Camping cruising dinghy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Swg
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Cheap because of it's looks thus less desirable, a good example of how not to do it. Small white plastic 70's looks with a gaff rig, rather like some of those god awful 70's kit cars trying to imitate something beautiful and destroying the design with out of proportioned hideousness.

Apologies to any owners where design doesn't matter but that's like scraping my nails down a black board. I'd much rather wait and save up to get something attractive how ever long it takes!
 
What the OP asked for?

Dinghy for four, trailable, easy to launch and recover?
Or did he change his spec?
An alternative to the Wayfarer is the Laser 13, specifically designed as a family dinghy, stable easy to tow, two piece mast, easy to rig and launch single handed; I could be in the water in about 20 mins. Roller furling headsail and reefable main with flotation foam in the top panel to prevent inversion. Outboard pad and stowage for it and your tent in a watertight locker under the foredeck, rows well too. Long out of production they are now regarded as a cruising/camping dinghy and the owners association goes in for weekend rallies and trips mainly on inland waters. They are well made and durable and the best ones still look new. Mine cost me just under £2k inc. trailer and launching trolley and I used it for adult sailing tuition/demonstration, usually with 2 beginners, for a couple of years and sold it for what I paid. I now regret letting it go but it went to a dinghy sailor with two young kids who wanted to involve his family. Downside is that it has a centreboard and none of the traditional attributes preferred by the OP.
The Laser 16 is an identical design but even bigger, heavier and a lot more work, most of these tend to be kept on moorings.
 
I suspect what you are looking for is an impossible compromise. Rather than buying a new boat, you should just spend the rest of your life looking at this website: http://www.vivierboats.com/ and finding it impossible to decide which of the fantastic designs would be just right for you.
 
Surely not Vivier? His catalogue doesn't include an Anderson 22...Anyway, as everyone knows, the answer is a black Cornish Shrimper.
 
You'd not want to weekend on a Wayfairer with a familly, although some years ago I met a couple in their 50's who's sailed one from Folkstone to Cherbourg (eventiually) and were planing to visit the Chanel Islands and St Malo. They had a cockpit tent and slept aboard. They were having some difficulty getting Duty Free's at the time as the Patron didn't believe their story and thought they were trailer-sailing it.

I have a friend who took his family for a fortnight aboard a drascomb longboat in the gulf of Morbihan, but they camped ashore most nights. The kids loved it.

Personally I've not sailed a dinghy since I discovered you could buy a boat with a top, a cooker and a toilet so you could have a kip, a cuppa or a **** without running ashorebut it takes all sorts...
 
When my family was young, four small daughters, we bought the biggest sailing cockpit that we could afford, a Drascombe Longboat. We either camped ashore or under an over-all cockpit cover. That was back in 1978, since then we have had several bigger boats, the Longboat languished in the garden for a number of years. The bigger boats have now gone, and looking back I wonder why we ever laid the Longboat up for all those years. Since we have re-commissioned our Longboat we have had a huge, huge amount of fun, back to basics camping aboard. With a purpose built trailer Longboats are a doddle to launch and recover. There are plenty of second-hand boats out there but if you are looking for new may I suggest that you look at the Honnor Marine Devon Longboat as well as the Drascombe Longboat. Same design, different prices.
http://www.honnormarine.co.uk/Longboat/Longboat.htm
http://www.drascombe.org.uk/drascombe price list.htm
http://www.drascombe-association.org.uk/smallads.php
 
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Topcat47 said:
(snip)
Personally I've not sailed a dinghy since I discovered you could buy a boat with a top, a cooker and a toilet so you could have a kip, a cuppa or a **** without running ashorebut it takes all sorts...
Click to expand...

Time you rediscovered the simple joys of dinghy day sailing again then! :D

For a few hundred quid you can get any one of dozens of dinghy designs that are easy to trail & sail solo or with family. It's the difference between riding a motorbike & driving a bus or motorhome.
 
Swg said:
Surely not Vivier? His catalogue doesn't include an Anderson 22...Anyway, as everyone knows, the answer is a black Cornish Shrimper.
Click to expand...

This Pen Hir is probably the nearest thing he does to the Anderson 22:

Pen-Hir_360.JPG


I suspect you are right to stick with the shrimper for family camping/ cruising. You can always borrow a smaller boat off a friend if you want to give it a go though.

Dinghy cruising is really for a maximum of two persons per boat, once you have got enought stuff on board to make life safe and tolerable. (and I don't count a drascombe longboat as a dinghy..... it is an open boat. All dinghies are open boats, not all open boats are dinghies.)
 
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Quandary said:
Dinghy for four, trailable, easy to launch and recover?
Or did he change his spec?
An alternative to the Wayfarer is the Laser 13, specifically designed as a family dinghy, stable easy to tow, two piece mast, easy to rig and launch single handed; I could be in the water in about 20 mins. Roller furling headsail and reefable main with flotation foam in the top panel to prevent inversion. Outboard pad and stowage for it and your tent in a watertight locker under the foredeck, rows well too. Long out of production they are now regarded as a cruising/camping dinghy and the owners association goes in for weekend rallies and trips mainly on inland waters. They are well made and durable and the best ones still look new. Mine cost me just under £2k inc. trailer and launching trolley and I used it for adult sailing tuition/demonstration, usually with 2 beginners, for a couple of years and sold it for what I paid. I now regret letting it go but it went to a dinghy sailor with two young kids who wanted to involve his family. Downside is that it has a centreboard and none of the traditional attributes preferred by the OP.
The Laser 16 is an identical design but even bigger, heavier and a lot more work, most of these tend to be kept on moorings.
Click to expand...


You don't see a lot of Laser 13s on the market, do you think a Laser 2000 would do instead'
 
Zen Zero said:
You don't see a lot of Laser 13s on the market, do you think a Laser 2000 would do instead'
Click to expand...

Different animal, performance oriented, quite a bit less cruisy, for instance I don't think it has the outboard provision or the furling jib, usually more expensive but would be much more exciting to sail. I considered one when buying the thirteen but otherwise I have no real experience, the reasons for my choice of the thirteen was that at the time I was involved with a new club with mainly beginners learning to sail and while we had Picos for the kids we wanted something very secure to give the mums a taste of it and I wanted something easy to solo launch at short notice on sunny Sunday afternoons that I could use on my own to visit an island or explore the inner reaches of the loch. My budget was £2k and I don't do scruffy much unless I can restore it and at the time I did not find a pristine 2000 at the price. Laser 13s are hard to find and in demand but that should mean you get your money back as all the alternatives like the Wayfarer, Laser 16 and 2000 are a bit much for the solo sailor to launch and handle. The downside of the thirteen is that with four aboard on a light day she is a bit on the slow side as the rig is relatively small, the boom is high to give room for all the crew and the mainsail is padded at the top to prevent inversion and aid righting if capsized but then it handles strong winds well.
 
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