Way back at the start of this project, one or two of us voiced the thought that it shouldn't be a competition with a cash prize, and that doing something creative and useful was motivation enough.

Remembering that, I asked that the prize that was awarded to me, be donated to the RNLI, and this has now been done. 

A couple of points in relation to the dinghy competition:

1 No matter what the outcome, I believe we all need to thank Graeme Kenyon for his ingenious efforts in providing the test results. 

2 I came to an arrangement with Graeme for me to send the postage cost and for him to send me the model of Boxer. The photo attached shows it in use by my Granddaughter in her bath. The model will also serve as the bread basket and an interesting talking point when we are entertaining yachting friends. I suspect she may become a family heirloom in these roles.

Anonymous wrote:

This one's for Arne.

The name's been taken.

I noticed the other day there is already a dinghy called "Simplicity 8", its a Selway Fisher design, here .

Speaking of Arne's Simplicity 8 - I just knew this would happen - here is an almost identical design, boasting a 25hp outboard motor.

3m x 1.5 m and almost identical in design to Arne's.

Pity you didn't enter it in the design competition Arne, you might have won for the highest top speed - its for sale here on Trademe and the owner claims 41 km/hour. 

I hope never to see it in any peaceful bay in which I may anchor - at least, not with that motor on the back. Its already had a reinforced transom fitted (no surprise there) and the duck-shooter owner now claims it "will take all and any hp engines thrown at it..." Sigh... horses for courses, I guess.

Graeme,

You've reminded me of one of the reasons I like this website so much: the never-enough-engine crazies don't show up here.

I do realize that an underpowered conveyance of any sort can get you into trouble but not out of it.

Still, If that duck-shooter thinks that boat is all that wonderful, I wonder why he's selling it? I'll bet he'd never admit to having a close encounter with Darwin.

Graeme, here is a photo of that dory at a very early stage.

I think I remember that the bottom was eighty-some cm wide, and the flare of the topsides was considerable. Relatively, the bottom is very narrow, although it is about the same as that of Medium Boy. If those tall frames had been cut half as high, they would almost have fitted into my dinghy.

Btw, Curtiss built that 19’ dory from a design in some ‘Dory book’. To scale it up a little, he used a Norwegian yardstick, where one  inch ( Norw: tomme = thumb) is about 2.94% longer than the imperial version. That beefed the volume of that dory up with around 9%.

Arne

Arne, that’s a nice, decent-size dory (nice little video clip too). Such a simple form, which so elegantly matches the original needs and function of these boats. (I like the midships tiller too). You can see straight away it is slightly “tippy” for the first few degrees, then very quickly becomes stable.

I am sorry, I didn’t understand what you meant by “the lower part of that dory's mid frame” and then “its topside flare” - as if they are two different things. Could you explain that again please?

Swamping

I’ve only ever been swamped once, and that was one night in a commercial fishing boat, while constrained by gear, when a huge freighter (perhaps not keeping watch) went by me so close its steep curling bow wave rose up out of the darkness, clear over the side and filled my cockpit (and my gumboots). It was a very steep wave, which I would hope never to encounter in a dinghy.

I have been tipped out of a dinghy due to a wave – tipped over – a steep little wave right on the beach - that is probably a more likely scenario than being swamped I think, though you may correct me on that. In that case it was a narrow, light weight, 3-plank dinghy – almost like a dory - and the capsize only happened because I was in it (sitting up on the thwart), side on to the beach, could not react quickly enough and toppled over, the dinghy followed. Rather like the scenario David described some posts back. I don’t think the dinghy would have capsized if I had not been in it.

I would expect an empty dinghy to just bob like a cork, in all but the most extreme of waves, but maybe I am wrong.

What all this leads up to is: I think another “over the top” situation would be needed to make any of these model hulls become swamped or capsized – it would need to be an extremely steep wave and I am not sure if even a 5 metre log dropped from 10 metres (close nearby, God help us!) would do it, unless the models carried a passenger. Then they would need to have passenger weights added, and then there is the complication which has muddied all the other testing – trying to get correct weights and correct weight distribution into models that were never correct with respect to weight in the first place. The models should have been made from balsa, but I never thought about that when I started.

I think all this “model testing" stuff has gone too far now. Originally, I only really wanted to see what the dinghies would look like, and to give appreciation to the people who put forward their designs. And I did hope (and still hope) it might provoke lots more other people to chime in and give their opinions about what sort of tender would suit them best, and perhaps which of the JRA dinghies they like best. It’s still possible for people to do that, I think.

The link (which should have been displayed more prominently on the website) is here, and I think it is still open for people to give their feedback to the designers – or to make their comments on this thread. Most members probably don’t come on the forums, of course – I do hope lots of people we do not yet know about, have responded directly to the JRA. 

Nobody can say which of these dinghies is best – only which dinghy would be best for their purpose or situation – but that would still be helpful, I guess.