Welcome to the Vega group site Dick and Sammy! Hope the repairs to your
Vega are going well and that you will get a chance to do some sailing.
Yes, we did have a nesting dinghy while we were in Florida, in fact, we
still have the same dinghy. We built it in 1985. It is the Danny Greene
designed "Two Bits." We originally saw an ad in the back of Cruising World Magazine
and sent for the plans. I believe you can still get them. Since then he
has come up with some other designs as well.
We put the two halves together while in the water. To hoist the two halves
in and out of the water, we attached a bridle and cranked it up using the
winch on the mast. We stored it forward of the mast. Since this covered up the
forward hatch, we only stored it on deck while sailing offshore. We towed
it the rest of the time.
That dinghy is now 20 years old. We just placed an order for a fiberglass
sailing nesting dinghy called the NN10. It is pricey, but it seems to have
many distinct advantages over our old dinghy, the most important of which is
quick assembly. You can take a look at this design at _www.niccollslite.net_
(
niccollslite.net - niccollslite Resources and Information.) . We will let the group know what we think of it
after we have had a chance to try it. We met a serious offshore sailor in
Maine who recently purchased one and he seems to like it. There are many
types of nesting dinghies available now. You can look at various types by using
a search engine and typing in "nesting dinghies."
If we had a lot of money to throw around, we would also like to have an
inflatable with a roll up floor.
Smooth sailing,
Melanie Halvachs
V1826 "Double Fantasy"
