A cruising FINN sailing dinghy

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andrewbartlett

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I am considering sailing dinghies that I may be able to adapt for dinghy cruising. I need a stable hull with enough room to camp on board.a low ratio sail plan (similar perhaps to a Drascombe lugger) probably a bit under canvassed as I am elderly though fit and cruise single handed.Any helpful ideas as to suitable adaptations including sail pan?
 
The big question is- does easy launch/recovery matter? If you have access to helpers and good slipways in the areas you plan to launch, then you are at liberty to get a substantial boat like a Wayfarer. If, however, you plan to launch/recover off rough beaches and by yourself, you will need something smaller and lighter.

I've got a Wayfarer and they are the archetypal cruising dinghy. Loads of room to sleep aboard, loads of dry secure stowage, very very seaworthy and comparatively dry in a chop. However at nearly 200kg they are pigs to launch and recover. Singlehanded, it can just about be done using a car and a good slipway.
I've also got a Wanderer, the 14ft little brother. This is about two thirds the weight which makes launch/recovery easier. However as you would expect once you are out at sea it is a lot less boat. Much wetter in a chop due to reduced freeboard. Very tight on floorspace for sleeping.

From the same designer, the next step down in size is the Gull. I've never tried one but they have a good reputation.
 
Laser used to make two GRP cruising dinghies, Laser 13 and 15, I had a 13, very easy to trail, launch and rig single handed, two part mast, stable with plenty of buoyancy, heavy metal plate pivoting centreboard with clever lifting arrangement. i was a pensioner long before I bought her. The roll up jib and reefing main were handy features when the wind was up or for coming ashore alone but while it had a big forward locker with a Lewmar hatch for a tent etc, I would not consider trying to sleep aboard. I kept her about three years and sold her for exactly what I paid for her, they are scarce as they were expensive new so in big demand. Great single hander for beach exploring in places like Scotland, though there is plenty of room for three adults. Her bigger sister is just a scaled up version of the same design but heavy to launch so many are kept afloat. Both had provision for an outboard. There is (was?) a Laser Cruising Club who ran cruises in company down in England.
Advantages - thoughtful design, durability, stability, plus buoyant top mainsail panel, low maintenance and high value retention, quite pretty too if you are not too concerned about high aspect rigs. Main disadvantage is rarity, they are all still about but owners rarely want to part with them.
 
The bigger Laser cruising dinghy referred to above is 16 not 15 but it is probably irrelevant anyway now as a good one with trolley and trailer tends to go for close to £2k.
 
I would suggest that dinghy camping is best done in fine weather, so if you are anywhere tidal, you want a boat with reasonable sail area and length to make progress?
But maybe able to reef effectively.
Maybe something with a gunter rig would be nice, as you can drop the rig into the boat so it's more stable when moored or anchored.
But that mostly means old Gulls or Mirrors AFAIK.
Also IMHO, you want something not too precious, I would not want to drag a shiny new boat up a beach or even through stony shallows.

I kicked around some ideas for a gunter rig sailing tender a couple of years back, I was thinking in terms of buying whatever was cheap but light enough and modifying it. I was looking at being able to carry a trolley and outboard while sailing, so cruising to another slip would have been very possible.
 
I sold my old Pearson Finn to a guy who was going to cruise in it. They're a bit heavy onshore, but not too bad and certainly easier than a Wayfarer. The cockpit was open so I expect you'd be able to sleep in it. A good sea boat and a decent load carrier.

Not sure how he planned to rig a cover as the gooseneck on the Finn does not allow much upward movement, but I imagine a bit of thought and a hacksaw would allow you to come up with something workable. Use the halyard as a topping lift maybe a sling a tarp over the top. Not quite as cosy as the Wayfarer tents but do-able in the warmer months.

Quite a bit of storage room, although everything would need to be in wet sacks :D

I think that he planned to use an OK rig to reduce the sail area.

I've seen a guy cruise in a Mirror dinghy. He used some wood to "fill" the cockpit area to make a flush deck on which he erected a small tent in which to shelter.

I'd not fancy it on a mooring, but he looked comfortable enough when beached.
 
An Albacore has to be in consideration. Look on the class association and you can get ones for less than £1k. More spacious, stable, lighter and pretty much the same speed as a Finn (3 points on PY, which is 0.3% difference). Some people sail them with Firefly sails as a high wind option.
 
Good gracious, I go away for a long weekend and miss the start of a thread which I would have contributed to within minutes of the OP posting it, if I’d known. Having said that, perhaps it's just as well if some voices of experience and restraint have replied before me. :rolleyes:

Mr Bartlett, I think the Finn could be a grand boat to modify for singlehanded dinghy-cruising. I looked for a long time at the design myself, before concluding that I'd be inconvenienced and possibly endangered by the Finn's legendary necessity for needing a heavyweight to control the boat's power…

…BUT, I then bought an old Osprey instead, a substantially bigger racing boat originally designed to need three men to hold her up (or two with one using a trapeze)…so she must represent at least as great a challenge to my puny strength and human ballast…but so far I’m more than content with my choice.

lw395 said:
I would suggest that dinghy camping is best done in fine weather, so if you are anywhere tidal, you want a boat with reasonable sail area and length to make progress.
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Wise words indeed. The Finn is a full-bore racer, but how rewarding is her performance in light airs, when the cruiser may feel most disposed to enjoy sailing from one place to another? My light-airs cruising experiences in the Osprey have led me to be glad of her sporting-orientation, traditionally-lightweight hull and long waterline, which allow progress even in quiet weather…but equally, the fact I can sail with minimum effort under genoa alone, is reassuring if the wind pipes up. I was strongly attracted to the Albacore as rb_stretch suggested above, in part because she isn’t limited to a single sail.

lw395 said:
…able to reef effectively.
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This isn’t helpful, it’s critical in my view. I know the Finn’s bendy mast allows depowering in gusts, but the cruiser may not always choose to be sailing at the limit. As well as a roller-genoa, I stitched a very deep reef in the Osprey’s mainsail, effectively halving the main’s area, so in a breeze I can hoist as little as 50 sq ft without losing steering balance.

lw395 said:
I would not want to drag a shiny new boat up a beach or even through stony shallows. I was looking at being able to carry a trolley while sailing, so cruising to another slip would have been very possible.
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Admirable thinking. Only today, I was thinking how handy it would be to have a folding trolley for hauling out, rather than relying on beaching a dinghy where she might be vulnerable, or anchoring her in places which might prove uncomfortable or dangerous.

I can see that a folding trolley must necessarily be a lightweight construction, bespoke for the purposes of the specific boat (and foldable to stow slickly within the spaces which the design allows) but as with most of my dinghy-cruising dreams, I haven’t got to grips with constructing the thing. Yet. :rolleyes:
 
A Victoria 16 may be a reasonable option. Not many around (a couple of dozen were built, I believe) so a good(ish) one may take some finding, but significantly lighter than a Wayfarer for a similar sized boat. If I recall, there is a small change in floor level from the crew area to the helm area which would make sleeping a bit uncomfortable, but that could be easily sorted. They were designed by David Thomas and Peter Milne, so a good pedigree.
 
Nice thinking, Mr Chapman, and the photo speaks more than any number of words for the concept...

boat-rollers.jpeg


...I bought one last year, but haven't had the confidence to use it. It's made from soft dinghy material and I'm sure it will puncture easily. In time I'll make a tarp jacket for it.

nickd said:
I would go for a Laser Stratos
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Hmm, although even an early one costs more than Mr Bartlett wants to spend. They certainly look like a nice blend of practicality and fun, in the modern style...

Stratos1725.jpg


...but I can't help associating the Stratos with two separate instances of drowning during capsize, which seemed to fly in the face of the design's specific intention - to enable easy righting. I tend to wonder if initial prototypes were found to be less easy to keep upright than other boats, such that the company retro-fitted the option of a weighted keel.

It's also worth remembering that in spite of her big asymmetric sail-plan, 16ft length and 6ft+ beam, the Stratos is still slower than the old Finn. And the Albacore! ;)

In recent weeks I've admitted here that my choice of boat owed more to my being thrilled by her size and availability for a low price, than any notable suitability to my purpose...

...but I reckon there's an essential point which dinghy-cruisers must acknowledge before proceeding - that however stable their dinghy may be relative to sportier designs, she'll still roll over, given an inconvenient gust or wave. So judgement of the fun available to dinghy-cruisers ought to be built on practiced familiarity with all the tendencies of each class, rather than perceived advantages of her internal space, relative stability or ease of mobility ashore. With that in mind, I'm going slightly back-to-basics this season - I'll try to spend the summer finding where my limits of control lie, rather than adding a fridge, walk-in wardrobe and humidor.

The OP may already be an old hand aboard the Finn, in which case he'll need no telling.

Among my first purchases for the Osprey were oars & rowlocks. She's a big boat to row, but can be driven along usefully. Racers tend to sneer at this thinking, but my use of the boat isn't restricted to days when the wind permits rewarding or thrilling sailing...so like any cruising-yacht, my boat needs auxiliary power. I wonder if a Finn could be rowed?
 
Row a Finn? Oh, behave...

Having owned and raced two of them (great boats by the way) I wouldn't even consider sleeping aboard one, even though it would be stable enough on a swinging mooring with only a wing mast up.

They are easy to sail and require huge technical ability and physical ability to be raced well at top level. I missed mine dearly when I sold them. (and moved to skydiving and an old 18 foot skiff for a while)

Cruising? I'd go for a Wayfarer, Wanderer, Topper Sport 14 or 16 or, better still, something like a Hunter 19 or Europa.

Remember, you're doing this to enjoy the cruising experience, not to worry your relatives and openly display your masochistic tendencies...
 
langstonelayabout said:
Row a Finn? Oh, behave...Having raced two of them...I wouldn't consider sleeping aboard one, though it would be stable enough on a swinging mooring with only a wing mast up.
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Spoken like a racer, if you'll pardon me saying so Langstone. Racers always exhibit loyalty towards the performance of their classes, but they do tend to dismiss their boats' possibilities for use as anything else...

...but having said a Finn would be stable enough to sleep aboard on a swinging mooring (which I didn't know!), why not use her for that purpose?

Granted you won't approve of the noble Olympic Finn being rowed, but old dinghies (like old sailors) reach a state where pure hard competition doesn't show them at their best...but that's no reason for them not to go out. I've rowed my old Osprey past skiffs and Tornados whose helpless racing crews hadn't predicted a flat calm. It was fun! Cruising is about versatility which many racing designs can easily provide, if their owners aren't obsessed with weight and rules and the conventions of competition.
 
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