Sailing tender car thingy - Nestaway???

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SmileyGiley

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Seen the ads for the nestaway boats.

The pram looks the most flexible/ useful.

The clinker stem dinghy looks cool.

They both look BLERRY* expensive.

I belt from Manc to Conwy to the boat on a regular basis, then row from the Beacons up to the boat near Bodlondeb and back. I can do it in just about any state of the tide (6kts at times) because there are almost always eddies very close in to the marina revetment. If I can't then I have to use Conwy itself and walk back to the beacons to grab the car.

My dink is a waveline rubber duck, not much fun to row, but I make myself do it because it's as quick as faffing with an outboard when the tide's with me, and I reckon the row is good exercise any time. The Beacons launch point is a floating pontoon. At low tide it's pretty steep - as is the beach. THe Nestaway looks good because I can carry it up in two goes. I did have a hard dinghy over on the Deganwy side, but it was too heavy to drag up & down the beach.

You can see where this is going. I'd love a dink that is easier to row, and if I can use it for sailing at other times well.. major bonus. How to transport it though?

So questions -

Q1. Any (cheaper) alternatives to the nestaway? (no time to self build)
Q2. Will the nestaway fit on the towbar thingy behind a Ford Fusion?
Q3. Comments on nestaway practicality/usefulness welcome.
Q4. What are they like on the back towbar platform thingy for M-Way driving?

Yes I did a search & followed the links. There's an Eastport nesting pram which looks pretty good too...
I read the good comments from Mr Nestaway in one of hte other posts too.
I was really hoping for comments from people who actually have such dinks, use them as tenders & sailers, teach the missus & kids in em - that sort of thing.

Cheers
SmileyG

* Nod to L.v.d.P there.
 
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OK, I'll post, just to keep you from clogging up the net.....:<))

Friends bought the carbon 3-piece one + Torqueedo lecky motor. Flipped it on the first day. Lost two phones and a nice camara. Seems to be gathering dust and they use the tinny skiff that I leave in their garage.
If you allow for the fact that it is a V. nice canoe, no prob. It was not what they expected for use on the river. It is nicely built and very well fitted out. but.......

Oh, sliced bread...Thin and rather tastless :<))
 
sarabande said:
what about a Seahopper ?

http://seahopperfoldingboats.com/


And, yes, it's made in Somerset, so I am biased. :)
Click to expand...

Sarabande - Many thanks for the link.... but... how was the one you tried? Is it practical? Seaworthy? You have one I take it?

Conwy can be a bit unforgiving, so I wasn't planning on the Nestaway three parter (but cheers for that piece of feedback DownWest)
 
Nestaway Boats - from the maker

To be absolutely clear (if it's not so from our user name) we are the manufacturers/sellers of the Nestaway range of boats. So I guess we're not independent but we do try to offer realistic and truthful advice.

The initial poster requested comments on carrying our 8ft Pram or 9ft Stem dinghy on the towbar-mount platform. Feedback from our customers generally seems to be that for short journeys they will rely entirely on the towbar attachment, but for longer/faster journeys they will guy the top end of the boat to a point on the car's roof (eg roof rails if fitted or a loop of webbing/rope fed through the door seals), as an extra security feature and to reduce movement of the platform when going over bumps etc. We routinely use the platforms ourselves, as it means we can get one more boat on each vehicle journey to exhibitions, without the hassle of towing a trailer (and manoeuvring it around muddy fields, through doorways etc). It's a lot easier than trying to get a (whole) boat on a roof rack.

Choosing between the 8ft Pram and 9ft Stem usually comes down to whether you want to store it upside down or not (eg on the deck of a yacht). The Pram sections stow flatter inside each other, with a lower nested height. The 9ft Stem's bow section sticks up out of the stern section a bit (because of that pretty sheer line) but if you are stowing it right way up in chocks with a cover over the top (or carrying it on a towbar platform) this doesn't really matter. They both row incomparably better than inflatables and the sailing rigs work much better than they would on inflatables or folding boats because they are transmitting power into a solid hull rather than something flexible. The free-standing masts mean assembly of the sailing rigs is very quick, unlike setting up boats like the Tinker Tramp. If stowage is not an issue then the 9ft Stem is nearly always the better boat - deeper, longer, more stable - but like everything in life boat design has to involve some compromises.

Being sectional each piece of these designs can be carried by one person, but the Pram sections are a bit lighter than the Stem ones. You can also get them down narrow passageways to store in your back garden, even into lifts if you live in a flat, etc etc.

With regard to the poster's friend who turned over a Nestaway Trio 14 (the smaller of our three-section designs), essentially we market this model as a square stern canoe. It's actually a bit wider and flatter aft than most if not all comparable designs - and more stable, in our opinion at least, than boats like the Old Town Predator 15 Square Stern canoe. The Old Town has a reputation in the canoeing world for extreme stability; and being sold as a "canoe" it has no buoyancy tanks (the Trio 14 does). Ultimately though the Trio 14 is only 3ft 6" wide, dictated by one of its main selling points - that it will dismantle and fit inside many medium-large estate cars without the need for a trailer or roof rack - so it could never have the stability of something that's 6ft wide. But then the 6ft wide boat probably would not be so easily-driven, or easy to move around. The lighter weight carbon fibre version will be marginally less stable than the standard glassfibre hull, as with any unballasted small boat; but also has more buoyancy because the hull is double-skinned with a foam core between. We have many happy customers of the Trio 14, including several who are more ambitious with their boats than we would be ourselves (Isle of Skye, Scottish Lochs etc). The hull performance characteristics are separate from the fact it's sectional, as once bolted together it's the same as a single-piece boat, apart from having those two double bulkheads. As with any small open boat safety depends significantly on the experience of the users and we would always recommend that you wear buoyancy aids and put valuables in dry bags. I hope the owners of the particular Trio 14 mentioned pluck up the courage to try again, as they will find it's a very enjoyable craft to use as long as you are a little careful with crew weight distribution.

We are happy to take potential customers out on the water for no-obligation trials and can put them in touch with existing owners for their independent comments. Many of our sales are through word-of-mouth.

I hope the above is useful and not seen as sales blurb.

Ian Thomson
Director, Nestaway Boats Ltd
 
I just felt I had to post my appreciation of Ian's comments. I have closely inspected his boats at the Southampton show and they are beautifully made with well thought out design details. Expensive? Yes, but not overpriced.

All open boats have to be handled properly - even a heavyweight dinghy can have its gunwhales put under by improper loading and moving crew weight. I have a 14ft open wooden canoe with only 24 inch beam ( I think it was built as a demo and scaled down from something bigger). Paddling along the local canal I can stand up in it to peer over the hedge, but on an estuary I would put the buoyancy bags in, stay low and expect to bale! Unfortunately, tenders have a list of requirements which may not sit comfortably with a canoe. I load my inflatable with quite a bit of heavy and cumbersome gear at times and its advantages are that within the tubes you can move around with impunity - but it rows like s**t. The rigid dinghy I used to have , which was no lightweight, could easily ship water when alongside on the mooring and transferring the load. It was also prone to rolling in a cross current. I believe the Trio to be an excellent boat within its limitations, are they thinking of selling?

Rob
 
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