Anyone want to design a folding sailing dinghy with me?

[Sea Change]

That's very out of the box, I love it.
How about an 8ft cat... with the hulls each breaking down in to two halves. You then arrange them in to a circle, with the keel band forming the 'tyre'. It would be about 5ft diameter and able to go over pretty much any obstacle. The 'spokes' and the shaft would become the rig and/or oars. Sail and foils lashed on in such a way that the whole thing is balanced. Completely nuts but I'd love to see it built...

 

[ylop]

Pehaps you could attach a small wheel at the back and perch a small seat and handlebar above the giant wheel and you could cycle it to the beach!

 

[bluey01]

That's very out of the box, I love it.
How about an 8ft cat... with the hulls each breaking down in to two halves. You then arrange them in to a circle, with the keel band forming the 'tyre'. It would be about 5ft diameter and able to go over pretty much any obstacle. The 'spokes' and the shaft would become the rig and/or oars. Sail and foils lashed on in such a way that the whole thing is balanced. Completely nuts but I'd love to see it built...

Absolutely! that sounds fab! Nuts is good

 

[bluey01]

Pehaps you could attach a small wheel at the back and perch a small seat and handlebar above the giant wheel and you could cycle it to the beach!

this is quality, penny farthing vibes, tip my top hat whilst passing local pedestrians

 

[DownWest]

Great thread!

Early on, I was reminded of the German guy who trailed his Mirror behind a push bike, around 2km to the water. And, in my youf ( 13?) I carted my little sailing pram about a mile to the river, by hand (but on paved surfaces) on a little trolley. Carried 3 of us for trips, though the freeboard was not a lot, as it was only 6ft
But, I can't see any prob with a light ply hull being lugged easily on it's beam to get through narrow gates. A quick(cheaper) build and much lighter than inflatable/solid concoctions. Simple lug rig with polytarp sail would not be a lot heavier, use cut down windsurfer masts for spars, cheap as chips at the local Emmaus outlet, and light.
On 10 ft, 4mm ply would be fine. My Oughtred Faering is 15ft and uses 6mm; Very robust and the hull is 70kg. Smaller simpler hull would come out at 40kg? or less.

 

[Rum Run]

Mersea Duck Punt made of 6mm ply perhaps? Long and thin, no foils just a short oar, Optimist rig.

 

[bluey01]

So played around with chatGPT, wrong amount of sections, size or depth or not showing central handle but you get the idea : )
- thats not me or the dog or seagull

 

[ducked]

Building a dinghy is a different scale to building a 50' blue water cat - but its difficult to believe that panels smaller than 8' x 4' are not available.

Jonathan

Nope. I just tried it, and it was realy easy.

I suppose I've had a lot of practice in Taiwan, though, and that experience may not be directly transferable.

 

[ducked]

Hey all, wow, thankyou so much for your responses, any feedback is good feedback! So seems weight is the main point raised along with my 1 mile hike! This is probably far too long in reality but still a benchmark i'd like to work towards. Without space tech materials which I doubt will fall into my lap (still here for you Elon, DM me : ) ....so i'm thinking the transport wheel location and size is key, with this in mind i've scribbled some ideas based on feedback so far.
idea 1, using expanded foam of some sort, with a sheath / sock / coating?? two hulls, male & female lugs that stack for transport, folding floor, strengthening beam for mast support, sections of mast slide out of hull for pulling along with the central wheels.
idea 2, No i've not been drinking! So this is very conceptual but maybe the boat is the wheel?? the outer rubber becomes a rubbing strake maybe? the two sections of mast and hulls sections pop up, fold or slide together, flip out to get to 10' LOA? Would need to go on car roof or bike rack I guess, very early stages!!! ...could call it the DiscGo (sorry from a marketing background so have to sit on my hands to not think of such sillyness)
Please give me your thoughts, good and bad......
View attachment 202701

Truck tyre inner tube. There is, IIRC, a Moitessier dinghy precedent.
Wont last long of course (but perhaps as long as your enthusiasm for the idea in practice) and directional stability in the water seems likely to be an issue, but you could perhaps compress it out of round with a hull sleeve to help with that.

OTOH with a curved combo sprit-boom and bifurcated mast, you'd have the elements of an off-road Penny Farthing.

Edit: See I'm late with that one. Should have scanned the thread before posting.

 

[ducked]

Hey everyone

I live on the UK south coast and spend alot of time walking my dog along the seawalls / beaches / hidden gems to be found locally.

I'd love to explore the shallows with a small dinghy I can sail or row with said dog for a few hours, eat a kit kat, pee in a bucket and return home.

I've done some research and can't find anything that meets my exact needs, some lovely boats Tiwal 3, Seahopper etc etc but i've specific requirements, so does anyone fancy joining forces to design a solution?

Brief:
- 10ft LOA, prefer a pointed bow as opposed flat.
- Sail with Unstayed mast, daggerboard, rudder.
- Solid construction, prefer the idea of fold out as opposed inflate, plus dogs paws! Maybe inflatable elements?
- I'm heavy, as is the dog, so two adults capacity min.
- Needs to fit in a car or car roof. Maybe even tow behind bike??
- Needs to fit through footpath gate (no interest in launching fee's) just soft touch launch/ recover similar to a SUP, "leave only foot prints" type vibe.
- A rear wheel(s) so I can drag this for say a mile from car, through gates, across various terrain.

So a small low draft dinghy that can be launched anywhere and sailed or rowed similar to the SUP explosion, Sailing for all, it will be for sale in the middle aisle of Lidl before you know it! (maybe not).

Anyway, interested to hear from any similar souls who might like to be involved in this fun project, or others that might suggest this already exists?

BTW, if it does take off, any profits would not go to Lidl but to Rowntrees to buy the rights to the Texan bar, reintroduce it and make the world a better place.

thanks

Ade

Here in Taiwan you get fairly heavy duty polythene (?) lay flat irrigation hoses that I have idly thought could be used to make a lilo stylee inflatable raft boat, given some rigidity by bamboo longitudinals between the folded lengths of tube.

Dunno if such hoses are available in The Yook, though, and suitable bamboo wont be. The frame would have to be quite strong to take rigging loads. These could perhaps be reduced by bundling the raft tubes together into a semi- cylinder and adding an outrigger, proa stylee, so it could heel.

This might allow you to exploit the dog, suitably trained and perhaps loaded, as intelligent movable ballast. Once his survival instincts are enlisted he might be quite quick

 

[Sea Change]

Here in Taiwan you get fairly heavy duty polythene (?) lay flat irrigation hoses that I have idly thought could be used to make a lilo stylee inflatable raft boat, given some rigidity by bamboo longitudinals between the folded lengths of tube.

Dunno if such hoses are available in The Yook, though, and suitable bamboo wont be. The frame would have to be quite strong to take rigging loads. These could perhaps be reduced by bundling the raft tubes together into a semi- cylinder and adding an outrigger, proa stylee, so it could heel.

This might allow you to exploit the dog, suitably trained and perhaps loaded, as intelligent movable ballast. Once his survival instincts are enlisted he might be quite quick

Layflat PVC hose is easily available in the UK. We used to use 200mm diameter in the fish farm, and I think wider diameters are available.
I bought some 3" a few years ago with the intention on making covers for the pool noodle fendering on my nesting dinghy. However it turned out to be surprisingly heavy. So I just use the noodles bare and accept that they'll need replaced every year or two.
I did experiment with gluing the layflat with PVC solvent, but I couldn't get it to work.

 

[Sea Change]

Truck tyre inner tube. There is, IIRC, a Moitessier dinghy precedent.
Wont last long of course (but perhaps as long as your enthusiasm for the idea in practice) and directional stability in the water seems likely to be an issue, but you could perhaps compress it out of round with a hull sleeve to help with that.

OTOH with a curved combo sprit-boom and bifurcated mast, you'd have the elements of an off-road Penny Farthing.

Edit: See I'm late with that one. Should have scanned the thread before posting.

I like the inner tube idea.
Sew up an outer cover for it which would force the tube in to an oval shape. You'd need to make a daggerboard slot in the floor of the cover. Add a light (alu or carbon/foam) thwart to hold the top of the daggerboard case, and to help hold the inner tube in shape.
The rig would need to be stayed, unless you used a second thwart as a mast step. You could sew in eyelets in the cover and tie the shrouds off there.
Rudder might be a bit trickier. Perhaps a simple paddle hanging out the back, with a velcro strap sewn to the cover to keep it in the right place. Saves you carrying oars too.

 

[ducked]

I like the inner tube idea.
Sew up an outer cover for it which would force the tube in to an oval shape. You'd need to make a daggerboard slot in the floor of the cover. Add a light (alu or carbon/foam) thwart to hold the top of the daggerboard case, and to help hold the inner tube in shape.
The rig would need to be stayed, unless you used a second thwart as a mast step. You could sew in eyelets in the cover and tie the shrouds off there.
Rudder might be a bit trickier. Perhaps a simple paddle hanging out the back, with a velcro strap sewn to the cover to keep it in the right place. Saves you carrying oars too.

I wonder if you could deck/trampoline across between the two sides of the tube, hitching up the ends to make a sit-on-top multihull, but perhaps that involves too much squaring of the circle. Deck beams might help pull in the sides, support the dagger/leeboard, rig and stabilising outrigger, but add weight. 2 tubes likewise probably too heavy. OTOH would avoid the need to engineer a daggerboard sleeve, which otherwise might require leeboard(s)

Re steering, IIRC the sea-going bamboo sailing rafts of Taiwan (now replaced by motorised PVC tube raft-boats) were supposed to be steered mostly by moving their (multiple, I think) dagger boards. Of course this would be relatively easy for them since they had full length longitudinal slots between the bamboos.

 

[Roberto]

There was this one at Paris Boatshow today (erm, what s left of the boat show). It seems similar to the Tiwal.

 

[Boathook]

There was this one at Paris Boatshow today (erm, what s left of the boat show). It seems similar to the Tiwal.

Is the Paris show going the same way as they London show ?

 

[Roberto]

Is the Paris show going the same way as they London show ?

Hello Boathook,
I do not know about London, but Paris has been shrinking during 2015-2019, then Covid struck a fatal blow. 2023 2024 no Boat show, this year it's the first try to resuscitate it. Different venue, smaller surface, shorter duration, we'll see how it goes. I guess Duesseldorf has taken over the whole of Europe, at least continental.

 

[Boathook]

Hello Boathook,
I do not know about London, but Paris has been shrinking during 2015-2019, then Covid struck a fatal blow. 2023 2024 no Boat show, this year it's the first try to resuscitate it. Different venue, smaller surface, shorter duration, we'll see how it goes. I guess Duesseldorf has taken over the whole of Europe, at least continental.

London packed up quite a few years ago. It got smaller and smaller. People blame change in location from Earls Court to Excel, but it was at the time the Internet was expanding like mad with online shopping and bargains from the East, mainly China.
So who knows.

 

[DownWest]

You might peruse this site auray – intheboatshed.net

While I was building a Cape Henry 21, I was put in contact with a US jouno who spent some time in France each year, and was building the same boat. Visited and swopped experiences. Short story: We both decided to abandon the CH 21 and built Bolger Micros. His first build was a Bolger Aurey Punt and a practical, simple little boat that might fit the OP's ideas. Usually rowed, but a light rig and lee board would work;

Worth a thought...

 

[DownWest]

Hello Boathook,
I do not know about London, but Paris has been shrinking during 2015-2019, then Covid struck a fatal blow. 2023 2024 no Boat show, this year it's the first try to resuscitate it. Different venue, smaller surface, shorter duration, we'll see how it goes. I guess Duesseldorf has taken over the whole of Europe, at least continental.

We used to exibit in the Earls Court show, in the 50s and 60s. Lot of effort to distribut leaflets to young collectors and chat to people who already had one of ours. Gave it up, as not worth the hassle and cost.

 

[ducked]

You might peruse this site auray – intheboatshed.net

While I was building a Cape Henry 21, I was put in contact with a US jouno who spent some time in France each year, and was building the same boat. Visited and swopped experiences. Short story: We both decided to abandon the CH 21 and built Bolger Micros. His first build was a Bolger Aurey Punt and a practical, simple little boat that might fit the OP's ideas. Usually rowed, but a light rig and lee board would work;

Worth a thought...

Nice lines, and apparently takes chop better than more load-bearing tender stylee designs, but it doesn't seem to be a folder