Crusing Dinghies

[Owly055]

I watch all of Roger Barnes Utubes.   President of the Dinghy Cruising Association, he makes numerous over night and coastal multiday cruises in his dinghy both alone and in company of others in a small open dinghy with a boomless lug sail.   His boat is set up to camp in with a galley box etc.   There is something really neat about this minimalistic cruising, and more and more people are doing it, mostly in the UK and Europe.   
      His most recent video was a very long Utube interview with the well known John Wellsford, a highly reputed designers of dinghies of all types and sizes where he describes his design criteria, which of course differ based on the intended use.   Some of these boats are very impressive for their size, and both sail and row well. His Scamp, a 12 footer has gained popularity in the US and is available as plans, a kit, and a GRP boat manufactured by Gig Harbor Boat Works.  They use a number of different rigs.  My personal favorite is it's big brother Long Steps, rigged with a balanced lug rig and a yawl mizzen with a sprit.  A very interesting interview, his design philosophy really resonates with me.   I'm frustrated with the obsession of "performance = speed" among designers.  To me performance is how well the boat fulfills it's mission.   These boats are unsinkable of course, and very difficult to capsize, in fact they will not fully capsize, and are quite easy to right with minimal water remaining, in some cases self draining.   

The entire video is close to 2 hrs, and I watched it in increments enjoying all of it.    Fun stuff!!   Enjoy..........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0XgjsE_sk

[wolverine]

I always planned to build a 14' Welsford Navigator.  Now that I'm retired, the cost of materials are outrageous.  I may need to wait a few years intil they come down.

[Tim]

I recently built a Welsford SEI.which is a 14'8" open oar/sail. It will be used for cruising, but by means of being pulled behind a Sprinter van for some cross country cruising.

[CapnK]

I've been watching Roger's vids for some time now, really like them and the overall idea. To that end, I picked up this old CS Caprice 15. In the process of getting her able to go. She needs cleaning and rubbing, a little rebuilding where old wood has rotted, standing rigging replaced (I'm going 'synthetic' with amsteel), and sails. I'm cutting down an old backup Ariel main for her, and making a jib from scraps of another chunk of cloth I got somewhere. Nothing fancy, but she should do the job. :)

[wolverine]

After reading this post I subscribed to his channel.  I enjoy his videos and commentary.  Thank you for letting us know about him.

[Godot]

Very small cruising boats definitely have an appeal. I used to take my Stevenson Weekender out for a week at a time. Minimalist sailing that I sometimes miss.

At some point I made the choice to go bigger. I could have easily made the other choice but I had dreams of cross ocean travel. If I had the time I would probably do both.

I do like Wellsford's designs an awful lot.

[wolverine]

Last week a gentleman came through Oriental, NC with his Pathfinder.  It's the 17' version of Welsford's Navigator.  He was celebrating turning 60 and was on day 17 of his cruise.  Beautiful boat and very well maintained.

I don't know if we're allowed to post links, but search "log of spartina" and he gives an account of the trip.

[Tim]

Posting links are fine there is a button for "insert Hyperlink" above.

[wolverine]

http://logofspartina.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2021-05-13T11:59:00-04:00&max-results=10&m=1 

[CapnK]

http://logofspartina.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2021-05-13T11:59:00-04:00&max-results=10&m=1 

I'm digging his blog. Brings back OB/ICW transit memories. :)

[Gary Guss]

Agree, discovered Roger recently and I like the idea of a boomless rig and the ability to use oars for propulsion, smaller is better and I like the simplicity of the rigging and the ability to single hand the vessel with ease.

GG

[Norman]

 The simplicity of a boomless rig....:D
Yes, but with a boomless rig, what will you use to support the boom tent?

My biggest frustration with my Neptune 16 was the short boom.  The original owner ordered it with a fixed backstay, taller mast, and shorter boom.  It ended about 3 feet from the end of the cockpit.

If I still had it, I think that I would still sail solo, everything could be reached from the cockpit or cabin, even the mast could be lowered from the cockpit.

Being confined to the tiny cabin in the rain was a bummer, and the cockpit drain was at the front of the cockpit.