D4 Dink?

[David]

There is a site www.bateau.com which features a set of plans for a small dingy which can be downloaded for free. The plans claim that the boat can be built without powertools (although recommended) and for about $200. It can handle a 3hp outboard, be rowed, or a sail kit can be made for it. Has anyone ever built this or seen one built. the site claims the plans have been downloaded some crazy number of times *(200k I think). It is pretty small at 8', but, for a Cat 30, it would fit nicely on the foredeck. Love to hear any and all comments

 

[Terry arnold]

D4 dinghy

I built a D4 dinghy for my H 33 using the free plan and found the dimensioning very accurate. Using the offsets from the free plan requires a spline and careful fairing of the lines between offset points. The purchased plans I believe would have full patterns for the pieces, making layout somewhat simpler. The d4 dinghy is built using the "stitch and glue" technique, explained by the bateau.com site. It's a wonderful strong dinghy with good lines and will carry three adult men, (if properly stowed and sober) rows and tows well, and is light enough ( about 70 pounds) for one man to carry. Can be hoisted aboard with the halyard. I will post some photos of my boat in the photo forum of the Hunter web site http://www.hunterowners.com/. tgarnold1@msn.com

 

[Craig Coffman]

Terry's D4

Terry, Good looking dinghy. I'm curious about the luan ply you used.. you say you used it for the planking? How has it held up?I built a very similar dink years ago, but used std fir cdx type stuff. Later sold it. Understand it's still in use as a duck-hunting boat.I had to use some luan on the forward deck of my current boatbuilding project & had & still have some worries about it. (I of course saturated it with WEST epoxy.--Craig Coffman

 

[Terry arnold]

D4 material

Craig, when I got onto the D4 site, I had never heard of stitch and glue and the guy made a big deal of emphasizing the importance of epoxy resin, saying that you could get a good boat with epoxy resin and cheap wood but good wood without proper protection was a losing proposition. anyway, I just took his argument the whole way and used about the cheapest materials I could find. Certainly the safest bet particularly since there is so much labor would be to use marine grade materials throughout. Still, I have had no trouble with the materials so far and the boat is very stiff.

 

[David]

Thanks! Think it could be rigged with a lateen?

I've got a 35 sf lateen sail. Think it would work?Thanks