Sailing tender - does anyone use one?

[Kelpie]

By the way, nowt to do with me but I've just seen someone selling a Walker Bay with sailing kit for £650 on a Facebook site, it's in Cornwall, might be of use to someone on this thread?

 

[FullCircle]

By the way, nowt to do with me but I've just seen someone selling a Walker Bay with sailing kit for £650 on a Facebook site, it's in Cornwall, might be of use to someone on this thread?

make sure its got the tubes - they are another £650!

 

[Slow_boat]

I'm vaguely looking for a hard sailing tender. I thought I'd found the ideal thing when I was in Newtown Creek last summer; Wood, about 9ft, sailing rig, outboard bracket. Obviously been for sale for a while as a bit tatty so I phoned the number;

£800??!!

They're having a laugh!

 

[Koeketiene]

Has anyone suggestions for a suitable craft?

What you're looking for is something like this

 

[Lakesailor]

If 9ft is OK, go another foot and get a Mirror. Pretty stable and available. Usually about £300 for a decent one.

I think Nathan still has his very smart Oppie which he said he would be willing to sell.

 

[mrming]

OR4751 - looks like Swallow from Swallows and Amazons! That is the kind of thing I envisaged, but in GRP.

Lakesailor - the Oppie is too small in this case and the plywood mirror too flimsy. I raced Mirrors as a yoot and know them well. I had a beautiful epoxy ply one which needed lead under the thwart to bring it up to weight. Lovely sailing boats and nice and light, but not much stowage due to the buoyancy tanks and wouldn't stand up to the kind of abuse my tender gets.

 

[snowleopard]

Lovely sailing boats and nice and light, but not much stowage due to the buoyancy tanks and wouldn't stand up to the kind of abuse my tender gets.

With mine I removed the side tanks and the part of the front tank that is open under the aft mast step. It left bags of space for 4 people and a week's shopping. In my construction the resulting hull was plenty stiff enough but on a plywood one it might need a bit of stiffening. in general terms, Mirror kits were made with some quite soft 5-6mm ply which is a bit flimsy for the sort of use a tender gets. I'd hate to think of a foot going through the bottom as you board! I'll vouch for seaworthiness. The Walker Bays look to me to be a bit short on freeboard.

 

[mrming]

The floors of our racing ones used to be 7mm I believe. It was important to have a stiff floor for performance. I still wouldn't use one as a tender though - we often have some big lads on the crew - an ill timed jump could end in disaster as you say!

We're using a Bic 245 with about 9" of freeboard so any improvement on that would be a bonus.

 

[DJE]

Ours is eight feet long and fine for two people plus luggage to row out to the mooring. It was made by Dockerel Yachts and I've only ever seen one other like it. Rows well, never used an outboard, but feels tippy with the sailing rig and once the mast is up there's suddenly only room for one. And if you need to get to windward you use the oars! And rigging/de-rigging afloat is a major hassle!

It tows well too and has been to Poole and Chichester many times in some quite lively weather.

 

[Babylon]

I have a Mk 1 Gull with gunter-rig (i.e. spars all fit inside the hull) for sale.

I bought it to teach myself to sail before I took the big plunge and bought my 27ft yacht. Towed it to the Broads, later to Cornwall, heaps of space for a 12ft boat, three under sail, four under power, great fun and super-safe: Ian Proctor designed it to teach his kids to sail, capsize almost unheard of.

£300, including Sprite road trailer (plus spare wheel and light-board), folding launching-trolley (hard and inflatable tyres), breathable cover (mast up), impermeable cover (mast down), oars, buoyancy-bags, outboard bracket, etc. Spars could do with a re-varnish, but otherwise in pretty good nick and ready to sail/row/outboard.

You'd have to collect from Oxfordshire. PM me if interested.


PS - I am a fan of hard tenders, currently building a sail/row 8ft Iain Oughtred Humble Bee pram in epoxied 6mm clinker ply to take cruising (towing and/or on foredeck). Should be ready before the sun goes supernova...

 

[Blueboatman]

Sounds interesting, any more info?

Not much to add I'm sorry. Beam is IIRC around 50inches and length ?shy of 9 feet, with almost square midsection which provides the essential nontippiness. Comes on deck in 2 or with a 3point snatch hoist on a mast winch/elecy windlass..And can be assembled afloat ( fun)

There are GRP equivalents out there I think tho a tad heavier possibly.

But since we are doing pictures, heres a couple or so..

 

[mrming]

Babylon - thanks for the offer but I need to stick to plastic as the boat will have to live in the dinghy park all year round.

DJE - the Dockrell tender looks ideal - shame they are so rare.

Blueboatman - the nesting halves is ingenious for stowing aboard.

I'm now keeping an eye out for something like the Dockrell. If I don't find anything then I might treat myself to a GRP Gull and just pony up for the extra storage. I'm very taken with the little things. Not until I've put the swing keel back in the actual boat and coppercoated her though!

 

[Lakesailor]

What you want is a West11. It's a (quite heavy) GRP version of a Mirror, but 11 feet long. You can use all the Mirror rigging and foils on it.
I had one I sold to a forum member for not a lot of money.

 

[Delfin]

We're moored on the other side of a tidal river. When the tide is running hard it can be very hard work to row. I have a plastic tender with a small outboard, but the whole thing is a bit of a faff by the time I've got the outboard out of the shed and lugged the whole lot down a long pontoon to launch.

I've started wondering about having a sailing tender. There are some old threads on this, but they are more focused on a boat you can carry on deck. We only have a small boat and may occasionally tow the tender locally, but other that that it will either be in the dinghy park or tied to our mooring while we're off sailing.

My requirements would be:

Unstayed rig which fits in the boat
Light enough for a reasonably fit person to lug up and down a long pontoon
Room enough for two adults and a little 'un
Relatively high freeboard and good stability
Tough and low maintenance

My thinking is that I can keep it on a launching trolley, right side up with a cover on, the sail on the boom / mast and the rudder and centreboard in the boat. Whip the cover off, stick the mast up and away I go. The club have a rack for launching trollies near the ramp so I wouldn't have to lug the trolley back up to the dinghy park every time.

Does anyone else do this?

Has anyone suggestions for a suitable craft?

The Walker Bay boats etc that cost a large proportion of the value of the big boat are out. Nothing wooden / flimsy (e.g. Mirror). Budget £300 say.

PS: I also might sneak out for a sail in said tender when the big boat's out for the winter...

They are a bit pricey, but the Port Townsend Watercraft is exactly what you describe you want (except for the price, which might suggest you need to look for used). They row really well and sail like a banshee. The nesting dinghy works extremely well and performs just as advertised. Check out the videos. These are wonderful boats.

Personally, I use a Tinker, but it is a major pain in the patoot to set up.

http://ptwatercraft.com/blog/?category_name=nesting_dinghies

 

[Koeketiene]

Blueboatman - the nesting halves is ingenious for stowing aboard.

Isn't it just :encouragement:

Nestaway do a GRP version. For a while I considered one of those.
However, these things are hideously expensive. For an nesting 8' clinker stem you won't have much change out of 2K.
That was the end of that then.

 

[FullCircle]

The Walker Bays look to me to be a bit short on freeboard.

I concur your view. But they are transformed with the inflatable tubes - then you can stand on the gunwale without tipping the boat over.

 

[paul-essex]

I have a boat called a "Blue Peter " you can row, sails or uses outboard on it it could seats four at a push

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Blue+Peter+sailing+dinghy&rls=com.microsoft:en-GB:IE-ContextMenu&rlz=1I7AURU_enGB498&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=LfTWUsjpIIyQhQez44DgCQ&ved=0CEoQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=653

 

[ytd]

Since I have a spare windsurfer rig, cat centreboard and laser rudder I was thinking of building something that would clamp to the seat of our RIB. Anyone ever seen anything like this? Any thoughts on whether it would work. My only concern is that the seat attachment point may not be strong enough.

 

[NealB]

A forumite was kind enough to sell me a aluminium nesting dinghy with lugsail rig. It is a dream.

Unfortunately they no longer are made seemingly..

Worth having a grab-box or sommat waterproof to put yer phone, keys camera etc in and then you can sail it like an idiot teen too on blustery days. To say it gets used is like saying food is useful. Everyone wants to borrow it and comes back ear-to-ear grinning

I'm so pleased to hear that you really do like her, and that she is being regularly sailed (and rowed, and sculled, and motored)!

 

[Blueboatman]

Neil, Oh yes indeedy!

And the go-getting of 'er was delightful too, what a gem of a location..I spent a month on the hook just pottering, reading and writing( badly) and tweaking the lugsail for speed!

And it is particularly nice that my boat and the dinghy were built within a mile of each other. 'Proper job'. There isn't a bad line in that dinghy. maybe I should take the lines off and get 'em on paper for posterity? I did try to find Richard without wanting to seem pushy, but only really to have a yarn in the Seven Stars@ Penryn and play who might we have known along the wharfs there

Hope your next -BIG-boat works out for you both as well, all best Tim