This page is about our "minimal wood" nesting pram dinghy,
available with glassfibre or carbon fibre hull.
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When we were approached to build a nesting pram dinghy suitable for cleaning up pollution in rivers and lakes, we developed this all-glassfibre version with rubber fendering on the gunwhales. It also had a thicker laminate than standard, the keel filled in, and non-slip moulded into the floor areas. Removable wheels (see below) were fitted to the transom, to facilitate transport across fields etc. |
In this case no outboard pad was required - remember this boat is going
to be used to clean up potentially flammable spillages! - but one could easily
have been fitted between the wheels. Stainless steel handles at the bow
and stern were fitted to make handling the boat easier, as pollution incidents
do not always occur at convenient launching points...
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Once launched the wheels can be swung upwards out of the way, or removed altogether when not required. These wheels are available for any of our boats - note that they are 6" inflatable tyres, not the 2" trolley castors that some other boat builders seem to think will work on sand, gravel or mud! |
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This picture shows another "minimal wood" Pram Dinghy, this time with a lightweight carbon fibre hull, being dismantled on the deck of a Bavaria 36. These customers chose to have a daggerboard case installed from new, so that they can add a rig later if they want to. Whilst not as pretty as our boats with wooden trim to the gunwhales/thwarts, the resulting boat retains the efficient hull of our pram dinghy, with a very practical and low maintenance finish. If you want a "knockabout tender" that stows easily on deck, this is a good choice. |
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The wheels, stainless steel handles, glassfibre seats etc shown here can all
be specified on our other boats; and options such as the sailing rig and bilge
handles can be added to the minimal wood version to increase its versatility.
The fendering can be black or white.
The weight of the glassfibre minimal wood version is approx 50kg, slightly
more than the glassfibre hull with wood trim, as the gunwhales need to have
extra reinforcing in them (the wood trim when fitted is structural) and the
rubber fendering itself adds 4kg.
The weight of the carbon fibre minimal wood version is approx 32kg, slightly
less than the same thing with wood trim, as the carbon hull is inherently
stiff enough at the gunwhales that it does not need much extra material.