Part 1 - The Hull

I started sailing at the age of 14 on the Gare Loch on the Clyde in an 11' Gull dinghy. Racing never interested me but sailing where and how I liked certainly did. I was attracted to the idea of cruising and spent many hours while sailing mentally planning my own ideal cruising dinghy. There then followed a break of 15 years whilst studying at the university of life, majoring in a mis-spent youth with the Territorial Army. I then went back to sailing with a much more realistic idea of my own capabilities than had previously been the case, also I had acquired a delight in designing and making things so I set about acquiring my ideal dinghy.

Deciding the limiting factor was the weight of the boat as it had to be recovered onto a trailer single-handed; a 14' lightweight boat seemed suitable, but as this would-be too heavy to pull-up a beach out of reach of the tide I had to sleep aboard. Without a good nights sleep there would be no pleasure in anything the next day, so, where to sleep? I realised there was plenty of space in the middle of the boat - just get rid of the mast and centreboard. The mast was supported on a 3"x3" deck beam, and the centreboard was moved to the side of the boat with a second board on the other side for the other tack - design problems all resolved.

Now put ideas into practice - no dinghy builder was interested in selling a bare hull for own completion and plans seemed equally hard to come by. A catalogue of 150 plans for the amateur builder containing NOTHING suitable. Finally I got a set of plans for Percy Blandford's 12' Foamcrest and worked from these. Spacing the formers at 3’ 6” not 3’ to get a 14’ boat, I also increased the beam to fourteen twelfths to maintain stability but did not increase draught to save weight. The interior was totally re-designed as shown below with the outline of the deck shown dotted.

Part 2 - The Sailplan

Having described the hull in the previous article I would now like to cover the sail plan. The design requirements were for a rig with a good windward performance with no spars longer than the boat. The answer seemed fairly obvious but in practice left a lot to be desired. I chose a gunter sloop with 2 slab reefs on the main, each 3' deep, and a roller reefing genoa. The gaff was dropped and the halyard re-attached each time a reef was taken in or shaken out. I grossly underestimated the number of times I would be reefing which was a problem because although the attachment boat hove-to well, once the main was' points lowered I had to uncleat the jib or the bow bore away onto a run. Also it was a fiddle and took too long so I modified the rig to a sliding gunter with "peak" and "throat" halyards. This was a great improvement.

Another problem is that the second reef removes 20% of the sail area which is all right if the wind continues to increase but I have often been left under canvassed just after reefing as the wind has dropped even only slightly. I feel a reef of 15% would be about right. Even 2 reefs are too much sometimes so I also carry a heavy weather mainsail which is loose footed so it can be set with the working main and gaff lashed to the boom. See detail below. With this sail reefed and seven rolls in the genoa I can get to windward in 27 kts. but it is very wet, I can only tack through 110°, it is very tiring and no fun.

I also carry a sleeve-deployed spinnaker for downwind work but can only carry it in a narrow wind strength band unless I have a crew because either the spinnaker collapses and I cannot see where I am going or it pulls the bow under water. If I did it again I would try a 110 sq. ft. main on a 12' boom with 5 slab reefs, and cutter headed with a 30 sq. ft. roller reefing staysail and a 30 sq. ft. roller furling jib. This would give a large sail area for light wind sailing but could be easily reduced as the wind increases, also there should be no need for a separate heavy weather mainsail. Also instead of the spinnaker I would try a large baggy genoa set flying inside the jib stay with a whisker pole for running.

After 3 seasons I fitted bilge keels to keep the boat upright when beached and to keep stones out of the plate cases. (See first diagram) I also fitted a large skeg 5" at the deepest point, which has given the boat much more directional stability as well as curing excessive weather helm. In practice changing plates when tacking is not a problem as I lower the weather plate before tacking and raise the other once on the new tack. When tacking up a narrow channel I leave both plates down although it is possible to go to windward with just the weather plate down.

If I was doing it again I would extend the foredeck to 7'6" leaving a cockpit of 4'6". This would give extra cover to the berth making the use of a tent less important. I would also like an extra 3" freeboard at the bow as she ships quite big seas sometimes. The other major alteration would be to move the fore bulkhead forward 6" to increase berth space and extend the bulkhead right up to the deck. I left a stowage space above the bow tank but this is fairly inaccessible and not required as there is adequate stowage above the side tanks under the foredeck for jumpers etc. This would also put the buoyancy in a better place for righting the boat after a capsize. Having deliberately capsized I can say that despite approx. 1600 lbs. of buoyancy she does not roll completely over but floats so high it is a struggle to get the mast off the water but once this is done she recovers very quickly and lies stable while the water is baled out.