Dinghy cruising: the perfect cruising dinghy?

The DCA forum has been spending quite a bit of time discussing ‘performance’ in a cruising dinghy.  What are the ultimate criteria for choosing a good cruising dinghy? This wasn’t a conversation about safety and how to ensure it in a dinghy – more about cruising performance and associated issues.

Not in any particular order, but forum members quoted the following:

·         Comfortable boat to reduce tiredness and improve decision making of skipper

·         Reduce dousing by dollops of water over the bow

·         Reasonable windward ability but not super critical

·         Ditto for speed

·         Habitability under way and at anchor

·         Ability to adapt to different sea and wind states

·         Reasonable manoeuvrability on land and sea

·         A dodger to reduce wind exposure

·         Minimising the times you need to go out onto the foredeck – so all sail controls leading aft; roller reefing and furling of jib

·         Perhaps having some rope system that allows anchoring and its retrieval from midway down the cockpit

·         Appropriate inventory for the cruising grounds and conditions covered

·         Easy availability of spares

·         Easy to repair

·         Easy towing

·         Ease of launching and retrieval of boat

·         Good ability of boat to run ashore to escape worsening conditions

·         Does purchase price/cost factor into this list?

·         Insurance costs – a known type/class of dinghy may well incur cheaper insurance quotes

·         The cost of fuel for the towing vehicle

·         Adequate floatation

I thought it was a very interesting conversation thread and as always reflected the deep knowledge and experience of DCA members. If you are a dinghy sailor thinking of dinghy cruising joining the Dinghy Cruising Association would, in my humble opinion, be a worthwhile move.  Intelligent, thought provoking debate about sailing and dinghies.

As a ‘secret lurker’ on the forum I have learned loads.

As for Arwen. Well she seems to do well on the small craft safety test; she passed the RNLI free safety inspection. I’m guessing that her performance is merely limited by the inexperience of her skipper!!

Steve