dinghy

[Vince]

What is the best dinghy for an Oday 34, 35 or 37?What is the best way to carry a dinghy on these boats?

 

[Dave]

Best Dinghy

The best dinghy for my O'Day 35 is the one I built myself. It rows magnificently, it sails beautifully with a lugsail rig, it tows behind the boat wonderfully, I leave the centerboard in so it tracks straight without all kinds of yawing. Towing it is the only way to carry it. It is 11 feet long and wood so it would be tough to store on deck.I also have an achilles 10'2" inflatable which is the best fo general purpose use (going to shore, picking up gear, people etc.) but the sailing dinghy provides endless hours of fun sailing in harbors like little narragansett bay, or the great salt pond, or Newport harbor, etc.The dinghy is named little jan and a picture is posted in here somewhere.It is a design from Arch Davis up in Maine, and is called a Sand Dollar.best regardsdave

 

[Peter Brennan]

Davits

We now have an 8 foot hard dinghy which we carry on stern davits on our O'Day 37. Having had our previous inflatable fly through the air and enter the cockpit while towing, I would not do it any other way. Even the hard dinghy would surf down a wave and threaten to ram the mother ship. MOreover, the dinghy on the davits is a good place to stash trash until you can get ruid of it properly. If I did it over, I would only get a sailing dinghy and may yet do that. As for inflatables, a pox on them all. They don't row, they don't tow and they are ugly as hell. Also vulnerable to shell beaches. Sold our much patched one on EBay for $100.