And for my next trick....I will saw this dinghy in half!!

[melandnick]

So

Next fun job to do once I get it back home.
I have bought a nutshell 9' ish dinghy and I have 6-7' ish on my coachroof forward of my mast.
So I thought I would do the following:
glass in 2x bulkheads ( approx 3mm between ) approx 1/3 from front and cut it in half ( well 1/3 and 2/3 but you know what I mean )
I will then tidy up the edges, a bit more glass tape and epoxy and then they can be bolted together again with ss bolts and wing nuts.
I will work on the detail when I get the boat here as I may be able to extend the front buoyancy tank to become the front back ( if you see what I mean ).
and I may need to alter the main part of the boat so that the nose will fit into it but other than this I think it will work and allow me to take this boat with as a tender.

The usual intelligent comments are very much welcomed......as are the less intelligent ones if only for comedy value..

Thanks

Nick

 

[Euphonyx]

why didnt you get a blow up one with a 12v pump?? curious!

 

[HenrikL]

Hi Melandnick!

Sounds like a fun project!

To ensure that the 'connection' of the two halves is stable you will need to have bolts both at the lower and at the upper part of the 'new' bulkheads.
The lower bolts will sit below the waterline, and even though the two halves are bolted tight together it is inevitable that water will seep (at the least) in through the holes and into both halves of your dinghy unless you have thought out a good way of sealing the holes/bolts.

I am really interested to hear whether you have a trick up your sleeve - I thought a bit about it and couldn't really come up with anything better that rubber grommits if it had to be kept fairly simple, and I am not sure that that method is good enough.

Regards,
Henrik.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

I think you've already got the best approach sorted.... fit the bulkheads BEFORE cutting...

Sounds like an interesting little project... some piccies as you progress would be nice!

 

[melandnick]

Euphonyx - yes I already have an inflatable...and a 12V speed pump.
Don't know if you have ever done any long term cruising abroad but inflatable dinghies are pretty much worse than useless in this scenario for so many reasons. Try rowing one in any wind, dragging one up on the rocks, laying an anchor with one, sailing one, individualising one so it doesn’t get nicked etc, etc....

Morgana – thanks, I will post some pics once I get the boat back home and start the operation!.

 

[Blueboatman]

Can't you just give it a nose job and turn it into a pram?

Or carry it t'other way round with a mast sized slot fabricated into the stern section, in best PBO fashion? It would never be stolen.

 

[melandnick]

Blueboatman - good suggestion.
Did think of this but:

I have all lines running to the cockpit and either side of the mast is busy with blocks and organisers etc.

cutting it will also make the two pieces much easier to get into the water and back onto the boat....I will join them while sitting in the main ( rear) section when afloat.

 

[Lakesailor]

I tried a similar thing but got fed up

 

[melandnick]

Lakesailor - Very, Very Funny
Maybe I should ask you to pop down with your chainsaw and a hatchet and give me a hand

 

[Bajansailor]

Just a suggestion re installing the two joining bulkheads - this is how I did mine (I built a smaller 7'6" version of Danny Greene's Chameleon).
I bolted the two bulkheads together first, with some fender washers as spacers in between such that there was enough room to get a saw blade in between them, and then I glassed them into the dinghy.
I could only do one side of each bulkhead, but it was strong enough.
I then cut it in half with a hand saw (the two bulkheads form useful guides, although beware of the bolts!), rounded off the ends after sawing, and then applied glass tape and epoxy on the outer joints.
(BTW, here is a very interesting B-log about a Chameleon - http://dory-man.blogspot.com/2009/08/chameleon.html )

 

[melandnick]

Bajansailor - good advice, exactly what I had in mind.
Reread my original post and you will see that I say that I intend to fit 2 bulkheads 3mm apart ( width of a saw cut )
Thanks for the link
its a great looking little boat!

 

[Bajansailor]

Ooops, sorry, English can be such a fickle language.... I suppose I should have just suggested that you bolt them together before cutting, as it sounded (in a way) as if you were going to drill and bolt them after cutting.
Is your Nutshell similar to the one available from Wooden Boat in the USA?
I shall look forward to seeing photos of her transformation - and seeing her 'in the flesh' when Borne arrives in Barbados.

PS - Here are a couple more Chameleon links :
http://www.yachtvalhalla.net/gecko/gecko.html
http://www.sailorgirl.com/s/v303_robbie.htm
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/designs/greene/cham/index.cfm
Although I think the last one is a bit out of date re contact links, as I dont think that Danny Greene is still in Bermuda.

 

[DownWest]

Someone else used cardboard between the bulkheads to allow for the saw cut, worked for him. As for `pramming´the boat, the Nutshell is already a pram.
A
As for putting it together in the water.........let us know how that goes. I helped put together a`Nest-a-Boat´ the other day (on land). Not a hope in the water. but the bulkheads are lower.

 

[snowleopard]

I take it you have done the calculations and established that the small section will fit inside the other. Not as easy as it would seem.

 

[prv]

To ensure that the 'connection' of the two halves is stable you will need to have bolts both at the lower and at the upper part of the 'new' bulkheads.
The lower bolts will sit below the waterline, and even though the two halves are bolted tight together it is inevitable that water will seep (at the least) in through the holes

You don't need bolts top and bottom. You need fixings of some kind top and bottom, but they don't both need to be bolts. If I were doing it, I'd use some kind of slot-and-tongue fixing to locate things at the bottom, and bolts at the top to stop the bottom sliding out again. The slot and tongue could either be one or more prefabricated fittings (probably intended for knockdown furniture) or be fashioned from the timber structure of the boat (for example, cut the keel a couple of inches aft of the main cut, so that it protrudes from the bow piece, and have a corresponding socket in the stern piece).

This has got me thinking about hard dinghies on Kindred Spirit again, but I still can't think of a way to do it without an overburden of deck cargo.

Pete

 

[rosipeter]

We built a Spindrift 10 nesting dinghy and didn't want to be bothered doing up nuts every time we put it together so we stole this idea for a connector: http://www.messing-about.com/forums/index.php?topic=5188.0 just in case the link doesn't work it's an L shape piece of metal on either side of the bottom which slots into a bar on the other half of the nest, that gets the bottom in place and the top slides into a nook under the seat, for safety's sake there are a couple of quick release catches on top. Both halves pop together easily on the water and it all works really well.

Found a better link here: http://www.pbase.com/onceagain/connector_design

 

[Searush]

PRV's suggestion sounds a good one, some kind of clip or plug & socket would eliminate holes below the w/l. I like that.

 

[prv]

it's an L shape piece of metal on either side of the bottom which slots into a bar on the other half of the nest

Yep, that's exactly the kind of thing I had in mind.

Pete

 

[Lakesailor]

As for `pramming´the boat, the Nutshell is already a pram.

A Nutshell pram dinghy at 7' 7" is a pram

This Nutshell is 9' I assumed it was this one. http://www.barrowboats.co.uk/new/nutshell.htm

 

[melandnick]

Perfect!!
Thanks prv and rosipeter.
I had hoped to come up with something to hold the bottom in place without screws ( I actually thought something like the clips that you have for the top of the join ) but had not given it too much thought as yet.
rosipeter - your suggestion is spot on, absolutely perfect and is what I will do.

snowleopard - will work out how to nest them once I get it back home.
but even if the bow is too high to fit in the stern then I will set chocks on the coachroof so that the back part of the dinghy can sit higher giving more clearance under.

DownWest - my understanding is that a pram is a flat fronted boat ( though I may be wrong ) if so then this boat is not a pram.

Its a nutshell as supplied by barrow boats:
http://www.barrowboats.co.uk/new/nutshell.htm

There is a pic of the actual one I have to pick up here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melandnick/4952298800/

Thanks
Nick