Dear Joan,

Recently I sold my old Mirror dinghy locally and am suffering the boat-less withdrawal symptoms. However, I do have some marine ply and a spare set of minor sails and spars. I plan to design and build a boat; a small transportable one to use what I already have.

A centreboard case is an unwelcome intrusion on the living space within a small boat. Shallow unballasted bilge keels combined with a small skeg aft would give some protection to the bottom of the hull when beaching.

Can any one advise me?

Beale Park is a much better venue than Chertsey. So I hope to meet up at Beale in early June.

Bill Bazett