We need a hard dinghy.
Sentinel has just enough deck space for a small hard dinghy, no more than 2 metres long and 1.2 metres wide. Once we had a nice little GRP one, but that went adrift in the Turks & Caicos many years ago. Since then we have been searching for another, with no luck. Plenty of suitable new ones in the boat show, but the last thing we want is to pay top wack for a brand new boat that will probably go the way of the other all the quicker if it looks smart. Also, weight IS an issue as it needs to be launched and recovered easily over the guardrails. The old one would not have been lost, if we hadn't got lazy about recovery as soon as we were aboard.
A folding dingy was an option that would certainly avoid the space and weight problem, but those we saw did not look very seaworthy or stable. Our attention was drawn by two-part dinghies carried by some ocean-going yachts, where one half fits inside the other for stowage. But these all seemed purpose built. It seemed evident that if we wanted one, we would have to build it ourselves.
The Mini-Paw
Andrew saw reference to a Two-Paw two-part dinghy project, posted by Jud Berry on the Cruising World Bulletin Board. This is designed by Graham Bynes of B & B Yacht Designs, North Carolina. When we looked at this website though, we spotted another of his designs, the diminutive Mini-Paw pram dinghy. This we realised would fit exactly into our available deck space. A single part dinghy would be lighter and avoid the problem of having to connect and dismantle the two parts each time. The stitch-and-glue construction method is familiar to anyone who has owned a Mirror dinghy. So the decision was made.
For $30 a set of plans was received by return of post. It took a little while to puzzle over these, as they were not full-size, and called for the use of a flexible batten to draw the shapes through specified station points on the ply. We hesitated, and kept looking for a second-hand dinghy. A couple hanged hands on Ebay for more than we thought reasonable.
Internet Encouragement
Then a real breakthrough: we stumbled across Michel Goudeseune's website, in which he describes with copious photographs, how he built a Mini-Paw. This both gave us the incentive to get started and invaluable advice at certain stages. But first we would need somewhere to build it. The living-room of our small apartment was not an option. However, Andrew's mother in Plymouth has an old stable attached to her house, with a workbench, heat, and power. So the plan was to take time out both seeing her and building the dinghy. Accordingly, after leaving Dover in Sentinel, our first stop was in Plymouth. We felt that three weeks should be sufficient.
One thing we did not like was Michel's opening remark that it had cost more than a new production dinghy to build. The plans came with an exhortation to use top-grade marine ply, mahogany timbers, epoxy resin. We felt £100 was the most we could afford, and that would mean cheaper materials. Polyester resin is quarter the price of epoxy, and seems to have lasted well enough on older Mirror dinghies. If it is not so good as a glue, then we would use screws liberally. Accordingly, a trip to Travis Perkins saw us equipped with two sheets of exterior grade 3.6mm ply at £20, £18 worth of planed pine timber, £5 worth of brass screws (½in; and ¾in;), and two tubes of polyurethane quick-curing waterproof glue at £15, while the chandler sold us a gallon of polyester resin at £20, and an 8 meters remnant of 3in glass-fibre tape at £8 (but it proved to be much longer). Total cost for plans and materials: £103, though we should be honest and admit we paid for Travis Perkins to deliver the timber. The oars and rowlocks we already had, and the monel wire and paint was left-over from other projects.
A Boat is Born
If you want a detailed description of how the dinghy was built, take a look at Michel's website, except that we had nothing like his tools. But the design is intended for first-time builders with limited equipment. Measuring and cutting out took a day outside in glorious spring sunshine, as the sheets of ply were too large to work indoors. The dinghy is a single chine construction, so the hull is built of just six pieces. The method of construction is essentially around a single central frame, which must be very carefully constructed to the exact size before anything else is started.
Like most boats, the dinghy is built upside down. The side ply pieces were screwed and glued to the central frame, then attached to the reinforced transom at the back and pulled around to fit onto the bow piece at the front. The bottom pieces were wired together, then placed on top, screwed to the central frame and transom, and then wired to the side sheets until they reached the bow. Michel described the problems he'd had at this stage with an ill-fitting bow, so we were not too worried when the same happened to us. We fixed the bow piece only loosely initially, and then adopted his solution of moving it back and down a couple of centimetres. We learnt from his experience on wiring too; loose to start with, tightened up only once the ply is in the correct position. Once wired, glassing went easily but messily, one session of an hour each for inside and out, the wires removed in between. We were mindful of Michel's warning not to linger too long in the fumes of this process, but with the resin only staying workable for about 15 minutes, the job must be done quickly.
By now we had plausible looking dinghy shell (picture 1), but then things started to go rather more slowly as the fittings were added. Gunwales, a keel and floor stringers were sanded to shape and fitted on the outside, each piece being bent into position along the line of the hull with a Spanish windlass, glued and screwed into place. A small set-back occurred when one snapped at a knot as it was bent. Picture 2 shows the dinghy towards the end of this phase. The last operation was to fit supports for the seats.
1. Dinghy Shell
2. Keel and stringers
3. Painting
Finishing and Launching
At this point Sod's Law came into operation. The local chandlers displayed an ideal second-hand GRP dinghy of exactly the right dimensions for £195. Somehow, we had divined that after six months of fruitless searching this was bound to happen, so we were not quite as dismayed as we might have been. All that was now left with ours was to clean up and paint (picture 3), screw in the seats and the rowlocks, transport to the water and launch. Andrew's brother-in-law Des slung the boat in the back of his estate car (yes, it is that small), naming and launching was done with due ceremony at Mayflower Marina, Plymouth on 1st May, 2005. We have at least saved ourselves £90, for about 70 hours of work between the two of us!
