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choosing Spindrift nesting size and other questions


samj

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Hi,

 

I'm thinking of building a Spindrift as my first boat project. I've read the pros and cons that people have said about the one vs two piece Spindrifts. I am leaning towards the nesting models for easier storage and hopefully strapping onto a smallish sailboat in the future.

 

I have a couple of questions.

- capsize recovery and bailing: if I'm alone, it would be nice to not have to bail two sections. How about embedding a pluggable tube into the center seat so you could equalize the water level?

- covering up the forward section as someone talked on the forum for the same reason. Would it make a difference in weight distribution? Ideally, this would be removable (but that might be hard to make waterproof enough).

- size: 9' for storage reasons, 11' for space on the water. Opinions? I'd be sailing/training mostly single handed, but also with one or two kids - teen and tween. I think weightwise we'd still be OK on the 9' but maybe not for long.

 

Any thoughts / experiences that would help choosing?

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Sam?

 

I also built the nesting version and for about the same reasons, although it hasn't worked out as I thought it might. If I had to do it over again, and I may, I'd opt for the one piece. For my use, I suspect the benefits of the stock, one piece boat will outweigh the benefits the nesting option offers. Others may disagree.

 

On bailing.....and it goes beyond a capsize.......you would be shocked at how much water accumulates in the boat after a heavy rain.........there are the two sections to bail. Best solution is Anderson self bailers, but they are not cheap and if it's a nester, you will need two of them. A nesting boat is really two boats bolted together in the middle. That means two water tight bulkheads in the middle. Not many ways to get water to move from one to the other without pumps or some type of complicated Rube Goldberg device.

 

Then there are the removable (meaning not fixed) seats that can blow away or float away and with the nesting version, you don't have the side bunks to sit on when sailing.

 

You are correct that the two piece is simpler and easier to store. I kept mine nested upright in the garage and it didn't take up much space at all. On the deck of a boat, however, is a different story. Few "smallish" sailboats have that much available deck space, and unless designed for it, that much weight and windage up high will adversely affect their performance under sail.  So my plan is to tow the dink, unless I'm passing through canals and such where I am primarily motoring through restricted waters, in which it may be lashed upside down to the top of the cabin.

 

Yet another option is to think long and hard about how much sailing a person is likely to do vs. simply rowing the dink around. To sail means you will also need the sail, mast, CB and rudder, meaning you will need storage space for all that on your smallish boat.

 

All things considered......unless you really need the nesting version, life is simpler with a one piece boat........and make it a 10 footer. If you are not going to sail, one of the smaller, lighter prams might be yet another option.

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I built the Suzy J as a nester, and it is a great little boat. I only take it apart once a year to store in my basement. I built it as per plans, so it is bolted together meaning you can't assemble it in the water. There are some modifications posted on this site that you should add if you really intend to use it as a tender. I have sailed with my two boys and its cozy. Take a look at the video I posted and you'll get a good idea of what sailing it is like. To sail three one person needs to be forward of the bulkhead and its already tight. I would think the 9 footer would be tiny forward, maybe someone that has one can comment. She's a very fast sailing boat for her size, and performs very well in light wind. I do wish she was quicker to convert from fishing boat with outboard to afternoon sailboat. The rig is very racing oriented and the boom is very long.

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I built the 9N Spindrift for the same reasons you mention Sam.  After a couple years cruising my 27 foot Renegade I came to the conclusions Howard outlines in his post.  The only reason I could come up with for needing a nesting dinghy proved unnecessary.  I never stowed it on deck, towing worked so well.  As for storage during non-use, there are ways.  This is all in the past for me now, but had I known what I learned before I built, I would have chosen the one piece hull with much better sailing/self rescuing layout.

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I built the 10N so I could both hang it in my garage in a small space and stow on the deck of my J/24 when I sail to Catalina. Both have worked very well so far. I built mine so it could be assembled in the water- I lower each section into the harbor and hop in the stern to bring both halves together. Not 100% dry, but not too bad. It is certainly a hassle having two sections to bail, and while I have Anderson bailers in both sections they require a fair amount of boat speed to actually work- either sailing relatively fast or motoring. They don't work for me while rowing. Building it will be more work too- I designed and built my own lower latch mechanism and that took quite a bit of figuring out.

 

As for sailing, I simply used the rig from my Laser, so that makes it a lot easier to get into sailing mode as I'm pretty quick with that rig. I can stow the mast and boom belowdeck on the J/24 while crossing to Catalina and stow them abovedeck when I get there. The boats sails well in light wind but was a bit overpowered for me a few weeks ago when it was gusting over 15 knots with a full Laser rig. I capsized, as often happens, and while the boat was easy to right and climb into, it did take on a lot of water which made it difficult to recover from. I plan on increasing forward flotation- right now the front benches are not built in, but will do that this fall.

 

If I didn't have the specific need to stow the Spindrift on the small foredeck of my J/24 I would have been fine with the non-nesting version. I'm glad I built the 10' version- I think the 9' would have been too small. I was a little tempted by the 11', but it would have been just a little too big to stow on the foredeck. I've had three in it while motoring but only two adults in it sailing. I'm pretty sure an adult and 2 kids would work though- it was two big guys when we went out.

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