8' D. E. Dinghy

Design Number 60
1970

This design was commissioned by a builder wanting to do a little boat that was a bit different than the usual run of dinghies. He'd found a set of lines for a larger dinghy in a very old book and asked me to scale it to eight feet, so he could build a plug and mold for the boats.

As so often happens when trying to work from a very small print in a book, the published drawings were considerably out of fair. The end result was a lot of re-fairing work, and we ended up creating a new boat with a similar character.

Quite a few boats were molded to this design and I've seen a number of them on my cruises in the Pacific Northwest. They proved to be easily rowed, and I felt they were a success that way. However, due to their narrow beam, they had limited carrying capacity and stability.

I believe that a larger version, say a 50% enlargement to 12' x 4?', would be a much more useful boat and not have the limitations the smaller one had. Following this line of thinking is what led to the creation of the 11' Oregon Peapod. Using the scantlings, details and rig from the 11-footer should work well for a 12' version of this 8' double ender.

8 D.E. Dinghy

Normally, I am considerably less than enthusiastic about scaling designs from one size to another. This is due to the many structural and performance changes that occur at non-linear relationships. However, this exception should work out well if the above scantling suggestions are followed.

Particulars:ImperialMetric
Length overall8'-0"2.44 m
Length datum waterline7'-3?"2.23 m
Beam3'-0"0.91 m
Draft0'-4"0.10 m
Freeboard:Forward1'-2?"0.37 m
Least0'-9"0.23 m
Aft0'-10?"0.27 m
Estimated structural weight60 lbs.27 kg.
Displacement, to DWL125 lbs.57 kg.
Displacement-length ratio141 
Prismatic coefficient.55 
Pounds per inch immersion60 
Entrance half-angle15? 

Note: The displacement numbers are calculated to the arbitrarily chosen DWL.
The calculated ratios of displacement-length and sail area-displacement will vary widely depending on the loading of the vessel.


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