Opinions on CLC (John Harris) 10'6" Nesting Expedition Dinghy

[Jack Loudon]

https://www.clcboats.com/life-of-boa...hy-Update.html

I need a new project this winter. This N.E.D. is a 3'6" by 10'6" semi-enclosed camp cruiser by John Harris of Chesapeake Light Craft. It nests in 3 pieces but mine would be one piece. More like Old Shoe than SCAMP (but smaller) with some of Matt Layden's ideas mixed in. Flat bottom, plumb sides, leeboards, water ballast. Used in near shore in Puget Sound with occasional 3-5 mile crossings of biggish water. Those crossings do worry me a bit. It would fit in the back of my Tacoma pickup and roll to the water on a cart. SCAMP is similar and undoubtedly better all around but bigger and needs a trailer.

I know bigger boats are faster and better (been there done that) but I have an irrational attraction to very small boats, and they need to fit in the back of my truck

What do you think? Is there a better 10-6 x 3-6 boat out there for cool weather camp cruising?

[Tomcat]

Interesting design, they really know how to make the details suggest everything is very well thought out.

I built a 24 foot cruising trimaran once, and it is a great daysailer, but one day I was in my Elegant punt, lying down on the long seat, very comfortable, and I realized that while my trimaran had a reasonable sized cabin, and a large cockpit and was 24 foot by 18.5 foot, it didn't have as comfortable a berth as my elegant punt at just under 8 foot.

That it the good news. However, throwing a tent over everything does not a cruiser make, in my opinion. There will be someone who has that boat, or one like it and spends happy decades in it. But most people will spend one outing, get scared when it gets hit by a gust, and gets all their gear soaked when it get's hit by some rain, and that will be the last time they use it.

A lot of CLC boats are inspired by other designs, so why not start there, build a Laydon Paradox, then you have a lot of the problems actually solved in a package not much larger. And for what a trailer costs, it will be a lot more likely to see a lot of launches.

[WI-Tom]

I can't say this one calls to me. The hassle of loading/unloading a 10' dinghy from a truck bed seems exponentially more of a hassle than trailering a boat. Which, once you've made that jump, you can find much better boats out there for your purpose, I think.

Welsford Walkabout, for one.

Ross Lillistone Phoenix III for another.

Heck, you can even roll a Phoenix III to the water on a cart if you need to. I've done it.

I just don't think a truck-bed cruising dinghy is something I would wish on my worst enemy...

Tom

[dbp1]

Seems like a lot of strings, sails, and sticks for a 10' boat.

[Woxbox]

There's Layden's Illusion. Only 9'. Heck, you could blow it up by 10% for a really roomy cruiser.

[Jack Loudon]

Thanks everybody. My trailering experience is mainly with my current fairly heavy/bulky 16 ft trailer sailor that is a pain to use, what with the rigging and then unrigging, and I have to be lucky enough to find parking at the few ramps here in Seattle. My previous bigger boats at a marina were a pleasure to use but I'm retired and can't justify the moorage cost any more.

Lately I've preferred smaller boats that slide in the pickup bed and are more flexible in launch locations. I use my 9.5 ft Alby (with small cart that slots in the daggerboard trunk) this way and think it's easier than trailering. The N.E.D. is a similar sized boat that would extend my range into bigger waters and into cooler spring/fall temps, to be used more for daysails than overnighting. But NED probably weighs twice as much as Alby and could be a real effort to lift and slide in the truck; also (per Daniel) as designed it has a complicated rig but I would use something simpler. It's curious that nearly everyone says to never cleat the sheet in a dinghy but how is that possible with 3 sails?

WI-Tom, maybe I need to give trailering another chance, with a smaller & lighter boat, where rigging is a 5-10 minute job instead of 5x that long (and NO outboard!). I do love Phoenix III (and First Mate) and also should give Walkabout a closer look.

Tomcat and dbp1, Matt Layden's designs are intriguing but their intricacy is probably overkill for my mostly daysailing uses.

[edit to add] In my initial post I probably overstated the camp cruising aspect; while this certainly will happen, the boat will be used mostly for daysailing, as is the case for most boats, regardless of their intended use.

Thanks again for your input.

[Matt young]

https://duckworks.com/piccup-pram-plans/

The Pickup Pram by Michalack is a good option, originally designed to slide into a truck bed by and for the designer. They are comfortable and sail well. I have sailed in company and am impressed. And, they are easy to build and rig! They are also a proven beachcamper.

[Jack Loudon]

Thanks Matt,

I have the Piccup plans but the boat with leeboard is a bit too wide to fit in my truck with canopy. I considered taking a 3" strip out of the middle, and also going with a centerboard, but ultimately decided it was too big. My Tacoma is 42" between wheel wells and a full size truck is 48". I have no doubt that Piccup is a great sailboat but I do not like rowing flat bottom prams so went with a stretched version of Ross Lillistone's Alby, which is nearly flat in the middle but warps to a V at both ends. It fits in my truck just fine, is a very good rower and sailer, and gets used often.

My interest in NED was a similar size boat for use in bigger waters and cooler temps, but WI-Tom and others have swayed me to think again about trailering.

[Matt young]

Jack, sounds good. I started cartop sailing and was very happy to switch to trailering.

[adamarthurryan]

I used to carry my Shellback dinghy (11') around in the bed of my Ranger pickup truck. It's only a 6' bed, so the boat hung out a few feet over the gate, but that was fine. A couple straps up front to hold it in and hold it down. I wrapped the spars, sail and oars in a piece of Sunbrella fabric for the road. A full-sized truck bed should be able to take a few couple more feet of boat no problem.

The slick thing was that I had a custom cart that doubled as a ramp to get the boat into the bed. When the cart was tipped back the bow of the boat was right at a level with the gate and it was easy to just slide it up into the bed. And back out onto the cart later. Just worked out that way, lucky. The cart rode up top on the racks.

[Jack Loudon]

Adam, I do much the same thing with my 9.5 ft pram in the back of the 6 ft Tacoma bed. All sails/spars/oars etc fit in the boat. My cart has a fin above the wheels that slots into the daggerboard trunk so doesn't need any straps. Like you, when I push down on one end of the boat, the other end is above the level of the tailgate so easy to slide in. Also, when lifting the boat the cart simply drops out of the slot and onto the ground, and it's small enough to fit on the foredeck seat, so stays on the boat. I think your cart might make the unloading process a bit easier than mine though, as I have to roll my boat on its side to install the cart fin in the slot.

The entire process, from showing up at the ramp parking lot, unloading the boat and wheeling to the water, then rigging the boat and actually sailing, is well under 10 minutes. I could probably do it in closer to 5 minutes if pushed. Part of this quick time is not needing to tie the boat up and walk back to the truck with the cart.

As a pickup owner, I wouldn't think of bothering with a trailer for a boat this size. I think my next boat will be more like your Shellback length, though for that much sticking out the back I would hang a plug-in taillight off the end instead of a flag.