On Aug 4, 2009, at 9:53 AM, Doug Kelch wrote:
Howard Audesey built a nice dinghy - lets hear his report :-)
Thanks
Doug Kelch
I am thinking an M15 IS a dinghy! It will sail in and out of anything, can be beached and will ferry at least 5 guys to the dock for dinner. This is the boat I built: http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n165/haudsley/Picture260.jpg http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n165/haudsley/Picture229-1.jpg Rows well. Sails well. Have not tried towing it with the M17 yet, but that is coming next week. At 10 feet, this one is too big to do anything with but tow it. It's very stable. You can stand up and walk around in it, so getting in and out is pretty easy. Some are really jumpy. This one doesn't seem to be, but even the worst of those can be handled with practice. Problems with towing hard boats.....aside from drag......seems to be when the weather pipes up and the tender either flips, fills with water (making it a good sea anchor), or it wants to run at different speeds than the main boat, in which case it can ram you. Some cures would be to put either an self bailer or drain plug above waterline to remove water from a swamped boat. To slow it down, you can drop a warp off the stern to create some drag, or something I've though of, but never used, rig a sort of towing harness. Years ago, we used these PVC tubes to tie up our boats to flooded trees for crappie fishing: http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n165/haudsley/Picture004.jpg http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n165/haudsley/Picture008-1.jpg The PVC pipe kept the boat a safe distance from the tree, so it wouldn't bang into it when boats passed, leaving us bobbing in the chop. Replace the loop with a line and snap shackle or clip and you have a way to fend the boat off. Rig two of them from the stern cleats and it's going to follow along at a safe distance. In really rough weather, keep a warp out off the stern and it won't slew around. One of the guys I sail with tows an injection moulded plastic dinghy (same material as hard kayaks). It is lighter than the boat I built and takes some serious abuse without complaint. It's an older, no name brand similar to the ones sold by West Marine. Jumpy....but rows well. Howard