Making my own Sailing Dinghy Plans: questions

[mohsart]

I'd suggest something like this https://batritningar.se/sv/batritnin...eka/12-flateka
One can modify it by IE installing a centerbord trunk to make it a sailing boat. (It's been done)
It's a clinker, but since the sides are straight there is no landings to worry about, with the transom there is only the rabbet in the stem to deal with.

/Mats

[Daniel Noyes]

I think we've had a few successful builders. Some post after the fact -- avoids people like me raining on their parade -- and many seem to have designed and built some quite nice boats. But in general it can be difficult steering builders towards designs that meet their requirements, when the requirements need some serious rethinking. I completely respect building on a budget, and have friends that have had both successes and failures -- see my photos above. ;-)

Photo of a "boat" constructed from the remains of the Floating Coffin by friends who know better, but just can't help themselves, or so it seems. Nobody drowned, so yay!

Oh my...

here's a boat I designed and built, but I'd worked at a dory shop for 6+- years at this point.

[FF]

I think its a great idea and you have to take this adventure very seriously. Maybe you heard about this already but a good book is ' How to design a boat' by John Teale. Good luck.

[Alan H]

Just a comment. I, personally, in my early 50's have swum about a half-mile in Puget Sound. I swam from the north beach of Herron Island, in the Case Inlet to the opposite shore, about 300 yards east of the ferry dock. This was at high tide. There's a long sandbar at the north end of Herron Island which is exposed at low tide. I did NOT walk out on the sandbar to do the swim. I was wearing a very thin "shorty" wetsuit, meaning a farmer john top and legs down to lower thighs. My wife rowed our aluminum rowboat near me in case I ran into trouble. I had no trouble. I am not a trained open-water swimmer. At that time I was swimming 2-3x a week for 25-30 minutes in a heated pool for my exercise and I thought it would be fun to try to swim the channel. After I was done, I stripped off the wetsuit and handed it to my brother-in-law, who weighs 2/3rds of what I do, so the suit was loose on him. He did the same swim and got cold, but he did it just fine.

I am really tired of posts that claim that the persons home waters are the deadliest in the world.... that if you even LOOK at the water without something designed by someone from the WBF Approved List, you will die. I once saw a video on YT of some guy sailing a little dinghy someplace on Puget Sound. It was hardly blowing, and the boat crossed over a little tideline, or maybe a line of rocks and went from utterly glassy water to 2-inch ripples in the span of a boat length. The narrator went on to explain that Puget Sound was incredibly dangerous because the sailing conditions could change so fast.

What the actual 'FFFF????

You can die in a puddle. It's all dangerous...the Bahamas, Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay, Lake Michigan, the Gulf, Lake Minnetonka, Lake Tahoe, Lake Geneva, the Irish Sea...it's WATER. Be aware, be sane, but get over it.

[Chris249]

Just a comment. I, personally, in my early 50's have swum about a half-mile in Puget Sound. I swam from the north beach of Herron Island, in the Case Inlet to the opposite shore, about 300 yards east of the ferry dock. This was at high tide. There's a long sandbar at the north end of Herron Island which is exposed at low tide. I did NOT walk out on the sandbar to do the swim. I was wearing a very thin "shorty" wetsuit, meaning a farmer john top and legs down to lower thighs. My wife rowed our aluminum rowboat near me in case I ran into trouble. I had no trouble. I am not a trained open-water swimmer. At that time I was swimming 2-3x a week for 25-30 minutes in a heated pool for my exercise and I thought it would be fun to try to swim the channel. After I was done, I stripped off the wetsuit and handed it to my brother-in-law, who weighs 2/3rds of what I do, so the suit was loose on him. He did the same swim and got cold, but he did it just fine.

I am really tired of posts that claim that the persons home waters are the deadliest in the world.... that if you even LOOK at the water without something designed by someone from the WBF Approved List, you will die. I once saw a video on YT of some guy sailing a little dinghy someplace on Puget Sound. It was hardly blowing, and the boat crossed over a little tideline, or maybe a line of rocks and went from utterly glassy water to 2-inch ripples in the span of a boat length. The narrator went on to explain that Puget Sound was incredibly dangerous because the sailing conditions could change so fast.

What the actual 'FFFF????

You can die in a puddle. It's all dangerous...the Bahamas, Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay, Lake Michigan, the Gulf, Lake Minnetonka, Lake Tahoe, Lake Geneva, the Irish Sea...it's WATER. Be aware, be sane, but get over it.

It's a perennial, and for racing sailors it's joined by those other hardy cliches;

"an easy boat to sail, a hard boat to sail well" - WTH is a racing boat that's easy to sail well - one where everyone wins the world titles?

"if you can sail those, you can sail anything" - a cliche attached to every junior class ever built, and many others as well.

"if you can sail here, you can sail anywhere" - said of every single sailing ground known to mankind, by locals.

"there are some really good sailors in this fleet" - said of every single sailing fleet known to mankind, by its own members.

[tink]

Just a comment. I, personally, in my early 50's have swum about a half-mile in Puget Sound. I swam from the north beach of Herron Island, in the Case Inlet to the opposite shore, about 300 yards east of the ferry dock. This was at high tide. There's a long sandbar at the north end of Herron Island which is exposed at low tide. I did NOT walk out on the sandbar to do the swim. I was wearing a very thin "shorty" wetsuit, meaning a farmer john top and legs down to lower thighs. My wife rowed our aluminum rowboat near me in case I ran into trouble. I had no trouble. I am not a trained open-water swimmer. At that time I was swimming 2-3x a week for 25-30 minutes in a heated pool for my exercise and I thought it would be fun to try to swim the channel. After I was done, I stripped off the wetsuit and handed it to my brother-in-law, who weighs 2/3rds of what I do, so the suit was loose on him. He did the same swim and got cold, but he did it just fine.

I am really tired of posts that claim that the persons home waters are the deadliest in the world.... that if you even LOOK at the water without something designed by someone from the WBF Approved List, you will die. I once saw a video on YT of some guy sailing a little dinghy someplace on Puget Sound. It was hardly blowing, and the boat crossed over a little tideline, or maybe a line of rocks and went from utterly glassy water to 2-inch ripples in the span of a boat length. The narrator went on to explain that Puget Sound was incredibly dangerous because the sailing conditions could change so fast.

What the actual 'FFFF????

You can die in a puddle. It's all dangerous...the Bahamas, Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay, Lake Michigan, the Gulf, Lake Minnetonka, Lake Tahoe, Lake Geneva, the Irish Sea...it's WATER. Be aware, be sane, but get over it.

’allways go to sea with a captain the CAN’T swim’

I agree with you but having dabbled with a few other forums we are the friendliest and most supportive. Other than the professional designers I don’t think very many of our members design their own boats which is a real shame. I can fully understand this if you are building a forty footer to take your family around the world.

Doing you own design for something small in plywood is great fun and very rewarding. If something goes wrong learning how to fix it will improve your understanding on the boat design. You don’t have to build them full-size of course and just doing the design work is very enjoyable. With the internet to look at other designs and accessible CAD packages we are at a time when design is possible for all.

Before I get called on my earlier posts I think that buying a fixer upper and learning about boats and their construction that way is valid route. I have since realise what slim pickings you have for second hand boats your side of the pond.

[BOI]

Just a comment. I, personally, in my early 50's have swum about a half-mile in Puget Sound. I swam from the north beach of Herron Island, in the Case Inlet to the opposite shore, about 300 yards east of the ferry dock. This was at high tide. There's a long sandbar at the north end of Herron Island which is exposed at low tide. I did NOT walk out on the sandbar to do the swim. I was wearing a very thin "shorty" wetsuit, meaning a farmer john top and legs down to lower thighs. My wife rowed our aluminum rowboat near me in case I ran into trouble. I had no trouble. I am not a trained open-water swimmer. At that time I was swimming 2-3x a week for 25-30 minutes in a heated pool for my exercise and I thought it would be fun to try to swim the channel. After I was done, I stripped off the wetsuit and handed it to my brother-in-law, who weighs 2/3rds of what I do, so the suit was loose on him. He did the same swim and got cold, but he did it just fine.

I am really tired of posts that claim that the persons home waters are the deadliest in the world.... that if you even LOOK at the water without something designed by someone from the WBF Approved List, you will die. I once saw a video on YT of some guy sailing a little dinghy someplace on Puget Sound. It was hardly blowing, and the boat crossed over a little tideline, or maybe a line of rocks and went from utterly glassy water to 2-inch ripples in the span of a boat length. The narrator went on to explain that Puget Sound was incredibly dangerous because the sailing conditions could change so fast.

What the actual 'FFFF????

You can die in a puddle. It's all dangerous...the Bahamas, Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay, Lake Michigan, the Gulf, Lake Minnetonka, Lake Tahoe, Lake Geneva, the Irish Sea...it's WATER. Be aware, be sane, but get over it.

There is a lot of misinformation about cold water survival out there. I've been to a lecture by Dr. Giesbrecht, otherwise known as "Dr. Popsicle" who has extensively researched cold water survival. http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/kinrec..._treatment.pdf
the most elevant info starts on slide 15.

I was looking for a thread on here that might have been from last year, of a young guy who designed and built his own sailboat and did a pretty good job of it. I just cannot find it with any of the keywords that can think of searching with.

He did the smart thing, built a plywood boat. Traditional boatbuilding is of course learnable, but not in your time frame I'm afraid, because you still have to learn all about boat design first. And all along you'll be readjusting your expectations. And everything will take twice as long as you think it will.

I've be dabbling with rowboat design for few couple of years now, still got lots to learn and haven't found any book or info source yet that has everything I need to know. Even knowing all the principles about small boats doesn't tell you what tradeoffs are the best ones for your situation. You could do worse than starting with Jim Michalak's "Boatbuilding for beginners and beyond" even if you don't end up using his designs or methods. But if your design ends up looking a lot like his "Mayfly" it will probably sail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaoPkIei1ik
You need pretty much this much boat for two folks to be comfortable. What you learn can easily be tested with paper models at a 1:10 or 1:12 (1 inch=1 foot) scale.

It doesn't have to be beautiful but it needs to be watertight; that's way easier to achieve with plywood. With traditional lapstrake you need to have the right wood, fasteners and tools, which are probably way more expensive than you want your boat to be. A "throwaway" boat can be built from cheap plywood and will last a year or two. It can be built glued lap if you like the lapstrake look.

Don't expect a masterpiece for your first try anyway, just aim for something that will kind of sail and that isn't so small that it is ultra cramped and unsafe. Before you try sailing take it into warm water, deliberately capsize it and practice re-entry and bailing it.

If you aren't living on the water, have you given some thought of how you will move it around? Even if you do live near the water you may still need some sort of a cart or beach rollers. Pretty much only kayaks, canoes and some ultra-light rowboats can be carried and even that is difficult in wind.

[Stōs]

I'd suggest something like this https://batritningar.se/sv/batritnin...eka/12-flateka

/Mats

I was thinking the same thing when people were bringing up flat bottom skiffs for simplicity. A flat bottom skiff with lapstrake sides seems to be a good compromise.

[Matt young]

http://www.fastonline.org/CD3WD_40/JF/435/26-674.pdf

If you haven’t read through John Gardner’s “The Dory Book” give it a read. Now is free to download. Good informative on the kind of build you are looking at, and a good selection of plans. You can build the boats in his book with solid wood, or swap out for comparable plywood, or double layers of thin ply if there is a lot of bend in the planks. You can use his plans to build or as a good lesson on design.

[heavyweather]

Just do it

I know very little about sailboats but it is always fun to build boats.
Maybe just use some existing design as a starting point like I like to do.
Something that floats or even sails can be built very cheap.
I like to think that even my homebuilt sails are working quite well. I cut them from Tyvek.
If I'd go in a trip I'd extensively test my equipment before hand and carry spares for some important parts (like the rudder).
Copy from Michalak (Mayfly 12/14) and Storer (Goat Island Skiff).
Have you considered a skin on frame boat? Maybe a SOF boat with a PVC skin? I once tried to do a Faltboot Mayfly but abandoned the project. If 14' boat wouldn't be too big for me in one piece I would try a frame with a removable PVC skin.
Plywood is probably the better choice if you got a way to move the boat.
Do you need to cartop it or are you considering a trailer?

Now I am off to start my own boat building adventure for this season...

[Badgerbuilder]

indeed, I have found that designing a boat is exceedingly hard, and as it's wont to do, life caught up with me. thank you for all your help in this discussion. I still hope to design a small boat someday, but that day will not be in 2018. I will probably find some plans that I like and modify them to fit my needs in a few small ways. I'm going to nwswb now and enjoying myself immensely. thank you all for your tips and comments and book recommendations. Signing off of this post for the last time,

-badger

[tink]

Slight tinge of jealousy, no buckets full of the stuff. It would be great to have a blog or thread about your experience at the NWSWB but from what I hear about their courses you won’t have time so just enjoy.

[johnw]

Over the years of forum viewing, I've seen numerous threads from first time builders who also firmly state they are going to design their own boat. I'm curious to know if anyone here has ever encountered someone who has actually done this. I'm talking about stone cold beginners who have designed, built and sailed/rowed/motored a successful boat. Seems to me that these folks post their ambitious, grand plans and then accomplish....nothing. I can't recall ever seeing a post where someone has done this. Invariably the OPs are never heard from again.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/21456843/...pie-Black-Swan

I've done it, but I wasn't new to sailing, and I had spent most of my life reading about how to design a boat.

Badger, the only reason to make a boat a short as 7 1/2 feet is so that it will fit in a space on the deck of your yacht. Make it 15 feet and you can both get in it.