Plastic Classic Forum

So I had been planning on building myself a dinghy for some time now - and in fact, I had started a thread here about building a Rabl Midge, which I figured would make a nice, simple, quick project just to get myself a usable dinghy, and then later I would build an Oughtred Humble Bee.

But a few days ago, as I was routinely trolling Craig's list, which I do several times a day, so as not to miss anything, I spied a listing that said "8-foot wooden dinghy." Whoa!!

Here are the seller's pics:









Right away, I thought "whoa, looks pretty nice!" And I figured hey, "instant dinghy." It's nearly exactly like what I was thinking of building myself anyhow - here's a real time-saver!

Long story short, I bought it.

Turns out he built it himself a couple years ago, but they used it only a few times. They sold their boat because he got a new job and they're moving to Roanoke, which is pretty far from the water.

Here it is in my garage:



He did a pretty nice job building it - the brightwork is all mahogany. He never got around to painting the plywood interior, which I will do. The oarlocks are nice bronze units.



He enclosed the seats and included flotation, which is really nice; and he fully glassed the entire bottom as well as the floor inside.



He also included a nice set of "folding" wooden oars, a very nice floating painter and a little 2-wheeled cart to make it easy to move it about on land.





The construction overall seems quite well done. The paint job, not so much. He also threw in a couple cans of paint left over, so I can touch it up. He used Petit Easypoxy.

I plan on sanding the whole thing and going over the exterior paint, and also painting the interior, since it's just epoxy right now. I will of course leave the nice mahogany bright. It looks pretty sharp, I think!

The only thing I'm not thrilled with is the hunk of plastic hose on the bow:



I assume that's to protect the dinghy and the boat deck when the dinghy is stowed on deck. I'm thinking there's got to be a neater, prettier solution, like a big hunk of fat rope or something.

Best part is I got all of that for $550. It would cost me at least that, if not more, just to buy all the materials and hardware, the oars and painter - let alone the amount of work to build it!

The guys over at the Wooden Boat Forum identified it as a D4 dinghy - plans available from http://www.bateau.com.

Weigh it. write it down.
Do the same at the beginning and end of each season, so you know when to grab a saw and dig out that "floatation".

Ha!

It will spend the vast majority of its time up on the deck, so it shouldn't have much chance to get too waterlogged.

Good suggestion, though!

The flotation in my dinghy is similar except there is nothing in the flotation tanks but air. They have access ports which I open often to inspect. They are completely epoxy coated (3 coats) inside, like the rest of the dinghy. I would definitely do at least as Figment has suggested. Without knowing how thoroughly they are waterproofed inside, or how well they are sealed from water getting in, it would be nice to know the dinghy isn't rotting away from the inside out. If they leak, it doesn't take more than minutes for some moisture to get in, and then it is trapped. Using the seats as flotation in a dinghy is a great way to do it, but care needs to be taken to know they are staying water tight, or that they can be dried out.

My suggestion stems primarily from those little eyebolts in the bow transom which appear to penetrate the forward.... tank? seat? non-cargo-volume?

There are worse things in life than an overweight dinghy, but it's a short list.

Figment wrote:My suggestion stems primarily from those little eyebolts in the bow transom which appear to penetrate the forward.... tank? seat? non-cargo-volume?

Good point. I'll take a good look at those and see how they're sealed and maybe add a little something, if possible.

I have some firehose we could slit and put over the tubing bumper!!!

I'm eyeballing the 3/4 round vinyl-covered foam gunwale protectors that the various suppliers sell.

West Marine has 20' of the 3/4 Gunnel Guard (1.5") for $77, a considerable discount from the ~$7 to ~$10 a foot the stuff ordinarily goes for.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... &langId=-1

(I recently bought some of the stuff to finish off a little dinghy that I've recently restored, but have yet to install it).

Here's a photo of the dinghy for which I bought the 3/4" gunnel guard:



I have the stuff and it should fit nicely around that lip that makes up the gunwale (though I may have to relocate the aft set of oarlock sockets inboard).

I would note that given the expense of the stuff, I attempted the cheapskate route - first with hose that I sliced with a jig, then with foam that I painted with Plastidip - both methods were failures - the moral being that it often makes sense to get and use the right stuff despite its expense. If its the right stuff for your job (and it seems it may be), I'd say go for it or be frustrated with poor alternatives.

Unfortunately, even given the diminutive size of this dinghy (~6.5'), it's probably too large to routinely live on my foredeck, but my kids can use it to learn to row, as I did (my granfather rescued it from the dump when I was a little kid).

I have a dinghy with a fore-and-aft thwart like that and I really like it for rowing, as you can easily make trim adjustments by sliding forward or aft a bit. Really handy in a boat where loads change by the day.

I first got fire hose for the gunwales as well. It seemed like it would work great, but the coil alone was so heavy I couldn't bear to add it to the boat!

Rachel wrote:I have a dinghy with a fore-and-aft thwart like that and I really like it for rowing.........

Oooh, oooh, Rachel! You need to brush up on your boat nerdery. ;>)

thwart- an athwartships seat in a small boat

athwartship- crosswise to the length or center line of a ship

It is simply a fore'n'aft seat. But I agree, they are very practical in a small dinghy. They allow the rower to balance the boat with different passenger and gear combinations.

Ha, i wondered about that when I was posting it. But then I couldn't think of another term for "rowing seat," and I decided that maybe thwart had become that term.

Bill, where are you planning to stow your dinghy while underway? The reason I ask is that I have plans for the D4 and plans to build one. I have a Pearson Triton and hope it will fit atop the cabin, just aft of the mast.

The previous owner of my boat had a little stitch-and-glue plywood dinghy he built, but it was not included in the sale of the boat. It is very much like the D4, so I'm hoping I can do what he did with his - he stowed in on the foredeck.

This is a picture that he had in the Craig's list ad when he was selling the boat:



You can see the dinghy on the foredeck there.

He left me the two little nicely-made stands that he fabricated to support the transom of the dinghy on the deck - I'm hoping they will work with my new dinghy.

I figure I might leave it up there when the boat is in the slip, and tow it behind while we're underway. Obviously, I'll just have to see how it all works out when I actually take the dinghy down to the boat and try it out. I'll have to develop a system/procedure.

Triton 318,

Just a note in that even though the Wanderer is longer than the Triton, it has its mast step set further aft in relation to the forward bulkhead than the Triton does (the step straddles the forward bulkhead and the saloon bulkhead). I believe this may result in the shorter-overall Triton having more coach roof space abaft the mast than the longer Wanderer (but this should be checked).

I'm not sure if the D-4 would work abaft the mast on the Triton, but on the other hand I just wanted to mention this difference in case you were thinking "Well if it wouldn't fit there on the Wanderer, and the Wanderer is a longer boat than the Triton, then..."

For anyone interested in building a dinghy I recommend the Spindrift, especially the nesting version. I built the 9.

And I recommend Iain Oughtred's Auk, just to be difficult.

I had been planning on building Sam Rabl's "Midge" just to have a dinghy to use. It's a simple and pretty quick to build plywood glue-and-screw pram dinghy that can look pretty nice, if done up right.

I figured I would build that over a couple weekends, and then later, build Oughtred's Humble Bee pram, which I've heard very good things about. It's a gorgeous little craft, but a much more complex build, requiring a lot more time.

Now I've got a dinghy, so maybe I'll build an outboard skiff instead...

Hey Bill, I think the dinghy you picked up is a d-4, or at least it looks exactly like the one I built a few years back. Plans are free for it on the bateau site if you need them for reference....

Yes, it's a D4. The guys over at the Wooden Boat forum ID'd it right away.

Thanks!

Yes, definitely a D4. I built one about 10 years ago and has been a great little tender. I built the sailing version with centerboard trunk and mast step forward although I never rigged the boat (built to use an optimist rig).

The heavy rocker in the boat makes it bob nicely but tends to yaw a bit when towing. Nothing unmanageable though.

galleywench wrote:Yes, definitely a D4. I built one about 10 years ago and has been a great little tender. I built the sailing version with centerboard trunk and mast step forward although I never rigged the boat (built to use an optimist rig).

The heavy rocker in the boat makes it bob nicely but tends to yaw a bit when towing. Nothing unmanageable though.

Do you know how much yours weighs?

I don't know exactly, but I would say it is in the 70-90 lb range. I built it using 1/4 okume plywood which kept it fairly light. If your's is built with roughly the same materials it would be in that range or lighter because you don't have a centerboard trunk or mast partner/step.
I was too cheap to pay for a space at the dinghy dock in the harbor where I used to keep my boat so I kept the dinghy in my truck and would carry it on my back for the 75 foot walk down to the launch. The dinghy is green and I was told on numerous occasions that I looked like a giant turtle.

I would guess mine is in the 70 pound range. I've got an old bathroom scale in the garage that I use for such purposes (shipping weights, etc.), and if I remember later, I'll stick the dinghy on there and see what it actually is.

Someday, I still hope to build the Auk from the plans I have. But until then I recently upgraded our old beater Livingston dinghy and used the gunnel guard mentioned previously.

I thought it was a very nice solution and am quite happy with the outcome, well for a Livingston anyway :).