A new class of dinghy?

Spence was a genius... How the hell he managed to get something so boat shaped with such limiting constraints like a constant chine angle is beyond me...

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons TBF I wasn't being entirely serious. TBH there are probably a few boats that could achieve 1 and 3 but none that I can think of that could achieve 1 and 2 with any reasonable degree of success in the same design...... I suspect all three are not possible in the same boat, and definitely not if you add :- 4, rewarding to sail..... Was it Storer that designed the Goat Island Skiff? I always thought that looked promising

John Spencer's Firebug does, partly because it sets 50% more sail than other 8 footers aimed at juniors. It may not be the ultimate answer but I can confidently atest to the fact that an 8 footer does plane and that carrying 85kg.

https://youtu.be/t66qxBDaD4A

This (southern) winter we have built two at our club with boys from local high schools.

Sam Spoons, thank you for that. Have you tried sailing one?

An old bloke arrived at our club with the brand new Pdracer he had built for his grand kids. He wanted somebody to try it out before he presented it to them. I was the bunny who was deputised. It was the absolute worst design I have experienced in 60 years of dinghy sailing.

The mast was so heavy that the boat rolled like a demented pendulum. It had that strange rig with which Storer designed the PDR - a luff down to the forward tank blocking a large sector of visibility completely and the fixed rudder meant you had to drag the thing out into waist deep water before you could install it.

Storer used to sail at our club "before my time" and I am very interested in his later designs including Beth and Viola but neither meets the storage criteria I identified and both require scarf joints which would test a novice. A PDR with the lug rig and a pivoting or dagger rudder might be a different experience but for now I am very doubtful about the original version.

An interesting thread. Many of the clubs in my part of the world are in dire straits - Kids do a year or two in Optimists and move on to something else before they achieve competence leaving a declining fleet and aging leadership group.

The need that dinghy sailing has above all others is to engage people in sailing and to keep them. Instead of dreaming up marginally faster and trickier boats we need boats that address the needs of people who live in flats and are worried about launching their careers, or their childrens'.

To address those 'customer' needs we need boats which are (1) short enough to stand on their transoms in the garage and leave space for a car (2) have adequate performance, ie plane carrying an adult and (3) allow young people to build their boats and thus write on their skinny CVs "sport = sailing, hobby = boat building - I sail the boat I built."

To quote one of our local house builders, "If a kid finishes his boat and wants an apprenticeship, send him to me..." That kind of affirmation will keep people interested long enough to take on the identity of sailor and once they identify as sailors, they will stay sailors.

Originally posted by H2 KazRob - disagree about "in our life times". I am 45 so have at least 30 years more sailing in front of me. Wind the world back 30 years.....quite a bit has changed so I am fairly sure that it will be possible in the foreseeable future.

Edited by Chris 249 - 04 Oct 18 at 12:32am