My thanks to David Schramm for leading a good discussion about "the perfect
dinghy."

Since the discussion allows a possible custom construction of the dinghy, I
wonder if it might be possible to build a variation of all those designs
that split a dinghy in half, athwartships, with the two halves held together
with bolts. In the "perfect" split design, you could have one bow section
that fit together with either of TWO aft ends:

        1. a wide aft end designed to plane while carrying a full load,

or

        2. a tapered aft end designed for good rowing. 

Altogether 1.5 dinghies that can be nested in three smallish sections and
stored on any small trawler.

Too crazy?

Regards,

Bob Frenier

Chelsea, VT

A boat that would fulfill many of the requirements could be a Livingston
Catamaran Dingy of 10 or 12 feet with a Rib style collar added to
prevent damage to the yacht and  keel guards added to the keels to
prevent beaching damage. Due to the catamaran hulls, rowing and general
handling under oars may not be as easy as a rocker bottom dingy.  I have
no experience with handling a Livingston in surf, but it does well in
chop and wakes. My 10 ft Livingston planes one person and runs up to
12-15 knots with 8 hp. Max hp is 10 hp tiller controlled and 15 hp with
remote steering. The 10 ft model weighs about 125 lbs without motor.
These dingys are common on trawlers and yachts in the Pacific Northwest.

Larry H

www.clcboats.com offers a Passagemaker dinghy which comes in a "split"
version. The idea of two pointy ends sounds good as do inflatable collars
around the gunnels. The hull needs to be a least fiberglass/Kevlar or
aluminum. A lapstrake design would keep it dry as would high freeboard. I
think we are talking about a dory with two different sterns. The pointy
stern could nest inside the conventional transom. Any dinghy needs some
airtight chambers which can hold cargo. Since surf dories can capsize, maybe
we should consider a proa type sponson on one side to help keep the boat
upright in the surf. Of course, there is the documented technique of turning
the bow offshore into the waves and going in stern first.

Still, on larger trawlers two different purpose-built dinghies sound better.

Ron Rogers

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Frenier

My thanks to David Schramm for leading a good discussion about "the perfect
dinghy."

Since the discussion allows a possible custom construction of the dinghy, I
wonder if it might be possible to build a variation of all those designs
that split a dinghy in half, athwartships, with the two halves held together
with bolts. In the "perfect" split design, you could have one bow section
that fit together with either of TWO aft ends: