything either.
BUT That bag is a tight fit and extremely difficult to get in there without 2 people. One of our winter projects is making a new
improved bag that's not an ordeal to get the dinghy in.

[fenixrises]

Hi all,

I am looking at two of the Force 4 RIBs.
A 2.4 or a 2.6 meter.
The RIB part of the 2.4 is just less than 5' long.
The RIB part of the 2.6 is 6' long.
Seems a big difference for only 200 cm.

The 2.4 Rigid part will fit on my boat between the mast and traveller with room to spare.
The 2.6 Rigid part will fit on my boat between the mast and traveller, possibly. But the forward part of the RIB bow may hit the dorade box and/or the vent on top of it. The only way I will be able to know for sure, I think, is to try it.

Since the dealer is very near the yard where I will haul Fenix, should be easy to test the fit.

The reason I want a RIB as opposed to a roll-up, is for durability. Though the roll-ups are less expensive. The fabric bottoms on inflatabiles get chewed up pretty fast on coral, rocks, sand and the sometimes rough conditions we crusiers commonly meet.

Thought a lot about building another plywood dingy, longer, flatter and wider. Great durability, rows well BUT I would still have the storage problem and it wouldn't have the stability of a small inflatable and it wouldn't take to powering as well.

Since I am not so nible these days the stability is a big factor. It is a real chore shlepping 5gal jugs of water and diesel, food, my bicycle and various other things about. And getting that stuff into and out of the dink can sometimes be an acrobatic exercise beyond description in a lumpy anchoage.

So far my little plywood dink has been sunk 3 times...with the motor attached. The motor still runs fine having been flushed and cleaned immediatly after each mishap.

Forward visibility is also a concern. Not too big a deal at sea but in a crowded port like Whangarei, with a narror channel, it was a problem being able to see directly ahead. I had to jump back and forth from one side of the cockpit to the other to see where I was going, not hit anything and stay in the channel. All this while the tide was falling and against me and the wide gusting up in the 20+ knot range. Gotta' love being a single-hander.

Take care,
Fred

[SeaBelle]

Here is one as an example
http://www.bandbyachtdesigns.com/spin.htm
You'll see there are 9, 10, and 11 foot models with nested lengths of 4-7, 5-1, and 5-7. You build the dink then saw it in half! When you follow the link the nested models have a 'N' in the model number (ex 10N). Be sure to see the picture of one nested.

[fenixrises]

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the link. It looks like a number of really good designs. Only problem, I am not in a place where I could build a dingy. Nor do I have a garage full of tools at my disposal. But it may be possible?

There is still the stability question. It would be interesting to see a comparison study of DIY hard dinks vs. inflatables.

Take care,
Fred

[Bill Arkins]

I liked the idea of the nesting dinghy so much that I purchased the plans for the Chameleon with the idea of carrying it on a CD31. Are there any CD31 owners that could measure the distance from aft of the dorade to forward of the traveler for me? The nested dimensions of the Chameleon are 5'4'' X 4'2" X 1'8". Thank you.

Bill

[Judith]

I thought I'd posted earlier today, though it doesn't seem to have taken. We're looking for a dinghy as well and (like everyone else, apparently) have run into the "Where/How shall we put it?" question.

This is an intriguing idea. Thank you for the link.

Judith

[John Vigor]

Nesting dinghies are fine in theory but I wonder how easy they are to assemble in a bouncy anchorage? Imagine standing in one half while trying to prevent the other half from escaping. Imagine trying to bolt together two pieces that are jumping up and down independently.

Even if you have room on deck, or in the cockpit, it can be a tricky business to assemble the bits. And if your dinghy is nested and stowed, it's not available for quick use in an emergency use, so its use as a life raft, for example, could be limited.

I'm waiting for someone to design a dodger that doubles as a dinghy. I should do it myself, patent it, and make a fortune. I already know of some long-distance voyagers who use an upturned plywood dinghy on the cabintop. The stern of the dinghy comes back aft over the hatchway. The dinghy's transom is removable to make it easier to go down below. There you have a rudimentary dodger providing some shelter from wind and spray. There is an opportunity here for some ingenious naval architect or amateur designer.

I am a fan of hard dinghies for laying out anchors and ease of rowing and sculling, longer life, and cheaper repair and maintenance, but the good ones are certainly not as stable as inflatable dinghies. If stability is important to you, nothing beats an inflatable.

The idea of a hard bottom with an easily removable inflatable collar sound very promising, though. The hull will stow on the cabin-top reasonably easily, and the deflated collar can end up in the V-berth or quarterberth. It will be interesting to see how easy it is to assemble in practice and how long it withstands the sharp rocks and barnacles of the cruising life.

Cheers,

John V.

[fenixrises]

Hi All,

John I think for the most part you can forget the idea of assembling a nesting dingy in the water. Most of the places I have been would have made that an exercise in futility, insanely difficult if not down right immposible.

I made my dink in two pieces, the only way it would fit my 28. Assembly and dis-ass on deck isn't too hard but can be a bit tough on various parts of the boat, especially when the anchorage is even a little bouncy.

Have also thought about your idea of a removable transom, dingy/dodger. Would work very well I think but not if you have a traveller mounted above the companionway.

I also thought about making a removable slot part, either fore or aft so the dink could fork over the mast. That way you can have a longer dink and the only removable piece is small, could even be a motor well. This idea came to me years ago and sure enough I saw one for sale in a magazine sometime after. I suppose it didn't last as I haven't seen the ad again for a long time.

Certainly lots of good ideas out there. Just need to pull the right ones together for each circumstance.

Take care,
Fred


Cert

[Russell]

Melissa,

Indeed I do have the same Avan RIB you do. And it does fit, when deflated. But you either have to stuff it in its bag, or wrap a line around it several times for this to work. Now putting it in the bag is tough work, its not bad when your doing it on a dock, but on deck? That nice big deck of the CD36 gets small fast. Inflating it on deck is another difficult matter. Plus when I pull it on deck to delfate and store it, sure using a halyard does make it not to difficult to get up there, but once there man handling the thing around is not easy, its a "lite" model, but its still awfully heavy to handle alone. When your launching and disasmbling it at least once a week, sometimes more, it gets to be rather a drag.

Nesting dinks are something I have looked into, ever since marveling at one of the board members work of art (I think it was John Danics dinghy?). But I have never found a pre built one that was to my satisfaction, and I have neither the skill nor the desire to build one myself.

Personally I think the ideal dink would be a nesting dingy that is rather wide, for stability, but also with enough positive floatation built in to keep it from sinking when swamped even with the outboard mounted.

I would never go for an inflatible that wasnt rigid bottom, it would not last too long being dragged onto beaches and over coral. The tubes of my rib are holding up, but showing wear already.

Dinghies must really be the perfect example of comprimises needing to be made, none are ideal and all have real big downsides.

[Judith]

John:

Assemblying a nesting dinghy in a hurry would be chore at best: fair enough. But then again, inflating an inflatable from Ground Zero ("Air Zero"?) would be a production in those circumstances too, no? But wouldn't either one of them be at the ready anyway--i.e., maybe towed?--when underway?

Since we don't even have a dinghy yet, I'm just speculating. And trying to learn.

So far, I'm with Russell: the dink will have be a compromise, given our needs, available room, and aesthetic requirments.

Now if, given those paramenters, we can just find one that fits. . .

[John Danicic]

My ears were burning. Thank you Russell for your kind comments. I do love a nester so let me relate my experiences with her.

One of the biggest troubles with nesters has been how the parts are connected and the excessive time that procedure takes. Over the years, I have found Dave Gerrs joining system to be secure and fast to employ even in some very choppy conditions. His design allows the two dinghy halves to float independently. I have included Gerrs drawing of his joining clamps below. My dinghy has four of them. These drawings came from Gerrs book, the "Nature of Boats".

Using these clamps, the launching procedure is as followed.

The two boat halves are slipped overboard, (do make sure you tied them to the mother ship first!), you get into the bow section, face aft, grab the stern section, guide the center bulkheads together so that they line up, push the empty, high floating stern section down so that the pins in the bow section engage with the keyholes in the stern section. Then release pressure on the stern section and it rises to capture the pin heads in the narrow slots. Thus the two halves are joined with only the need to hand tighten the bolts. After getting the boat in the water, the whole process takes 10 or fifteen seconds. Instant boat. So easy, even my brother can do it. In rough water it takes longer and you might get a bit wet but you would in such conditions, have similar problems with any other dingy. I have successfully launched and retrieve the boat in some nasty two foot chops at anchor. If I had to, I wouldn't hesitate to launch one in much rougher water, but like anytime you forsake the mother craft for a dinghy, the reasons should warrant the risk. I rarely tow it because it is so easy to launch and retrieve. I would never try to put it together on deck. There is no room to and why work that hard? Since I built mine to be light weight, I launch and retrieve it single handed. My wife took this series of photos of me launching mine. If I may be so bold, here is the link for those who are interested.

http://www.johndanicic.com/arrogantwood ... g-page.htm

I found the best thing about the nesting style is the ease of storing one atop the cabin and how useful it is while there. I lash mine upside down on some foam blocks directly over the saloon skylight. As a bonus, with it in place, I can leave that skylight open with no fear of rain entering, enabling good cabin ventilation while the boat is unoccupied at dock. If you did need this dinghy in an emergency, both halves do float so you have two opportunities to float away to safety. An emergency off shore is another matter. I would want a properly supplied, deployable emergency life raft, but for coastal, day-in-day-out use, ether rowing or with an outboard, there is nothing like a hard dinghy. In my humble opinion on our relatively small CD's, that means a nester.

Sail on.

John Danicic
CD 36 - Mariah - #124
Lake Superior