Bill, I agree with you, we have not needed to use our dinghy to propel us yet,but review how we would do that,in case we need to deploy in an emergency. I also have rescued a sailboat just before it was going up on a reef on the south coast of Grenada with my rib and its 18 hp two stroke. We also dinghy miles to snorkel and get groceries . Our 10.5 aluminum rib only weighs 98 lbs. ,we love it and it can do 25 to 30 mph in flat water ,just measured by my brother next to me on his jet ski the other day. BTW, we store two six gal. fuel tanks tied to the stanchions ,one is normally in the dinghy.

Pat

SM Shenanigans

-----Original Message-----
From: CW Bill Rouse <brouse@...>
To: main <main@amelyachtowners.groups.io>
Sent: Sun, Jun 16, 2019 12:16 pm
Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] Sailing /Rowing dinghy

One downside is that what you have will not propel your boat to safety when necessary. If you have considered this and are OK with it, fine. But, if you haven't considered this, you need to re-think. You are going to places that you will need to self-rescue, and/or move your boat when you have no wind and no motor. It is hard to beat all of the advantages of a traditional RIB with a 10-20hp 2 cycle motor. I know of 2 SMs which were moved away from dangerous situations with a dinghy lashed to the stern quarter.

Best,

CW Bill Rouse

Yacht School - Supporting Amel Owners

720 Winnie St

Galveston Island, TX 77550

+1(832) 380-4970

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On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 10:48 AM karkauai via Groups.Io <karkauai=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

Hi all,
Last year we built a 11.5 ft sailing/rowing dinghy in hopes that it would work as a tender instead of carrying gasoline and gasoline motor(s).  RIBs are nearly impossible to row, can’t sail them, but they are very stable and carry 4 people easily.

The Dink we built is a Chesapeake Light Craft PassageMaker design that was originally sold as a nesting hull.  It’s 11.5 ft LOA , rows easily, and sails well.  When both parts are bolted together it only weighs ~95 lbs.  Sounds great so far, eh?

Here are the down sides:
*It doesn’t truly nest.  So we’re now storing 11.5ft of hull in two parts.  The bigger aft part sets nicely on the aft deck,  we weren’t comfortable lashing the bow section on the forward deck, so it ended up on the aft deck over the lazarette...so we can’t access the lazarette at sea without moving it.

*It is so lightly built that it bounces around pretty violently when alongside Kristy in any kind of chop.  It is also under built and we had to add strength to the bulkheads where the pieces bolt together because of cracks that developed at the joint between planks and bulkheads.

*The rig is a gunter style Marconi sloop with a small jib.  It takes about 45 min to rig and derig.  It sails well but can’t be reefed as currently set up.  With the gunter spar it would take a major overhaul to rig for reefing and it would be an involved process, not something that would be easy and quick. When rigged and not sailing the boom is in the way of rowing.  

*It will carry 4 adults, but doing that and sailing would be impossible, I think.

We bought a Torqeedo electric outboard which pushes her along adequately, but it isn’t built tough enough for daily use in salt water.

i guess we will have to go back to the RIB and gas outboard.  Hoping someone out there has experience with a great nesting dinghy that’s truly built for use as a cruising tender.  There are a couple others that look better than the CLC PassageMaker but probably have many of the same issues.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Kent & Iris
Kristy
SM 243