Nesting dingy plans

[jwaldin]

I saw a dingy about 9' long. The guy had basically built 2 dingys that bolted together that formed a double thick solid bulkhead amidshipd when in use. To store it he unbolted the 2 halves and one half nested perfectly into the other. Anyone know where I could get plans for something like this?

[G. Schollmeier]

http://www.gerrmarine.com/images/boat_images/small/gerr11nester/gerr11nesterB.JPG

From here.

http://www.gerrmarine.com/index.html

Gary :D

[JimD]

Glen-L has one as well.

[jwaldin]

That's the dingy all right. I'm gonna build me one.
Thanks for the info.

[Venchka]

B & B Yachts also has plans for nested dinghys. If I recall, they have more than one size.

[Murray Campbell]

i've been looking a bunch at the B&B website and i think i will go with one of their sets of plans...nesting prams and skiffs in a bunch of different sizes..

if you google "two-paws 9" you'll find a website that outlines one guy's building and sailing experience with the nesting pram

somehow it feels like i'm being lazy though..it can't be that hard to draw something like this from scratch...?????

[ion barnes]

Dave Gerrs book "Nature of Boats" has a set of his nesting dinghy plans 'free' with the book. Seen one in Parksville without the nesting part and looked nice.

[Tom Lathrop]

Murray,

Oh yes it can. If it were easy, there would be many more good little boats than not so good ones. An essence of a good design is that it looks easy and obvious but the good ones almost always result from lots of experience plus the talent to turn the experience into design.

[Murray Campbell]

say ion...mebbe we should knock a few together and sell them down at schwartz bay and duke point!...i hear the pizza delivery folks are doing pretty well too (ferry strike chaos for those further afield...)

and Tom...good comments and i essentially agree and see the wisdom in them....but they are also the sorts of words that could drive me to great lengths to get all obsessive about doing a good job of it myself :) ...guess it's the way i'm put together

i also think that if you take the past and tradition and functionality seriously, you won't go too far wrong..

hmmm...perhaps time to go do some drawing and modelling?

[Aramas]

lol - yeah something like that is really easy to design. Unfortunately designing a good one is really hard smile.gif

Dinghies are funny little critters - when someone gets it 'just right' i suspect it's more by accident than design. They're so dominated by passenger weight and movement, and so prone to skittish behaviour when towed that you have to be really lucky to get one that behaves itself under all circumstances. The best ones have been evolved rather than designed.

Try to find one with a sailing rig that has a lot of positive feedback from owners - that's really the only way.

[Tom Lathrop]

Aramas,

Having a dinghy that sails well in addition to hauling people and supplies with oar or scull efficiently is the best. Sailing around an anchorage adds a lot to the joy of a good dinghy. Another thing about rowing is that the dinghy should be able to balance properly with from one to four people and gear. Look at the poorly balanced ones that have one end or the other pointed toward the sky under different load conditions. Multiple positions for oarlock and rower are a necessity plus seating positions for pasengers that keep the boat balanced. These are the things that separate a good dinghy from the rest.

I've built two of B&B's and can say that they do all these things well and are the product of long experience. Some compromise has to be made in the seating to allow for nesting though. If you are going to tow the dingy, it can be longer than the standard 8 feet.

[Mike Vogdes]

I too have built a dink from B&B, mine is not a nester, just an 8'Cats Paw but none the less have lots of praise for their designs. I wouldn't hesitate buying a set of plans for a nesting dink from them.

[Venchka]

Tom & Mike,

Have either of you towed one of the B&B tenders? If so, is the towing behavior acceptable?

[Mike Vogdes]

I have never towed mine, its light enough for two people to hump it out of the water pretty easily. It does have wedge shaped deadwood keel about midship aft, so I think it would track rather well if towed

[Tom Lathrop]

My experience may not be applicable to yours. I use my Catspaw with a powerboat and tow at higher speed than you would use with a sailboat. I snug it up to the transom to a cleat on the side so that it runs out of the prop wash. I have towed at up to 15mph with the dink planing on the aft one foot of bottom. It runs dry with no problems in calm water. I've not actually towed it in rough conditions but assume that I would have to make some change.

My Catspaw has the daggerboard about one foot off center in the air tank wall and that has to be well plugged to stop water from jetting up when towed. It's also not a nester and has a sliding rowing thwart and two sets of oarlocks. I built it with 4mm ply in the mistaken belief that I could hoist it with my 72 year old arms onto the cabintop. Wishfull thinking even though it only weighs 52 pounds complete.

My other dink was a Spindrift 10 which is, in my opinion, the best small sailboat going. We race them and, when sailed by someone who knows the pointy end from the stern, has never been beaten by another 10 footer. Graham placed first overall in a race at the Woodenboat Show against 60 other boats. I actually beat two classic Moths in a race at Beaufort once.

These are good boats.

[ 12-09-2003, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Tom Lathrop ]

[Venchka]

Thanks Tom & Mike!

[Murray Campbell]

tom and mike...thanks for the comments on the B&B designs..

i'm so torn between the 8' and 9' catspaw...part of me says keep it simple and small and light

...but then it's only a just a few more inches of boat nested, and 10 pounds

is the eight footer a fun little sail too?

aramas i guess i'm just nostalgic for a time when builders and designers were one and the same and workboats were layed out by eye and rule of thumb....i think we lose something in breaking that connection and making the air around design a bit too rarified...but i like what you say about designs evolving...and these days we don't get to develop our intuitions by building hundreds of boats since we are seven in our dad's shops

[ion barnes]

Murray, if we could expand the design to accomadate a SUV, we might have something. Say a buy back program if they get to the other side without mishap?

For those not of local placement, we are experiencing a ferry workers strike thats limiting travel between the islands and the mainland.

All kidding aside, Gerr's Nester is a nice looking pram and as a single unit. I am a mashinist, and the joining clamps are a little involved, and would be the major investment. My thoughts have been to build the single unit and used a bat-wingsail or junk rig. Looks much like a sampan.

[Figment]

Ion,
Good Old Boat ran an article this past summer about a guy who built two of Gerr's Nesters. He built them round-bilged of cedarstrip, which I personally think was a mistake, but he also modified the design of the nesting bolt hardware, IIRC. I dunno if you have access to the magazine, but I'd be interested to hear a machinist's opinion of the hardware modification.

Gerr's nester is among the top three on my "next boat to build" list. Does anyone know if one has been rigged for sail?

[htom]

Gerr wrote to the editors in the next issue and commented on the changes. IIRC he thought the change in the clamps was an improvement.

[David Virtue]

I designed and built a nesting version of the venerated 9' Nutshell dinghy. It worked out very well, nests down to 5'. It was shown in "Launchings" a few years ago. I have some plans of the modificatins that I can send out, no charge. I did use the clamps described in Gerr's book.

[JFH]

Didn't John Brooks have an article done on his work in this area? It seems to me that he made a "nester" with one of his plans and did a great job of it too.

I just can't remember the issue that I saw it in but, if you could find the article, it would help you out some. John has a site too where you could find out even more.

Just a thought

[ion barnes]

Did not know about the new improved version. E-mail me and I will give you a fax # and I will have alook or post them here perhaps, would be interested to know more. The Nester I saw in Parksville was a strip planked effort and thought it was nicly done, took a moment to realize the breed because of the change.

[ion barnes]

Murray, so where on this island do you call home?

[Aramas]

I've been thinking about what I consider the critical area of dinghy design that effects towing behaviour. I figure it's the amount of turnup in the run - the more there is the more it will tend to squat and produce enough drag in the stern to stabilise it. If you have too much it would probably be unstable and kind of pop out and chase the boat, and rowing and sailing performance would suck.

Combine that with the line connected to the boat as low as is practical and a skeg to discourage yaw and it should be pretty well behaved.

Buggered if I know what the optimum rocker would be though smile.gif

Of course I could be wrong tongue.gif

[jwaldin]

I would really appreciate the plans David. Thankyou

[Murray Campbell]

ion...i'm down in victoria mostly, but i want to go slack around the islands and false creek for a while, hence the need for a good dinghy.......the boys at the marina have been racing their dinghies around with poly-tarp junk sails and i want to keep up...hence a longer dinghy and the need for it to nest ( i really want to avoid towing)

so i have also heard of people refitting existing dinghies to nest by altering the seating, adding the two bulkheads and then sawing her in half :eek: ....anyone been there?...how do the nester and cat paws builders make that cut?, it sounds like a scene from a circus sideshow magic act...

[David Virtue]

Hi Murray,

I did that with my nesting version of a Nutshell though I added the bulkheads as I was building the boat. I used an 1/8" or so spacers held with sheetrock screws. It was a bit nerve-wracking to make the cut, I used a sharp hand saw and good support and it worked slick. As I was working on the plans, I made a tracing of the bow half to make sure it would nest! I'm sure it would work with an existing dinghy with some careful planning.

David

[Hwyl]

There's a company that teaches building of a three part kayak www.volkskayak.com (http://www.volkskayak.com) they use a sheet of cardboard between the bulkheads.

[Murray Campbell]

sweet...

David i would really like to see what you've drawn up for modifying the nutshell...if it's not too much trouble

[gashmore]

I built the Gerr Nesting dink a few years ago and it works great. The clamps maake it relatively easy to put together in the water and it rows like a dream. I am thinking about trying that strip built version that was in Good old Boat but am afraid it might be a bit tippy.

BTW, I have 3 sets of the clamps about 90% finished in 316 stainless if anyone is contemplating building one.

[Frank E. Price]

What about Danny Greene? He designed several nesting dinghies and skiffs; used to run classified ads in the mags, maybe still does.

Frank

[jbarros]

How exactly do these things go together? (and/or what varieties of connector are used?)

The Twopaws 8 looks like it would only overhang a small bit on my Josie. I think I may have found my dingy! smile.gif

-- James

[YMT]

Nesting dinghy plans and renderings at:
http://wwww.boatdesign.net/gallery/

[YMT]

Sorry. Typo.
http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/

[htom]

bump
wimp

[ 06-19-2004, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: htom ]