Dinghy Dilemma.... ongoing

The whole dinghy thing is some kind of frustrating and the sort of thing that keeps you up long into the night much like world peace and perpetual motion machines ( though to be honest I am pretty sure that world peace just may be easier to achieve than a dinghy that does it all....)

The much maligned ( deservedly) Caribe 9L just found another sharp object in an over crowded dinghy dock to commit seppuku on. Just a tiny prick but enough to make repair a needful thing. Of course the super expensive two part contact cement needed has again gone way past its shelf life so the repair requires yet another purchase ($35) which will work well but again not be usable in a couple of months when the next repair is needed ( maybe we have found a marine perpetual motion money maker?)

On the other hand Barton makes this super wonderful Clamseal for the what seems a reasonable cost of around $20! Its easy and positive and the one I put on last year is still leak free...So the big question is the choice between messy glue job that takes a few hours to do right or a two minute wonder cure that works and is a whole lot cheaper...DUH!



Installing is simple....A quick two inch slit with a sharp object....





Slide/cram the sucker in.....


Screw the two parts together...


Blow the sucker up and hey presto leak is gone with a total time for the on the water repair being less than two minutes!

This is something that should be in anyones dinghy kit and if you are a life raft toting sort of person I'd make sure you had a couple packed away in the ditch bag...

But back on the dinghy front I have pretty much given up on the nesting dinghy option as they just do not seem to make the cut and while there are some excellent designs out there I just don't feel that the added hassle in building is worth the added size of dinghy in a smaller space on deck. So it pretty much comes down to a hard dinghy and eight foot is about the limit my deck will take. The short list was pretty easy...Having cruised with a Bolger Tortoise on Loose Moose 1 & 2 we were really happy with it but now that we seem to have more stuff the Brick was quite enticing as was the Fast Brick concept. The other short list contender was Rubens Nymph ( also by Bolger) as I've lost track of how many normal Nymphs I have built over the years and it is one of Phil's great designs. The added foot of beam in the Rubens will make for a much more stable and capacious dinghy.

And the winner is...Bolger's Rubens Nymph which is covered in "Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson" Dynamite can sell you the plans.

Anyone want to buy a Suicidal Caribe 9L with a Mercury 15HP?