Nesting Dingy - The good, bad, other.....?

[MSter]

Sorry to have pulled my post out of the dingy thread, but it seemed to be buried and it could really stand on its own as a topic.

Nesting Dingy - Anyone with good or bad experiences, opinions or thoughts on this topic? There are a few manufacturers of these things each with their own approach. It seems like they could be a great option for those of us with limited deck space, or davits are not feasible but prefer the hard sided option.

MSter
1981 27 Watkins Dragonfly

[sailingdog]

MSter—

IIRC, Valiente got a NN10 nesting dinghy last summer... Might be worth PM'ing him for his opinion.

[bljones]

nesting dinghies are great for storage, but you still need to have room to put the boat together, unless your freeboard is low enough, the seas calm enough, and you are coordinated enough to hold all of the components together in the water long enough to assemble it.

I am currently building a dinghy, and toyed with the idea of building a "clamshell" folding dinghy- think of a small boat that folds up like a suitcase, to take up half the space. I put that idea on the backburner, though, because although it would be easier to assemble on the water than a nesting dinghy, it would likely be less than sea kindly, due to the need for both ends to be identical, and the gunwales to be perfectly flat.

[mrwuffles]

How's that boat going? Havn't seen updates since being banned from "the other" forum. Sorry don't wanna hijack

[bljones]

Wuff, I am ready to start filleting and glassing.

Build time to date: 11 hours.
Cost to date: $93.81

[MSter]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

MSter—

IIRC, Valiente got a NN10 nesting dinghy last summer... Might be worth PM'ing him for his opinion.

I do like the lines of the NN10-II but am a bit distracted at the base cost plus sail kit...$4350...whew! I dont think the Admiral would let me get away with that one....

[Valiente]

I took it out a couple of times this summer for rowing and it rows very well. As the boat to which it belongs is going to be on the hard all summer, I expect I'll be sailing it properly and I'll report here on how it goes.

The weight isn't huge, but it's not trivial, either. You'll want the mast to act as a crane to get it on deck. However, once "nested", it is indeed very compact.

My second dinghy is a 10' Portabote and I took that out into Lake Ontario in approximately 15 knots/2 foot waves and into a river outlet (3 foot waves!) with a 2 HP Honda four-stroke. That also rows well and powers better than I thought (about 4.5 knots SOG on GPS and 3.8 knots into the wind). The nesting dinghy is for rowing, single-handing and sailing (the sail kit is quite large, so I expect proper sailing), while the Portabote is for "cargo" as its capacity is slightly greater and its internal volume much greater. Also, frankly, if I drop stuff or spill stuff in it, it's not a tragedy.

I have more "experimenting" to do, but from the space saving aspect, the nesting and folding dinghies are a success from the ease of assembly aspect, and the flexibility aspect (my wife and I can leave the boat at anchor separately for trips ashore), it's good.

Here's some pictures of the Portabote at dock and on deck, plus pictures of the nesting dinghy in my garage.