mermaid dinghy

[comtech]

Has anyone any experience of these sailing dinghies
as i have been offered one as a tender. She comes
fully rigged to sail,about 11-12 foot,old as the hills
looks like she could have been tender to the Ark.
Would she be up to multi-tasking?
Quite taken with the notion of pottering about
swallows and amazons style,when not being used as a
water taxi.

 

[Honey]

Had one many years ago. Like a Mirror dinghy but with a point at the front - built in bouyancy - Gunter rig so short spars. They are made of thin ply - watch for rot - mine ended its life as a beach barbeque

 

[wcarpenter]

There is a Mermaid dingy in Ireland clinker built a bit bigger than your discription. Designed in 1930's lovely looking boat, very keen one design racing, big solid bronze plate centre board, very seaworthy seen them race when bigger boats had tied up. Look a bit like Amazon and Swallows, if its the same then you have a classic.

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
Like a Mirror dinghy but with a point at the front - built in bouyancy

[/ QUOTE ] IIRC the buoyancy tanks are not as well sealed as those in a Mirror. Not normally taped all round like the Mirror's. We used one for capsize drill on a dinghy sailing course I did years ago but its tanks slowly filled with water. Ok once we swapped to my Mirror.

The trouble with this type of small sailing dinghy when used as a tender is that the ammount of space for gear is very limited due to the volume of the buoyancy tanks.

 

[MERMAID137]

Hi,
I have one of these and have been trying to contact other owners and track down a set of plans, anyone with info please get in touch
Steve