Hard Dodger for Small Boat

[Foster Price]

Hello Guys

My boat “Otter” is a 12.5% enlargement of the Woodenboat plan for the 21’2” Double Ender by J.G.Alden (actually Fenwick Williams I think when he worked in the JGA office). She is a very close cousin to “Annie” which is a 24’ version. She’s built pretty close to the plans so looks very much like the one in the WB plans online catalogue, although the enlargement gives her a very husky look, such that many folk think she’s 28’ or more feet, when actually she’s a smidgen under 24’.

Anyhow I’m blessed to sail the waters of Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island (at the southern tip of New Zealand) . . . . so we put up with a lot of rough, wet weather.

I want to fit a hard dodger and I want it to look “right”. I don’t want a soft dodger as I think it will look crappy on her. My aims are to gain some real standing headroom (with the hatch open) and a bit of shelter during those times the spray is driving down the deck.

My thoughts are to graft this hard dodger on permanently (for my purposes) but not to alter the structure so that future owners of taste (??) can take her back to a classic profile should they wish.

So . . . who has seen the perfect looking hard dodger on a small boat of this sort of parentage. My thoughts at the moment are to adapt the style Ed Burnett used for the deckhouse of his design “Nomad” or adapt a booby hatch profile something like Ruel Parker used on his 27’ pilot sloop.

You thoughts and ideas please gentlemen ??

[Wiley Baggins]

I'm not familiar with the dodgers that you referenced, but Phil Rhodes included some "hard dodgers" on a number of his designs. If you can find Richard Henderson's book, "Phil Rhodes and his Yacht Designs," you might draw some inspiration from there.

[Ian McColgin]

Nothing like a hard dodger, or even a soft dodger with (perhaps fold-down) rigid windows but a couple of thoughts:

Nothing like getting the dodger out of the way on a fine day;

In a really hard chance the dodger may be a bit of extra windage and extra hazard you don't need; and

Even with good windows it's hard to see forward through the dodger and you'll spend most of your time steering peering around the thing.

So, if you've room, you could design a really finaskind dink that really grows organically out of the coach roof, extends a foor to so over the cockpit, and has a detachable transom.

Paint the inside white or maybe even give it a partially lexan bottom.

Or an all lexan dink . . .

[Figment]

It seems to me that this is one of those things where inches (even fractions thereof) make critical differences between good function and hazardous inconvenience. It will take a good deal of trial and error to truly get it right.

If I were you, I'd start with a canvas dodger and live with it for a season or two, learn which parts of it drive you batty, and then build the hard dodger with that firsthand information in mind.

But that's just me.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

a bit like this?
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid141/p9ed8a424e35241200b89e4eba748f902/f6d1abff.jpg

I have often wished for a hard dodger; Mirelle's cockpit is a tiny self draining footwell, and I like sailing out of season.

BUT - a dodger reverses the airflow in the cabin, turning a high pressure area into a low pressure area, which means that a solid fuel stove, which by definition I want when I want a hard dodger, would fill the cabin with smoke. So I find crouching in the lee of the dinghy is about it! I have considered using the dinghy's transom to attach a soft dodger to, but I can't think of a way that would not look naff.

[Foster Price]

Hmmmm . . . some really good things to consider here, some have already been dealt to, the dinghy without transom isn't a goer due to the angle of the kicking strap (which is bugger all use on a boom as long as Otter's anyway but . . . ).

In nice weather we always sit out on the combings and as the dodger would be narrow rather than wide, usually we'd look past rather than though it. In rougher weather I don't know, mostly we are on a compass course out in the Strait anyway, its the little boat thing of getting round, over, through (rather than under) the seas, and thats pretty instinctive rather than necessitating clear vision. (How is it that the boat always goes better in the dark when I can't see much at all ??)

I really like the mocked up soft dodger for a season idea, maybe that would save a few of the old cedar doors I was going to use for framing from being wasted, or from having to live with something that "now it's built I don't really like it but I can't be bothered changing it" syndrome.

Thanks folks - Foster

[Dave Williams]

Foster,

I am also thinking about a hard dodger for my 30ft dory. She has a large stern deck with small self draining footwell with tiller at hand. Also an open center cockpit with coamings; over which I would build the dodger.

Latest thoughts are a rigid frame with upper surface enough to support grab rails but open center area which could support a fabric top. The fabric center part could be progressively rolled fore and aft and have sprung battens to give it shape and water shedding ability.

I think I can incorporate a boom gallows into the dodger frame for the foremast boom (she's a schooner). This would also help support the soft top.

I picture removable side windows but the forward windows would be solid fold down panels. The solid panels would be above the cabin top which slopes forward so a little leakage could be tolerated. This area would become the galley if you will. There are bunks in the cuddy. Of course I dream about a second steering station under cover. It's the NW afterall.

I am hoping this would yield some usable shelter with the versatility of venting and windage control.

These are my latest thoughts. I'd be happy to hear others.

To kindness,
Dave