sailing dingy design

[Daren]

hi all! i'm new here so let me introduce myself. Daren Neufeld of Surrey British Columbia Canada. been building strip canoes and kayaks for six years. own a Grampian 28, moored in point roberts wa.
here's the question..... i'm building a 9 1/2 foot stitch and glue dingy as a tender for the sailboat and thinking about rigging it with a single marconi sail. how do i go about figuring out where to place the centerboard, how big it should be, how big the rudder, sail size, placement, mast rake? as you can see i know nothing about sailboat design. all my searching has yeilded me nothing. i'm not looking for the perfect sailing dingy; just one that works passably well.
TIA;
daren......

[L.W. Baxter]

Howdy Daren.

For a clear and simple exposition of the subject, pick up a copy of John Gardner's Classic Small Craft You Can Build . Chapter 4 is "Balancing the Rig of a Small Sailboat".

The bonus is, the book contains plans for a dozen classic small boats.

--Lee

[maa. melee]

"The centreboard should be about 4 per cent of the sail area. Marchaj
There should be about 1sq ft of centreboard area to 40sq ft of sail area; in light craft the rudder area should be half this, while in heavier craft it should be still smaller. "
-From 'The Rules (http://home.clara.net/gmatkin/therules.htm) '

Because it's a small tender, I wouldn't worry wrinkles into your brow about optimal sail size, etc. Download a copy of Hull Designer (http://www.carlsondesign.com/hulls.zip) which works wonders for figuring out center of grav., center lateral resistance, etc. Enjoy.