For many years, we’ve been trying out all sorts of different dinghies for getting to and from our anchorage, and we’ve never been truly satisfied. Inflatable boats are delicate, very difficult to row, and for distances over 100 m, they’re really only usable with an outboard motor. Plastic folding boats like the banana boat are more robust, but you feel like you’re in a wobbly yogurt cup, and unfolding and assembling them on deck is a nightmare every single time.
Until now, due to a lack of space on deck or at the stern of our 39″ sailboat, we had no other choice. Now that we’ve sold the sailboat and switched to a 39″ motorcutter equipped with two sturdy davits at the stern, we have the option for the first time to carry a permanent dinghy that we can quickly and easily hoist up or lower at the stern as needed.
However, finding a suitable dinghy turned out to be no easy task. It shouldn’t be much longer than 10” so that it wouldn’t protrude sideways over the cutter’s gunwale and wouldn’t collide with the pier wall or lock wall when docking or undocking. Furthermore, it shouldn’t be too heavy, should look reasonably presentable, and should match the boat’s color. Ideally, it should also be sailable, so that in addition to its transport function, it would offer recreational value as well. And last but not least, it should, of course, be affordable.
To make a long story short: my search on various websites during the winter months didn’t turn up any truly useful results. Instead, I kept coming back to the idea of building my own boat out of wood. There are some very interesting methods and options available for this, both in traditional boatbuilding and the modern stitch-and-glue method.