Anonymous wrote:

Here's something very different from the Norwegian Fjords. 

I guess everyone is familiar with Roger Barnes and his youtube series.

Nope. It was a great watch though.

If these videos don't inspire camper/cruising and shallow, muddy estuaries, I don't know what will.

Yes and no. For me camping means a family of four adult size people, so a 16ft dingy might work... well no, not with my family. For me these are day sail dingies only. Our camping trip with a 22foot craft with cabin was already a stretch.

When I saw the title of the thread, I of course first thought of my own situation and so was surprised at the small craft being considered. I think the first message might have defined what camping was being thought of. This video did that perfectly.

Yes I could see myself camping from a dingy if I was single... for my family we would need a small fleet :)

Everybody seems to be focused on monohulls.......  One design I really like is Richard Woods Strike 16 (and other lenghts) trimaran which may use beach cat hulls for the outriggers.   The side decks offer great seating and lots of room for campiing / sleeping with a boom tent.   An optional cuddy offers some minimal protection which could be enhanced with fabric covering.  The flat bottom makes a nice flat floor, and there is a lot of stowage for and aft.  It's a boat that's going to stay right side up, and be more stable when camped at anchor.......... if you choose to camp at anchor.  The amas (outriggers) fold up to trailer.  There are several 18 footers for sale at the moment.   Plywood construction, simple and rugged.   12' of beam makes for a very stable boat. There is no reason I can see why it couldn't be fitted with a junk rig.   The way this is constructed it could be a fairly fast inexpensive build.

Hi,

this is a fascinating topic. I enjoyed sailing + Camping trips with an Enterprise dinghy when I was younger and think it gave the highest yield if you divide enjoyment by cost. 

Chesapeake Light craft offer an interesting boat with their nesting expedition dinghy. If I was younger, poorer and had fewer friends, I would probably build one. 

In passing, I note that Roger Barnes had to be rescued at one stage. The Chesapeake craft probably would have allowed the helmsman to recover from a capsize without assistance.

Regards to all,

John

Thanks, Graeme  for the link  -  that was a lovely video  -  so much fine filming and then editing afterwards.

I see four big differences between the conditions shown here, and those on SW Norway:

• 1.      Temperatures in the air and in the water
• 2.      Only about 0.5m tide here, versus a number of metres in France.
• 3.      No big, shallow estuaries here. The waters are generally deep, but some areas are strewn with skerries.
• 4.      The wind gusts behind the mountains here would not invite to making fast the sheet, the way Roger Barnes did.

Those people on the video surely were good at making use of the conditions. Since getting a little wet is no big deal there, they could vade around with their boat behind them. And then there is the terror of the tide  -  like being the slave of an alarm clock. That didn’t appear to put them off at all.

If you look at videos of open boat cruising in Norway, you will find much more dressed-up crews. Staying dry is quite essential. Going for a swim is quite normal, but then it is back into dry clothes (and using wool underwear). The boats are often light enough to be pulled ashore at night. Next morning we don’t have to wake up with the boats afloat  -  or find there is 200m to the sea...
Anyway, this is not for comfort junkies like me...

The dimensions of Roger’s boat are actually quite close to those of my proposed Buddy design. His boat’s open layout may give better use of the space, but on the open fjords here, with the fetches varying between a couple of cables to 5, 10 or 15 NM, I would prefer a half-decked design to help keeping the stores and myself dry.

I was out for a spin in Ingeborg on Friday. It started with a light breeze, but soon the wind picked up and became a brisk F5 with plenty of short, steep chop, so we reefed and reefed and reefed again. Even with only four of the seven panels up, Ingeborg ‘flew’ at 6.5knots, which is around the limit for her 20’ waterline. I surely was glad I was not in a light, open, unballasted boat then...

Arne

Buddy is meant to be a lightly ballasted dinghy for half-sheltered waters  -  a gentleman’s day-boat  -  if that term still exists. Making a 180° capsize is not an option. A full capsize will ruin the day unless one has donned a wet-suit or dry-suit (Stavanger is at 59° N. latitude).

Buddy would have to be tested and prove that it has a dependable positive righting moment at 90°.

One thing I learned from Broremann, was the usefulness of having a defined fore deck, side decks and aft deck, and then a squarish cockpit in the middle. This let me quickly fit a cockpit cover after each sail, and let me return to a dry boat next time. Later models of the Oslojolle actually came with self-bailing, but these were no good for cruising. Any access to stores was of the key-hole type, and sitting in the cockpit was like sitting in a bathtub. Definitely a wet-suit boat.

The idea with Buddy is to both have buoyancy and dry storage under the foredeck and aft deck. There will be access through 50-60cm wide circular deck hatches. These need not be of the submarine-tight type: With the boat on its side, these hatches will still be above the water. The wet storage will be under the cockpit seats (hinged), and these will have room for the Broremann-style cockpit cover, tent, fish-rods etc.

Arne