History of the planing dinghy

[johnw]

I think the Apple 13 has too steep a deflection angle at the bow to plane easily. That's an issue with one of my favorite traditional types, the melon seed. I've been working on how to make a stitch & glue melon seed that would plane, which means it can't be built down to a straight keel like the old ones were. Here's where I am right now on that:

[davebrown]

I ordered plans for this boat after I read the Small Boats article just published; the article states the boat will plane off the wind. I think it has a wonderful East Coast summer cabin look to it. I am not committed to building it yet.

[johnw]

What is it?

[johnw]

This one?

[Ben Fuller]

Yes, its a Friendship catboat. She's wicked heavy.

[johnw]

Maybe not if you build it in plywood? I suppose the original would have had planking at least an inch thick.

[Richard of Woods Designs]

But if built lighter it would float higher, be less stable and probably not sail well with the forefoot and some of the rudder out of the water

I'd like to see a photo of one planing though!

RW

[davebrown]

Me too! It is a good looking boat, and carries a bit of sail for its size.

[davebrown]

This superb thread is one that I turn to from time to time to continue my education about planing hulls. I plan to build one build after next, and so it is very enjoyable for me to review this thread and springboard off to other examples or subject matter. At the moment, I am leaning towards the i550 but in reality, a smaller boat of equal versatility would probably get more use. Wabi is one such boat. I sent the following email to Giles Montaubin just a bit ago:

Cordialement : je suis une écriture américaine renseigner sur les plans pour votre bateau bien, Wabi . Mon français est assez pauvre , pour lequel je apologivze , et donc je ne peux pas trouver une liste de plans sur votre site web . Les plans disponibles pour Wabi , ou Le Brol ?

I am asking for plans to Wabi. I don't think they are for sale, but we shall see what they say.

[johnw]

How will you store the boat, and what kind of setup time are you looking at? I use my little plop in the water and sail away boat a lot more than the one that takes 45 minutes to rig.

[johnw]

By the way, I learned an incredible amount on this thread, and I've been mousing around in Delftship using what I've learned. Lately, I've become interested in classic Moths, and this might be my next build.



I designed it to compete on even terms with the Europe dinghy.

[davebrown]

lovely

[davebrown]

I hate to use this great thread for my own fiendish devices, so I will start my own and I hope John you and Richard, as well as everyone else with experience in this area will follow.

[johnw]

I'm adding a link to something Chris249 wrote on sailing canoes, very worth a read:

https://sailcraftblog.wordpress.com/...-planing-hull/

[Boatmik]

Chris 249's blog on dinghy performance just goes from strength to strength.

It brings in a lot of material from other nations where our information might be sketchy

Did you know Singaporeans probably developed the trapeze well before anyone else for their long and skinny sailing canoes.



Or that Rennjollen were consistently planing quite possibly before Uffa Fox.



Interviews with pivotal people and digs deep into historic archives.

It is hours of fascinating reading with more going up all the time ... and it will be an important book one day.

Here is an extracted table of contents.

Contents

Part 1 – history

1.1 – “The sliding keels that took advantage”: the dawn of the racing centreboarder

1.2 – “Truly as fast as the wind”: catboats and skimming dishes (minor update 30/9/2016)

1.3 – “A little too marvelous to be real” – the story of the Una boats

1.4 – The sandbaggers

1.5- The mysterious history of the sharpie (updated 24/8/16)

1.6 – The raincoat boat bed and the shoe-shine missionary – the story of the sailing canoes, the first high performance centreboarders

1.7 – “Skidding over the water” – enter the planing hull

1.8 – “We have written too many obituaries of its victims” – the end of the sandbagger

1.9 – “These little clippers” – from rowing boat to racing dinghy

1.10 – “All built and rigged the same” – the invention of the one design class

1.11 – “Racers in every sense of the word” – the Raters

1.12 – “In every respect a sport suited to our sex” – the women who changed small-boat sailing

1.13- The Seawanhaka Cup

1.14 – “A radical departure” – the scows

1.15 – Introducing the era of nationalism: dinghy sailing in the early 20th century

1.16 – “Fox hunting”; Uffa, Avenger and the planing dinghy

1.17 – Thunder, Lightning and the Tali Dogang: the classic racing dinghy and the trapeze.

1.18 – Classic boats through modern eyes.

1.19 – From Kings to bouncing cats – the British development classes

1.20 – the local classes

1.21- “A great rage for the type” – the first Australian centreboarders

1.22- Painted boats, varnished ships and yellow dogs – the ancestor of the skiffs part 1

1.23 – Australian dinghies – in draft

1.24 – “It would be difficult to improve upon them”- the high performance dinghies of the European lakes

1.25 – The sailing scientists of the Renjollen

1.28 – US dinghies – in draft

1.30 – Tuckups and Hikers – the vanished world of the Delaware dinghies

1.33 – The third phase of dinghy sailing – the new internationalism and the dinghy boom

“A diabolically ingenious machine” – the Finn

“This was considered revolutionary” – the Flying Dutchman and the trapeze

“We just wanted a nice little boat”; the story of the Laser

Laser lines – the shape that launched 200,000 ships

From fizzers to Forty Niner – the production skiff types emerge

1.50 – What we’re sailing today, 1.0

1.51 – What we’re sailing today, 2.0 – the USA



Part 2 – Design

2.1 – The numbers game

2.2 – Shapes in the liquid: the hull of today’s performance dinghy



Other posts

THE REAL STORY OF AMARYLLIS AND THE FIRST RACING CATAMARANS

[Peerie Maa]

That reminded me of these beasts


http://npc123.byethost10.com/?page_id=31

[johnw]

Chris 249's blog on dinghy performance just goes from strength to strength.

It brings in a lot of material from other nations where our information might be sketchy

Did you know Singaporeans probably developed the trapeze well before anyone else for their long and skinny sailing canoes.



Or that Rennjollen were consistently planing quite possibly before Uffa Fox.



Interviews with pivotal people and digs deep into historic archives.

It is hours of fascinating reading with more going up all the time ... and it will be an important book one day.

Here is an extracted table of contents.

Contents

Part 1 – history

1.1 – “The sliding keels that took advantage”: the dawn of the racing centreboarder

1.2 – “Truly as fast as the wind”: catboats and skimming dishes (minor update 30/9/2016)

1.3 – “A little too marvelous to be real” – the story of the Una boats

1.4 – The sandbaggers

1.5- The mysterious history of the sharpie (updated 24/8/16)

1.6 – The raincoat boat bed and the shoe-shine missionary – the story of the sailing canoes, the first high performance centreboarders

1.7 – “Skidding over the water” – enter the planing hull

1.8 – “We have written too many obituaries of its victims” – the end of the sandbagger

1.9 – “These little clippers” – from rowing boat to racing dinghy

1.10 – “All built and rigged the same” – the invention of the one design class

1.11 – “Racers in every sense of the word” – the Raters

1.12 – “In every respect a sport suited to our sex” – the women who changed small-boat sailing

1.13- The Seawanhaka Cup

1.14 – “A radical departure” – the scows

1.15 – Introducing the era of nationalism: dinghy sailing in the early 20th century

1.16 – “Fox hunting”; Uffa, Avenger and the planing dinghy

1.17 – Thunder, Lightning and the Tali Dogang: the classic racing dinghy and the trapeze.

1.18 – Classic boats through modern eyes.

1.19 – From Kings to bouncing cats – the British development classes

1.20 – the local classes

1.21- “A great rage for the type” – the first Australian centreboarders

1.22- Painted boats, varnished ships and yellow dogs – the ancestor of the skiffs part 1

1.23 – Australian dinghies – in draft

1.24 – “It would be difficult to improve upon them”- the high performance dinghies of the European lakes

1.25 – The sailing scientists of the Renjollen

1.28 – US dinghies – in draft

1.30 – Tuckups and Hikers – the vanished world of the Delaware dinghies

1.33 – The third phase of dinghy sailing – the new internationalism and the dinghy boom

“A diabolically ingenious machine” – the Finn

“This was considered revolutionary” – the Flying Dutchman and the trapeze

“We just wanted a nice little boat”; the story of the Laser

Laser lines – the shape that launched 200,000 ships

From fizzers to Forty Niner – the production skiff types emerge

1.50 – What we’re sailing today, 1.0

1.51 – What we’re sailing today, 2.0 – the USA



Part 2 – Design

2.1 – The numbers game

2.2 – Shapes in the liquid: the hull of today’s performance dinghy



Other posts

THE REAL STORY OF AMARYLLIS AND THE FIRST RACING CATAMARANS

.

I think that bit on the trapeze came from this thread. See post 438.

I've been enjoying Chris's blog as well, and advise anyone who has an interest in this topic to read the whole thing.

[maxwaterline]

Just a note to thank all the learned contributors to this excellent discussion! I wanted to quickly describe my own little "tank test" in about 1981, I was in Kiel and asked one the barges for a tow to Brunsbuttel at the other end of the canal, my boat boat was a 21' sailboat, like a shorter more conservative folkboat, decked, cabin, cast iron ballast keel, small in board engine, maybe 2 1/2 tons? 14mm diam tow rope around king post, over cabin top and around an aft bitt. Barge at 10 to 11 knots, probably double hull speed, about 20 degrees pitch up, huge bow wave, much to the amusement then horror of people fishing from small boats, tow rope like a guitar string, rudder humming audibly, expecting the boat to roll over at any second, too frightened to touch the rudder, soaked to the skin in minutes. I don't think planing, upper end of semi planing. Strangely enough, I've never forgotten this

[johnw]

Just a note to thank all the learned contributors to this excellent discussion! I wanted to quickly describe my own little "tank test" in about 1981, I was in Kiel and asked one the barges for a tow to Brunsbuttel at the other end of the canal, my boat boat was a 21' sailboat, like a shorter more conservative folkboat, decked, cabin, cast iron ballast keel, small in board engine, maybe 2 1/2 tons? 14mm diam tow rope around king post, over cabin top and around an aft bitt. Barge at 10 to 11 knots, probably double hull speed, about 20 degrees pitch up, huge bow wave, much to the amusement then horror of people fishing from small boats, tow rope like a guitar string, rudder humming audibly, expecting the boat to roll over at any second, too frightened to touch the rudder, soaked to the skin in minutes. I don't think planing, upper end of semi planing. Strangely enough, I've never forgotten this

Yes, that's within the semi-planing range. Must have been a wild ride, I'm surprised you didn't have some deck fittings pulled out.

[maxwaterline]

John, strangely enough, it was like the eye of hurricane, strangely still with mayhem going on around you. I knew enough to realise there would be some force involved that's why I had the line around 2 strong points on the boat. Eventually the line broke and I waved the barge on. I'm hoping the line broke due to chafing otherwise....... There would have been maybe more than 200 kilos force on the tow rope, judging by the tension. Not sure about the horsepower equivalent but somewhat more bollard pull than a 5hp Albin. The barge would have had about 400hp to play with. Adrian

[maxwaterline]

Forgot to say, thread drift over, normal (excellent) programming resumes