Back in 1989, I built a clinker ply dinghy, Dorothy. She is an enlarged version of the Acorn 10/Puffin design from Iain Oughtred - he hadn't designed the Guillemot at that time; he did so as a result of the success of my enlarging the Acorn 10 to 11ft 6in, I think.

Dorothy appears in JRA NL no. 20, December 1989 on p6, and graces the cover of NL no. 31, 1995. I used to sail her in the Solent, from Hamble River as far west as Newtown River.

She had two JR sails back in those days, but at present she has a western standing lugsail.

Looking for something useful and entertaining to do during lockdown, it occurred to me that I could make her another JR, to the sailplan that Annie and I have settled on for Fanshi, with low AR, low yard angle, hinged battens, the sail flat aft of the hinge and a little camber sewn in forward of the hinge. I have to lose a panel off the bottom, to fit the existing mast, but otherwise all I have to do is apply a scale factor of 0.4 to Fanshi's sail. Sail area is 4.66 sq m/50 sq ft.

I have some 16mm GRP tube on order for battens, and found some yellow 60gsm polyester ripstop on eBay. When they arrive, I can amuse myself with some miniature sailmaking.