Get your thinking hats on, sharpen your pencils and with poise hit the drawing board.
This competition closes on 31 April 2021.
JRA Dinghy Design Competition
Back in 2017, a few members proposed to the committee that the JRA supported a project to design a small dinghy that could be used with different types of junk rig. Like any plans for a tender, the design had to be capable of being all things to all men, but a viable suggestion was made by John Welsford, based on the specification put together at the time. Unfortunately, this never got beyond the concept stage and, as John does not currently have access to a boat building shed, we do not expect this to change. Accordingly, the committee has updated and reviewed the original specification for a design competition and are hoping to see our members - or non-members - put on their most creative thinking hats to try and come up with that most elusive of boats - the ideal tender. As a starting point, we suggest the following forum topics:
The Ideal Tender
Badger Dinghy
Dinghy Specification
Material: Plywood
Size: Not too big, not too small.
No longer than can be obtained from a sheet of plywood 2.4m
Plans: Must belong to the JRA
To be available for free download by JRA members
Ideally, we'd like to make digital cutting files available, but this is not vital
Characteristics:
- Simple and cheap to build, (think along the lines of building on a beach when the inflatable gives up the ghost unexpectedly)
- Suitable for rowing, sculling, outboard, sailing, use as a yacht tender
- Transportable on a roof rack
- Able to have various mast positions
- One design centerboard/daggerboard/offset daggerboard/leeboard and rudder
- Capable of carrying 2-3 people
- As light as possible considering its possible use as a yacht tender
- Buoyancy could built in or not - buoyancy bags are cheap and lightweight
Sail: Able to reef
Sail cloth - heavy weight spinnaker cloth?
Windsurfer mast would be a reasonable way of getting the mast or an aluminium tube
Deadline: End of April 2021.
Judging: A group of at least four members (who are not partaking) chosen by the committee, alongside one or two committee members. Members chosen by the committee to offer a range of sailing and boat building/design/sailmaking experience between them. Winner chosen by consensus, hopefully, but by majority vote if not. The chair will have a casting vote, should numbers make it necessary.
Prize: A cash prize of 250 GBP, plus the chair commits to building a prototype as a school project within a year of the design being chosen.
Send your designs to Mark:
chair@junkrigassociation.org
or post here.