Yes Elsie, inflatable floor.
I think the association will have a rendezvous this summer, perhaps at Maple Bay.If not at least an informal gathering including a trip to Maple Bay. We may see you then. a good chance to get some advice and see what others have done.
Rob Powers
Respite 26C #50
Sidney BC
I agree with Rob as far as the inflatable floor goes if you are going the inflatable route. You also want to be sure you get one with an inflatable keel because they track so much better than a flat bottom. Consider an electric pump with the ability to inflate the floor too. Dinghy tubes typically want to be inflated to 3.5psi or so where the floor is 13psi+ It doesn’t sound like much until you trying do it with a foot pump. Under-inflation is what kills inflatable dinghy prematurely. Assembling wooden or aluminum floored inflatables is an aggravating pain but maybe not so much if it’s a once a year chore.
Bill Mortensen
NS30U #0335
Summer Song
I need to clarify one of my comments. Since I wrote it I have found some information on the Walker Bay. The company still exists but appears to have ceased production of the 8 and 10 foot rigid dinghies. The 8’ comes in at 73 lbs which is lighter than I thought and the 10’ comes in at 123 lbs which is about what I thought. Here is a link that has some short videos of the WB in action.
https://directboats.com/discontinued7.html
Mark Powers
If you are keen like Mike J, here are some links to plans for building your own dinghy. The boats in the plans are all very light weight. The Wooden widget plans are for inexpensive folding boats. The Geodesic boat plans are for very elegant boats that are light weight, do not fold and require more skill. One of our members has made the Blackfly. I will let him identify himself if he wishes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4sD0ownveI
https://gaboats.com/boats/blackfly8.html
Ron, sorry to disagree with you about the Walker Bay with tubes being subject to tipping if you step on the edge. Maybe it is a weight difference between steppers.
Mark Powers
Ok, I’ll throw my almost-novice two cents into the pot.
Elsie - I’ve been the owner of 3 dinghies. And, a want-to-be owner of another one. I consider myself a novice.
Number one was in the Med. in the 1980s on a boat there. Inflatable, little motor, flew like the wind. Let’s forget about that one as it is way back in history.
Number two was a rigid dinghy, built in Maine for being on oceans, beautiful little thing. Got it from a fellow Nonsucher. I had to let it go, as it was too heavy and awkward, especially needing to rent a trailer to get it to the club in the spring (4 hour round trip, driving, gas, trailer rental & pickup &drop off, basically an expensive day) then renting the trailer to get it back home (another 4 hour round trip(*)) back home. Winter storage at the club - HAd hoped to do that, but storage sheds, as I found out later, almost get passed down generation to generation. My partner, Debra, had difficulty helping me move it. It went locally to someone who moors their boat off of their cottage, and was looking for a nice dinghy to get to/from it.
Number - wishing for - three was going to be a portaboat. The US supplier would not ship to Canada, and the Canadian Supplier was sold out last spring, and was unsure for 2022 - told me to “call back sometime in the spring”.
The portaboat would have been able to fit, folded and tied to the lifelines near the bow on our 26.
Ok. We really wanted a dinghy for the coming season. With a dog, it is nice to be able to get to shore every so often. And, dinghys can be fun!
Santa delivered one from New Zealand, a True-Kit. If you look at Sailing Fair Isle on YouTube, they did a review of their True-Kit. Shipping was great, easy to set up, and YoYo the dog likes it. At least when set up at home! The setup was easy, everything needed was in the box.
I am certainly no dinghy expert, but do expect to get a little bit more experience in 2022.
Oh, the “4 hour round trip” to deliver/pick up the dinghy one time was close to 12 hours of my time, due to traffic backups, waiting in the U-Haul rental line, stopping for food, the actual pick up of dinghy and placing it where it should be - a long day that I’d rather have been sailing.
John, NS26C 046, boat sleeping through the winter in Bath, ON.
I left two considerations out. Weight and storage At some point you will be lifting the dinghy, either up the shore , on to a dock. I replaced the floor on my dinghy to an “air floor” cut the weight in half. Rolls up easily and I can cart it in one piece with the dock cart and slip it in the car.
Folks do leave them in the water, but they need bailing and the bottoms get dirty. So where you store the dinghy when not being used is part of the equation.
John -
That is a very flattering photo !! More important, you’ve bought a lovely dinghy.
Elsie -
I just checked out the True-Kit Stowaway. It looks fantastic. It’s tiny and light and can be schlepped around in its bag or kept set up. It weighs 14 kilos. I agree that the biggest pain would involve inflation/deflation and a battery-powered air pump would help a lot. On their website, I priced this little boat at $1575. + around $425. (all in CAD$) to ship to Maple Bay from NZ.
I know darn near nothing about dinks but this little boat speaks to me and looks very stable and rugged.
All that said, I will start a new thread to discuss one or two other matters but, in general, in my very own personal opinion, I would use this first sailing year that’s coming up to do all kinds of other stuff before committing to buying/getting a dinghy, towing it, doing the dinghy “learning curve”. I am NOT suggesting that you aren’t capable of dealing with all of this “dinghy stuff”. I honestly think that you’ll be plenty busy enough working out and practicing docking and “undocking”, sailing and navigating (in general), reefing (2 reefs), fixing, re-placing, rigging, re-rigging, re-re-rigging, re-re-re-rigging, etc., etc. without dealing with a dinghy, towing it, and all of that.
But what about all of those lovely anchorages, etc. ??? What about a compromise for your first real season ?? Do it the easy way. Go to marinas on other islands with your divine little NS22 and park at a slip. You may even be able to plug-in. It’s a very “civilized” endeavour even tho it costs a few bucks. It will be a good experience for you to dock at other locales. Or (and I forget) are you at a club ? Do you have reciprocal privileges somewhere ?
My 2 cents.
(I do like that little True-Kit. I love a Portland Pudgy but they cost the earth.)
Ernie A. in Toronto
Two pics since Mark has brought up the Black Fly skin on frame dinghy from Geodesic. One is my Black Fly that I built last winter and am considering modifying a windsurfer rig for (the Nonsuch 8) and the other is my “user dinghy”, a light, small, cheap PVC air floor that cost under a boat unit and serves me well. The (buoyant line) bridle in the pic can fail on either side without losing the dinghy.
Paul M
NS30U #211, Sandpiper
Cowichan Bay, B.C.
This must be the Rolex of dinghy air pumps. From True Kit of New Zealand. It’s priced at around $260.00. It does up to 11 PSI.
Ernie A. in Toronto
https://truekit.net/collections/accessories-collection/products/accessories
John, I watched the video on YouTube and checked out the TrueKit website. These dinghies do look amazing - so light and well made. Thanks very much for telling me about them. I’ll add these to my list under consideration. It’s a high recommendation that Yoyo approves!
Hi Thor, Thanks for adding this. It sounds like the “air floors” are the way to go all right. Weight is certainly going to be a consideration for me, and being able to roll it up and transport it in the car would be a bonus.
Hi Ernie,
Thanks for your 2 cents worth … grin! By the time you posted I had already gone to the True-Kit website and sussed it out. I agree that the True-Kits look very appealing. I’m not sure I’d choose the Stowaway as I don’t think you can mount a motor on it.
I can see the wisdom in your suggestion to use anchorages, but I want / need a dinghy. My sailing instructor runs some flotillas of his students in the summertime. They go to a bunch of little ports of call / anchorages in the Gulf Islands, each in their own boat, and learn a ton doing it. They stop at a different moorage or anchorage each night and stay out for about a week. The Gulf Islands are incredibly popular with boaters in the summer and you cannot always get moorage, even with reciprocal privileges which I have. If the little group of 8 or 9 boats is going to anchor for the night, I want to be able to do that, and to go ashore with them, or visit another boat … whatever freedom you get from having a dinghy. I might look for a used dinghy with motor for this summer and then decide what I really like / need in a dinghy and refine my choice.
Do you have a dinghy? What kind? Do you tow it? I heard a rumour that your boat has a swim grid in two parts, one on each side of the outboard. If that’s correct, may I know where you got it and possibly see a photo?
Thanks, thanks,
Mike, the yawl you built is a beauty. I'm very impressed. I've always thought I'd like a small wooden boat. Every year the Wooden Boat Ass'n in Cowichan Bay raffles one. Every year I buy a ticket .. hehe. I've also stood and watched them being built at Granville Island in Vancouver. Although it's a fine idea, I probably have enough on my plate at the moment, so will opt for an inflatable of some sort for a dinghy for Rosy Red. Thanks again for your very good idea.
Elsie
NS 22 Rosy Red
Maple Bay, BC
Hi Elsie,
another 2 cents to add -
I had a high-pressure air floor inflatable for about 10 or 12 years. It was a West Marine 275 (2.75 meters - just about 9 feet) and it was made by Zodiac. It was light, about 60 lbs, and stowed in my engine compartment on my 30 Ultra. I used a Honda 2.3HP 4 stroke (weight - 29lbs) which moved it well (I can’t row to save my life!).
I finally figured out that inflating it at the beginning of the season, leaving the engine on it, and towing it, allowed me to use it often with no hassle of trying to inflate it while on anchor.
It handled fine and served us well.
But… it finally gave up (ok, I gave up trying to patch it - the apron that protects the air-keel and floor kept separating from the tubes - very hard to re-attach. I was able to do so for a few years, but got tired of the fight or having the apron start to separate as we were motoring somewhere and our feet/bags were now swamped).
It didn’t owe us anything after so long!
This past season we upgraded to a RIB Zodiac 300 (3 meters - just shy of 10ft) with the double hull. The reasoning was we were going to more beaches (gravel, shells, exposed pipes) here in the North East US, have been transporting folding bikes to shore to go explore (was always a concern the seat posts or other parts of the bikes would poke through the air floor) so the aluminum hull seemed to make more sense for our usage.
With the RIB hull we sit higher out of the water, it handles better, and surprisingly, motors just as fast with the same 2.3 HP Honda (tho a min of 5HP is recommended) even though the boat weighs a little more than double the weight (125 lbs) of the old air-floor. It also tracks much better when we tow it.
The model we purchased also has a roomy bow-locker so we are able to leave items such as lifejackets, a spare VHF radio, a 2-gallon fuel tank, a dinghy anchor, and navigation lights (in the event we are motoring around after sunset).
We leave it in the water all season, and occasionally pull it onto the dock to clean the bottom of barnacle/slim growth.
The only complaint about this model is that the ‘self-bailer’ plug has to be removed while underway to drain rain water that accumulates, or we partially pull the boat onto the dock, remove the plug and let it drain. The old air-floor model had a true self-bailing plug that was one-way… we could just leave it in the open position and most of the rainwater would self-drain. For the remaining water we just tipped the bow up, held it for a minute, and the remaining water would drain.
We used the halyard to lift it onto the deck to store it, deflated and upside down, for winter.
And yes, the RIB costs about double what an air-floor model will.
We made our own tow set-up - line attached to each D-ring on the forward tubes, and a small fender attached mid tow-line. A fender that can be attached on both ends (either with line openings on each end or a fender where a line will pass thru the center of the fender) works best. This keeps the tow-line from submerging - especially important with an outboard engine on your 22! No need to spend a lot of $'s on the tow-lines sold by the marine stores.
Your actual intended use, environment (ie rocky shorelines, smooth beaches, etc) and what you will be carrying with you should be considered!
Peter Grabow
S/V CAKE WALK III
1987 30 Ultra 430
Jersey City, NJ
A simple fix for self draining scuppers. They work very well and come in few sizes
I may be a little biased, but B&B has a nice little runabout (probably too big to be a dinghy).. Their Core Sound is more or less the same layout as Serenity. 
https://bandbyachtdesigns.com/blog/why-a-cat-ketch/
But if you are interested in building one, B&B has a Spindrift 9’ (sorry, I don’t see a weight), and the Catspaw/Minipaw/Two-Paw Prams in 6’6" to 9’ lengths, in nesting and non-nesting options. The plans are pretty inexpensive, or it looks like you can get the pieces already cut out for you for substantially higher cost.
https://bandbyachtdesigns.com/spindrift
https://bandbyachtdesigns.com/catsaw-two-paw/
Still, if I could get (or size down) the plans for a 9’ or 10’ ketch dinghy, I’d paint her up in colors matching Serenity. Maybe I’d call her Tranquility or something.
Brian
SV Serenity
Nonsuch Nereus #003
Pax River, MD
Hi Brian, Thanks for your thoughts. I love the idea of a dinghy named Tranquility to go with your Serenity! I think that for this season (my first with the boat) I’ll try to pick up an inflatable dinghy and a small outboard so I can experience using it and figuring out what I really like. Since this little Nonsuch is my first experience owning / sailing a boat, I should probably stick to getting it in shape and learning to sail it this year. The thought of a little home built dinghy tagging along behind Rosy Red is quite appealing though. Thanks again.
Elsie Sands
NS22 Rosy Red
Maple Bay, BC
Elsie, I was a woodworker for a long time before I first sailed, so the idea of building a dinghy appeals to me. Having said that, I don’t have one at present and given my current sailing style, don’t see the need for one. Yet.
Of course, I actually fortunate to be big enough to have davits on the back, so I’m unlikely to be towing a whole lot.
Brian
SV Serenity
Nonsuch Nereus #003
Pax River, MD
In the spirit of true Nonsuchery, Elsie, I think that you should try and ‘persuade’ Brian (of S/V Serenity) to build you a little wooden dinghy !!
Ernie A. in Toronto
