See Doug's letter to the editor on p.7 of the original bulletin, inviting members to put forward their design ideas for a two-berth dinghy with a lid on.

Design Specifications

Two Can: a 15' 0" LWL GRP cabin dinghy, beam 7' 0", draft plates up 12", draft plates down 4' 0". Yawl rig. Displacement about 900lbs.

Design Features

The boat has twin centreplates to allow leg room in the cabin and the ability to settle upright as the plates do not fully retract. The straight run of the underwater section, although not allowing her to turn on a sixpence, will give her the potential for self-steering and will allow her to sail to windward in shallow water with plates up. The wide beam of 7' 0", although not doing her any favours in light winds, will make her stiff and give the hull form some potential to plane as well as reducing her draft.

The cabin proportions were chosen for sitting headroom and comfortable wide berths. The cockpit is large and self-draining, with storage for an outboard in a seat locker. The mizzen mast is offset to allow for a normal tiller with an extension. The main is loose-footed so that the airfoil section can be adjusted.

Design Influences

I can't see this boat ever being produced in plywood because of the semi hard chine / round bilge form that can only be built with 'tortured' panels. I have picked like a magpie from various designs such as the Devon Yawl, the Silhouette, the Rocket, the Winkle Brig, the Mirror, the Jollyboat, and many others.

The boat has high freeboard in order to provide sitting headroom in the cabin without it looking like a toolshed and to enable the cockpit sole to be high enough to drain.

Reverse sheer allows the boat to resist heeling and gives more room under the side deck where it is needed.

Summary

The best point about the boat as I see it is the ability to take the old and the innocent to sea in coastal waters safe in the knowledge that you are not going to frighten the power of speech out of them.

Worst point is that you will have to make friends quickly in unfamiliar places in order to launch and recover.

I have tried to design a boat that is pleasing on the eye, as I would rather walk around with a nail in my shoe than sail in an ugly boat.