Howard: certainly no ill will, I admire Arne for his many clever, well-thought-out and valuable contributions to the junk rig, and have said so many times. I also agree with Arnie more, now that he has clarified that his main concern was over-promotion which could lead someone inexperienced into a dangerous situation.
However, Arne: I must again reply to your continued language such as the recent “… to prevent the SCAMP from parking on its side…” and "misbehaving" which, to me, is simply misleading, and not useful.
I think the really interesting thing is that, as we all come from different parts of the world, with different coastlines and different ideas about sailing – we really are living in completely different worlds – and to mix metaphors a little – we must all join with David T and Arne who have agreed that dinghy design is “horses for courses”. But we need to be careful when evaluating someone else’s horse, especially if we have never tried to ride on it, and Arne, who has a considerable following, continues to be careless here.
All dinghies can capsize. Both David D. and Mauro have stated that there is such a thing as a self-righting sailing dinghy (though I have yet to see drawings and stability curves) so I will concede for the moment that such a thing may be possible. However, since it is not all that difficult to right a capsized dinghy of decent design – and given that in any case the “family of four” are going to find themselves in the water in the event of a capsize, it is almost (not quite) academic whether the dinghy can right itself (leaving the sailer to swim after it, as in the case of the La Gazelle video)* – or whether the sailer rights it. In any case, there are people in the water. It is in the capsize, not the mode of righting, that danger may lie.
For a dinghy to be “safe” for inexperienced sailers, it should be stiff when moderately heeled, and not easy to capsize, and if it does capsize it should be possible for it to be brought upright again, bailed out if necessary, to be boarded and sailed away.
Though the ultimate in safety is to be (like the SCAMP or the P-Class) fully decked and so buoyant that it floats high and can be righted with little or no water to be bailed out, this would generally interfere with other functions of a general-purpose dinghy and is not a requirement, in my opinion. To me, the more important requirement of a "safe" sailing dinghy is that capsize should be less likely, and the situation of a capsize should be recoverable.
Arne’s nonsensical description of “parking on its side” presumably refers to that point in the (static) stability curve where the dinghy loses its ability to self-right without assistance, and tends to remain with the mast (and the crew) in the water. In practical reality this simply means “capsize”, and any dinghy can capsize.
I would also expect (tell me if I am wrong) that a fully buoyant dinghy which floats high on its beam and can be righted with the cockpit almost dry, will not tend to be self-righting as its stable position after a capsize will be somewhat more than 90 degrees. This could also be the effect of Arne’s “generous fender sausage”, which may reduce the risk of capsize but could quite possibly also add to the stability of the dinghy in its capsized position, and mitigate against the (in my opinion worthless and generally non-existent) characteristic of “self-righting”. (The efficacy or otherwise of a fender sausage, in relation to righting a dinghy once it is capsized, will depend on the distribution of the other built-in buoyancy, if there is any).
[Addition for Arne: A fully-buoyant capsized dinghy can rotate to fully upside-down and in the non-static situation, if this began to happen, the fender sausage would aid this "misbehaviour". The mast itself should best be buoyant. I wouldn't go as far as those masthead floats you used to see sometimes, on catamarans. Welsford specifies a watertight masthead plug for aluminium tube. I would add to that, for yard and battens also. ]
*Incidentally, I have also been rescued from the situation of being in the water alongside a righted dinghy and had it sail away from me. (I can’t swim very well, and had my first experience of using a life-jacket in a real-life situation – not quite how I imagined that to be, either). So, I am not sure if “self-righting”, even it if were possible, would necessarily much reduce the danger from a capsize.
I can only say that in a cold climate, out of reach of shore, and with a “family of four”, everything should be done to avoid a capsize, including the choice of a wholesome type of dinghy. The SCAMP belongs to that class of dinghies which could be described as wholesome and “safe” – particularly safe, I would say.
To suggest that a dinghy is “safe” because it can self-right – or worse still, to suggest that a dinghy is ONLY safe if it is self-righting is almost as dangerously misleading as to suggest that the SCAMP is suitable for sailing around Cape Horn.
To add a sausage fender (and lead ballast!) to a SCAMP would indeed be to add “a large dram of turbocharged potatoes (Lysholm Linie-Aquavit) to cure a possible cold” – or, as the Chinese more simply say "adding feet to a snake". Though I guess there is no harm in a little aquavit from time to time - or adding a sausage to a SCAMP - other than to further degrade its looks, from a Dutch clog to a fur-lined boot.
(Here in New Zealand we call them "Ug Boots").
PS For a dinghy like my Welsford Golden Bay, which is narrow in the beam, a little over-canvassed and with not much built-in buoyancy - not really in the category of "safe" as a sail boat - I think the "sausage fender" is a great idea. My old mentor Brian Donovan used to suggest a length of fire hose stuffed with kapok. I guess (and hope) there are better materials to hand these days - and would be grateful for further suggestions. I'll bet Arne could come up with a clever way of making one.
PPS Jim: -yes the idea of an emergency boarding stirrup is a good one, though even that is more difficult to deploy, from the water, than it might seem. With a life jacket on, I am unable to haul myself up over the transom, from the water and into a dinghy (perhaps turbocharged with adrenalin I might be able to do it?). Even the usual little folding-down boarding ladder is surprisingly difficult for a waterlogged person to negotiate from the water - those who haven't tried it should do so. (The folding part swings under the boat with your feet and mounting it just ain't as easy as you might think, especially if you carry a little bit of surplus weight.)
Capsizing is a laughing matter here during our warm summers - or used to be, for kids anyway, in the days when the weekend harbour was a mass of tiny sails. But it probably should not be. There is a school of thought which says kids should not be taught to capsize - they should be taught NOT to capsize. Perhaps this explains the disappearance of the once ubiquitous P class and its replacement by the more docile Optimist. Anyway, for family sailing I am right with Arne - best not to capsize. And think very carefully about about a "plan B" BEFORE you accidentally do. It might not just be your cell phone at risk.
***
Sigh! I might as well waste the rest of the morning, seeing as we are on the subject of water safety, and anyway, its raining down here in the mangroves. In relation to boarding a boat from the water. Some years ago we had a tragedy here that all could learn from. It was during a party one night, on board a yacht tied up at a marina. A somewhat heavy man fell overboard and could not get back up. Yachts have pretty high freeboard these days. His companions were unable to pull him back on board, and did not know what to do. It was late at night. The man (well-loved and with a family) slowly died of exposure. As many of our members will know, the solution should not have been difficult. In the same way the old scowmen dragged kauri logs out of the water and onto the decks of their scows, the solution was "parbuckling" - that is, a rope, or ropes, or a sail, made fast to the deck then under the person's body and back up to the deck where it can be hauled or winched if necessary, rolling the horizontal body up the side and onto the deck. The old scowmen used to remove the bulwarks for log scows - I don't know how lifelines can be negotiated but perhaps they can be quickly removed, or maybe in the above case there were none. Anyway, although it has no relation to dinghies, it does apply to larger boats, and wharves and marinas, and is a simple (but perhaps non-intuitive) action that can be kept in the back of one's mind.