And Now One for the Little Ones

Our small dinghies form a huge contrast from our big cats in the last two posts. They are very popular for small family fun boats and for yacht tenders. They are also great little boats for a child's first "own boat", to teach them to sail and gain confidence on the water. With a good grounding like that a young boy or girl develops a love for messing around in boats and a foundation on which to build their future watersport or life in boating. I had use of a boat like that from an early age and it contributed to my intense love of boats and boating.

These dinghies use basic stitch-&-glue methods, within the abilities of most potential builders. They are all built by amateurs, mostly from plans only but sometimes from plans and patterns or a pre-cut kit. Smallest is the 8ft Dixi Dinghy and next up is the Argie 10, named after the sellers of the Argus newspaper in Cape Town, which commissioned the design about 35 years ago.

Morgan MacKay of Vancouver, British Columbia, bought plans and patterns in January for the Argie 10. Today, a bit over two months later, he has sent me photos of the completed boat, ready for launch when warmer spring weather arrives. He says that it took him approximately 100 hours. Looks like a nice standard of finish too. He says that his boys are looking forward to going sailing with him.

In these photos Morgan's boat is on a very basic little trailer. These boats can be comfortably car-topped but there are definite advantages to using a trailer, allowing smaller people to get it into and out of the water.

Very pretty Argie 10. Two-tone colour schemes look good on a boat like this.

Morgan's sons trying out the Argie 10 for size.

Morgan has fitted a Laser Radial rig in his Argie 10, as well as a Laser rudder. The Radial rig is a bit bigger and has a longer boom. I look forward to hearing how well she behaves with this rig.

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