cavelamb himself wrote:
Bruce in Bangkok wrote:


One of my money earning hobbies is building dinghies. I designed and
built several 8 ft glass over plywood boats that will carry three
adults (well, skinny ones) quite safely in any weather I want to be
out in a dinghy. They aren't as light as a rubber duck but they are
light enough that I can pick one up by my self. Local made rubber
dinghies are running a bit over $1,000 here and I can build glass over
plywood boat for about a third of that.


Now that would be interesting.
Do you have any more info on them you can share?

I would't mind building my own.
(I suspect postage on something like that would be a bit over the top.)

But we would have to work out a way to swing it aboard first.

I have never liked outboard motors, a RIB was out of the question. We
have a dinghy that I designed & built, and consider it as close to
perfect for our uses as could be: it is very easy to row, stable, and
looks like a classic lapstrake pulling boat.


No one has mentioned it yet, but an outboard means storing gasoline on
board.

The big boat has a diesel engine and diesel generator.

Besides the flammability issue, there is the simple problem of logistics
of having a second kind of fuel to stow.

A good rowing boat - maybe with a simple sail for the longer pulls?




http://www.microcruising.com/ding1.htm
http://www.simplicityboats.com/summerbreezetemp.html
http://www.pelinplans.co.nz/canoes_dinghies_plans.htm

And the one I like
http://www.riparia.org/rachel.html
G