9' Chapelle Sail & Oar Dinghy (2023) - MYSTERY RANCH

This is the second time I have built a boat based on Howard Chapelle’s design for a 10 foot dinghy in his book “Boatbuilding”. This time I tried to shorten it by a foot to use as a tender but messed up the keel-stem joint, raking the stem a bit. The boat came out 9’6″ overall. I cold-molded the boat with 2 layers of 1/8″ by 3″ cedar strips over light stringers (5/8 square and 1/2 inch square on the bottom). I was inspired by the Ashcroft method recommended in the book, but I ran the strips at opposite diagonals for strength and stability as I was glueing the two layers together with Titebond III. The bare hull came in at 60 lbs. I tried to put as little into it as I could to keep it light for cartopping. It has two thwarts and a maststep and not much else. It is wonderfully buoyant and I can row through any kind of chop with indifference. I put a 60 square foot windsurfer rig on it. Works well but the boat gets quite tippy when the wind gets over 10 knots. Proof of concept. Now I need to build the same boat again, but longer.