On the GIGO front, Sail Delmarva making a very good point, and a new citizen speaking out...
The other day a reader wrote asking for my opinion of the Portland Pudgy dinghy. The short form is that I think it's an excellent dinghy and when you consider that it can be used as a lifeboat as well it makes a whole lot of sense.
That said, like just about everything that floats on the water, it's a compromise but, as compromises go, it's better than most.
Which, sorta kinda, brings me to my next dinghy build which is going to be the tried and true Bolger Tortoise. The Tortoise and I go way back and over the years I've built quite a few and each one has has been a testbed of sorts as I tried to improve and refine what is just about the simplest and easiest to build dinghy design around.
This time around I plan to modify the overall design in favor of making it a better dinghy/lifeboat in the process. Which, I expect, will cause some folk to freak out with the idea of the lowly diminutive Tortoise doing double duty as a lifeboat. Of course, I should add that I've already crossed the Atlantic with a Tortoise as the designated lifeboat which shows I have some faith in the viability of the concept of using a dinghy as a lifeboat.
Admittedly, building a Tortoise or Big Tortoise as a dedicated dinghy/lifeboat requires a bit of compromise and a bit of rethinking but quite a bit less than you'd expect due to the overall simplicity of Bolger's design.
Next up is the need/want list for the Dinghy/lifeboat and the thinking behind it.
Listening to five good covers
So it goes...
