Are too many dinghies too short?

If anyone is truly interested, I can make a graph of how many classes appear in each length bracket, and compare today's list against that of 1960. I'd need help filling in the hull lengths our database is missing though.

Adding length cheaply would add weight.
But lots of boats could be built longer without weighing any more, with perhaps modest use of better material?
A longer boat will put more stress on the hull when one end is out of the water or whatever.
Modern foam sandwich hulls probably have plenty of stiffness to cope, where a single skin grp or ply hull might not.
Isn't a 59er quite long?
Does that suggest making a long boat is not always the way to go?
I suppose I'm biased toward longer boats having spent some time sailing yachts from A to B, length is good in that regime.

as far as i am concerned, as a british moth sailor, no boat needs to be longer than 11 feet!!!!

( and we have some large boned people in the class )

As a comparison, it seems that British dinghies may have less LOA variation, if we look at the popular classes. There's none of the very popular 17-19' 3-person classes that one sees in the USA or Australia, for example, in the form of Lightnings, Thistles, Flying Scots, Sharpies and 16 Foot Skiffs*. As I understand it this is partly because the UK traditionally had smaller cars and garages (which is something Jack Holt noted) and perhaps because you often sail on smaller waterways. This was noted by people like COnrad Gulcher and Westell many years ago when they created the 505 and FD as a blend of long Euro boats and shorter British boats.

Edited by Chris 249 - 12 Mar 13 at 11:19am

Yes, too many boats are too short.

More and more folks are taller than 6 feet, so they are on the "heavy" side of the spectrum, no matter how fit/skinny/... they are.

For example too few double handers can carry two tall guys, who have no chance to get their combined crew weight below 160 kgs, and rather will weigh in at 180 kgs, comfortably.

At least I am very happy that the RS800 is 16' as opposed to the usual 14', I do not need any extensions to stick out at the front and back just to make up for a lack in hull length :-)

And a 505 would not be what it is at 14', too...