I’m currently in the midst of getting the boat ready to get out of dodge for the “H” season. The biggest hassle being getting rid of all the stuff I no longer need (including a Cal 34) and getting the Islander in cruising trim. The current possible destinations are Grenada, Trinidad, Curacao, Columbia or Panama. …
As it happens, I came across this dinghy that I had a link to way back when. Hell its got a pointy front as well so what the hell… On another tack, here’s a link that pretty much says reflects my thinking about what went down yesterday and I’m still doing the happy dance.
So, it’s time to build a new dinghy for some serious cruising and, over the last few days, I’ve been looking for a design that makes sense. Lately, I’ve been using a six-foot dinghy but being over built is way too heavy to be used for serious cruising. Hence the need to build something new. …
I’m currently waiting for a dry day so I can glue up the three boards set to become the new self-steering gear for the Islander. I’ll be upfront and say that I currently have a severe case of workshop envy. Which is not to say you can’t build a self-steering gear or dinghy on a …
While I know that the overall consensus is that the best cruising dinghy is an eight or ten-foot RIB with a 9.9/15 HP engine but I’ll just have to disagree. For a long time I’ll admit that I thought the best cruising dinghy was Phil Bolger’s Tortoise as it did everything we needed it to …
I’ve long wanted to build a small canal cruiser for the time that I’m past my sailing days. Philip Thiel’s Joli Boat has always been at the top pf my list and a great example of getting the most livability into a 22’9″ X 8′ envelope. As it happens “Small Boats Magazine” has an excellent …
