Notably irregular news update (some might call it a blog)
27 November 2009
Another long interval since our last update, although followers of the site will know that we have added information and pictures to a lot of the pages during the interim.
Our latest news is that we will be attending the London Boat Show, 8-18 January.
And even later latest news is that at London we be launching a new boat altogether... for us. When we heard that the Canadian company NestingLite wanted to license out their NN10 design - so far as we know the only other production nesting dinghy in the world - we decided it was too good an opportunity to miss. We don't have anything of our own in the 10ft range, and the NN10 has more of a performance-oriented rig than our other boats (the trade-off being it takes a little longer to set up than our unstayed, boomless, single sail rigs), so we think is really more complementary than competition. More on the NN10 here: New NN10 dinghy
Alongside the NN10 will be lightweight versions of our two-part nesting Pram Dinghy; and our three part Trio multi-purpose-boat. This follows a customer request for a Pram to stow on the deck of a Rossiter Curlew, but to match, or near-as-possible, the weight of the owner's current Tinker Tramp. To make life more difficult we were initially quoted 26kg as the Tinker's hull weight, although we have since found out (by physically weighing it!) it's more like 34kg. The target remains at or near 30kg, a saving of about one third, which will certainly be noticeable when hauling the dinghy on/off a yacht's deck. And since we've had to adopt more advanced moulding techniques and materials - involving Carbon Fibre, Kevlar and Epoxy - to achieve that, we thought we might just as well give the Trio a go at the same time.
We also did the Southampton Boat Show in September, with two each of the Pram Dinghy and Trio. Being able to show them both nested and assembled at the same time did much of the talking for us, and this year we converted a fair number of the "interested or intrigued" into actual customers. Those orders mean we are flat out into the early part of next year, so if you're reading this and considering a Nestaway for next season, please contact us soon.
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16 August 2009
Where does all the time go?! Since our last entry (in March, sorry) we have taken moulds off the new 14ft "Car Boot Canoe" (but see note below re name), tooled up the buoyancy tanks, conducted trials of the first glassfibre hull, and shown her at the Beale Park Boat Show - where there was a great deal of interest in the concept of a family boat that is easy to transport and store. And also since March we've re-named her the "Trio multi-purpose-boat", because nobody thought she looked much like a canoe...
We thought Trio had a nice ring to it, and there are a lot of threes involved: she splits into three nesting parts; she can be rowed, sailed or motored; and she is designed to take three adults.
Ben Meakins, a journalist from Practical Boat Owner magazine, took up our invitation to try out the Trio, and said many good things about her in his review featured in the August 2009 edition. Much to our delight, the article led to a flurry of enquiries and orders - both for the Trio and the Pram dinghy.
Having built and trialled the first glassfibre hull we decided that the Trio requires a slightly different construction to our other boats. Her middle section is not far off flat-bottomed and the sides are only slightly curved, so there is not a lot of shape there to give the glassfibre stiffness. You could simply use lots of glassfibre, but then she would weigh lots more - not ideal in a boat that is designed for easy transport and storage. Instead, production boats will have a foam-cored bottom panel. By separating the glassfibre "skins", the stiffness is increased massively (proportional to the cube of the combined thickness) with almost no increase in weight. It also makes that section of the hull inherently more buoyant, even before the buoyancy tanks are added.
Finally, we are proud to announce that we have become "World Exporters", with Pram Dinghy sales to Holland and Lebanon in the last few weeks. Our Dutch customers are picking up their boat in person, and we built a plywood shipping crate for the boat going to Lebanon.
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25 March 2009
Having sheathed the inside of the Car Boot Canoe prototype, and stuck some temporary knees in the corners to reinforce the joining bulkheads, we decided it was time to try her out. Despite a rough finish on the outside (we still have lots of sanding to do) and a 3.5hp engine that has not been fully run-in, SHE FLIES! 12 knots with one person, 10 knots with two on board.
Lots of fun. She also rows beautifully - this is an exceptionally easily-driven hull. And of course like all Nestaway Boats, she splits into sections for easy stowage.
More pictures can be seen on our dedicated Car Boot Canoe page (now re-named Trio multi-purpose-boat: nobody thought she looked like a canoe!).
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22 March 2009
The cedar strip hull of the plug for our forthcoming Car Boot Canoe is now complete, with bulkheads installed - we chopped it in three a few days ago. And much to our relief the sections do nest inside each other! In nested form it fits in the back of Ford Focus estate, with an inch or so to spare (not cheating, the driver's seat was as far back as it could go). Photos to be added shortly.
Meanwhile we also have the first of the glassfibre pram dinghy hulls in our workshop, which we will fit out for testing in the next week or so.
27 January 2009
We've finally finished the plug for the grp (glassfibre) version of our pram dinghy. In this case the "plug" is simply the best boat we can possibly build, followed by a lot of sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling and then some paint. Of course as soon as you paint it all one colour you spot the flaws, and, you've guessed it, that means some more sanding/filling!
From this much-sanded-and-filled hull we will now take a mould. Or rather the company that's doing it for us will take a mould, as we've decided to sub-contract the mouldings to someone that specialises in high quality grp work. They will also build the revised interior - to our new design - as the aft buoyancy tanks are going to be shaped to fit the curves of the bow section. That's easy in grp, nearly impossible in wood...
Here are some sketches of the internal layout that is being made:
We are aiming for a total weight (ie both sections) of about 35kg or 77-lb, which is ambitious but not impossible.
So the grp pram is well on its way, what's next?!
Well, we've had the plans drawn and are part way through the construction of the prototype for our new CAR BOOT CANOE. This is a 14.5ft, transom-sterned canoe that splits into three, such that you can fit it in the back of a large estate car. This necessitated a fairly narrow beam (3ft 6"), so to get the capacity we wanted (3-4 adults) we've gone up in length. It is designed for paddling (Canadian canoe style), rowing, outboard power (it should plane fairly easily) or sailing rig.
The stern section detaches, rotates 180 degrees and fits in the middle, the bow section detaches and fits in the stern section. You'll end up with a package that's 5ft 4" long and 3ft 6" wide. It's a proper family-sized boat, that doesn't need a trailer or even roofrack, and won't take up your whole garage back home. It will also fit down the hatchway of some yachts, so you could store one down below, on a bunk.
Here are some very early drawings of the outline shape:
There will be photos on here soon!
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12 November 2008
With apologies, we've been rather busy the last few weeks and not found any spare time for blogging. We're mostly working on the mould for a grp version of our nesting pram dinghy, and also the specification for our next major project: a three-section motorised canoe that will fit in the back of a medium-size estate car.
A week or so after the boat show we went along to Southampton with a nesting dinghy (actually two nesting dinghies) to participate in YACHTING MONTHLY's test of ten different tenders. The easy-stowage options included:
- Nestaway nesting pram dinghy
- Nestaway nesting stem dinghy
- K2 Kontender folding pram dinghy
- Tinker Tramp sailing inflatable
- Two-person folding kayak
There were also several conventional hard dinghies, including a Portland Pudgy, a Walker Bay 8 RID, and a Microboat.
You can read the report yourself, in the December 2008 issue of Yachting Monthly (should be out any time around now), but as we were there ourselves we couldn't help but make a few observations:
- the Nestaways were much quicker to deploy than any of the other easy-stowage boats. The Kontender must have taken half an hour (there were a lot of bits!) and the Tinker was at least 20 minutes (including the rig). In contrast our pram was ready to sail, on the water, in six minutes.
- the Tinker, widely recognised as one of the best inflatables for rowing, was still noticeably more difficult to row than any of the hard dinghies. The tubes flexed.
- the Nestaway pram was the fastest under power (just under 5knots). The standard test was two people with a Honda 2.3hp four stroke outboard, which indicates an easily-driven hull (it wasn't much slower at half throttle). Others would be faster with more power (our hull is very unlikely to plane), but then you would need a heavier, more expensive, thirstier engine.
- sailing rigs without standing rigging are much quicker to assemble, so we think you're more likely to use them.
- the plastic boats were noticeably heavier than the wood or glassfibre ones. We think this is because the material is not particularly stiff, so they have to use more of it.
Anyway, if you are in the market for a new tender, and are even considering it not being an inflatable, the December 2008 issue of Yachting Monthly is well worth reading (report starts page 26). At many newsagents now, or you can buy an electronic copy at http://www.zinio.com/offer?issn=Yach-1111&of=PH01&ns=ipcmarine
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21 September 2008
Last day of the Southampton Boat Show! There's been loads of interest in both of our sectional nesting boats, but most of all in the brand new Nestaway stem dinghy - so it was definitely worth building.
Apart from the obvious storage space solution on board the deck of a yacht, a lot of people seem to think it'd be a good way to settle arguments between husband and wife - just undo the bolts... A market we hadn't really thought much about was to put a nesting dinghy in the back of a camper/caravan, many of the sites they go to are by the water. And of course they find inflatables a pain to inflate/deflate, that they are rubbish to row (so they have to find somewhere to put an outboard too) etc etc, and that you can't fit a sailing rig. The stem-bow nesting dinghy, which fits in a 4ft (1.2m) square, would be perfect for these guys.
And yet another application we hadn't really thought of, is that both varieties of Nestaway can be stood on end. This means that on many modern sailing or motor yachts, they could be stored right out of the way, on the bathing platform at the stern.
We had lots of friendly faces visit and/or help out with the stand, thanks to my parents, Andrea's Dad and stepmum, various people we met on holiday and the students/lecturers from the Boat Building Academy.
It was very tiring but great fun, we learnt a lot about the market for nesting boats, and sold a few. Not enough to make a living from, but this was our first major show and most people came to Southampton not even knowing that purchasing a sectional hard dinghy was a possibility, let alone intending to.
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04 September 2008
The new Nestaway stem dinghy prototype is nearly finished, apart from paint and varnish. We've gone to town a bit, with teak decks on the buoyancy tanks and lots of nice solid mahogany trim - but will offer a budget version if customers request it. We've not built in a daggerboard case, but could at a later date, or fit her with a leeboard (the aft end of the bow buoyancy tank has a mast partner built in so it will be easy to adapt).
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27 August 2008
In a change of plan we've put aside the new cold-moulded sectional pram hull for a while (there's a lot of sanding to be done!) in favour of concentrating on our new design, an 8ft stem dinghy with a glassfibre hull and wood fitout. We'll launch it at Southampton Boat Show - in about two weeks! - so that we can exhibit two versions, at very different prices (the new one has a lot less labour in it).
The Nestaway stem dinghy will be sectional of course, with the bow fitting inside the stern for easy stowage, and only needs a space measuring 48x42" (approx 1.2x1m) on your deck, in your garage etc. Lots of work to do to get this one ready in time, but it's looking very pretty already.
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Back from holiday sailing a charter boat on flotilla in the Ionian Islands. It was a useful reminder of how much hassle it is to inflate/deflate a rubber dinghy and get the floorboards in, and how rubbish they are for rowing... if only we'd had a Nestaway with us!
There was lots of interest in Nestaway Boats from our fellow flotilla guests - hello if you're reading this, and we look forward to seeing you inspect our unique range of sectional nesting dinghies at the Southampton Boat Show (Stand B510A).
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We've epoxy sheathed, filled and faired the hull - with epoxy-mixing help courtesy of a handy teacher-on-holiday, Andrea. Talking of holidays, we're off on holiday on Sunday!
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04 August 2008
Both layers of the hull are now complete. The delightful task of pulling out all the temporary staples - which hold it in shape on the mould while the glue goes off - looms, followed by a lot of sanding. A lot of sanding. But from then on it all becomes much more pleasant, things start to come together pretty quickly.
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23 July 2008
We have lights in the workshop, so are no longer restricted to daylight working.
We have laminated the hog, which is equivalent to a backbone, from three layers of 5mm thick sapele mahogany, and are now using temporary staples to fix the first layer of khaya mahogany veneers onto the mould. The veneer is 3mm thick and we start with strips about 60mm wide; each strip is then tapered at both ends to fit snugly to its neighbours. The fit between strips on the first layer is particularly important because if you are going to have your hull bright-finished (varnished) internally, you'll see all the joints... it also makes a stronger boat.
Changing subject slightly, people are obviously finding their way to this site, because our statistics show an increasing number of visits each day. If you are one of them, email us, we'd love to hear your thoughts.
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18 July 2008
The workshop is coming on nicely, although already it doesn't look big enough... good thing we are only building small boats. We've bought a whole van load of machinery - the thicknesser/planer was so heavy we had to take it apart to get it out! - and wood for the next hull, so that will start on the mould next week.
We're delighted to see two bits of publicity in this month's Classic Boat (August cover date): a review of boats that caught their eye at Beale Park; and a piece on the Boat Building Academy, where we designed and built the Nestaway production prototype.
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15 July 2008
The first day of our blog! We're frantically preparing for Southampton Boat Show: we will need two 'demonstrators' for display. At the Beale Park Show a few weeks ago we found that many people who were not familiar with the nesting/sectional/takeapart dinghy concept walked straight past the boat when it was assembled, thinking nothing of it, and couldn't work out what it was in nested format. And it will be impossible to talk to everyone at Southampton, so we want to be able to show one nested and one assembled all the time.
The prototype rig, consisting of a mast, sprit, leeboard and rudder all need to be ready by 12 September too... the round, tapered spars will be shaped up (by hand) from spruce, whilst the rudder and leeboard are still on the drawing board. Watch this space!