Dinghy plans Le ptit gros (meaning : small and fat)

This dinghy is to be made of plywood and epoxy resin using the stitch&glue method. It will serve the cruiser needs quite well in a package of only 7. If you choose to build it all I ask is to let me know! Features: -High freeboard to give great stability and cargo carrying capacity. -Pronounced rocker (the profile of the bottom) that allow passengers to modify the angle of dinghy relative to the water: by putting your weight backward in choppy condition, the bow will rise and will protect you against most spray so you stay dry while every inflatable users get wet. (Rigid-inflatable are nice, but I would always pick up this plywood dinghy instead of a standard inflatable) -Flat bottom make it plane easily in waves and lack of keel prevent it from flipping sideway, it act like a balloon in waves and will be very stable* * I have towed this dinghy for about 4000 nautical miles and it followed the sailboat perfectly (well, sometime it shifted us by planning to our side!) all that time. Unfortunately, I lost it in the ocean when it flipped due to 30 knot of wind and waves of about 9, that was too much. It will however follow you nicely in protected water with any kind of wind and on the ocean with up to 20 knot of wind. Anyway at 7 long it probably fit on you deck for those long passages! Powering: -I have used a Suzuki 2.5 hp and it push the dinghy at about 4 knot with two people on board, this motor is not enough to make it plane but it is not far from it, 5-6hp should be ideal. -I have not rowed it much but it seemed to perform fine, although you might prefer to add a bit of keel to help it track better if this is to be your main power source. -I have no plans for sailing rig but it should perform quite well using a rig from an Optimist or similar boat.

The plans: The following images and screenshot from Delfship program, if you want to work directly with it you can download the file for this boat HERE and HERE (you need the two files). Please note that I have made this design for my own use and did not plan to publish it so I have cheated a bit in the bulkhead drawing (see instruction at image 3) and the presentation is not top quality. But still, you have all the information required to make it and if you need help with something Ill be glad to help you by email. All measure are in Millimeter and from a corner of the plywood sheet, the corner coordinate of the parts are written as (XX,YY) and the other numbers you see in the first image are the intersection with a grid of 250 millimeter that you should also trace on your plywood sheet. For the first image you should note all your points then make a smooth line that touch them all using a flexible batten. The two last images show parts with flat side so you dont need any smoothing (except the read bench bottom as written on image 3). The patterns will fit in standard 4x8 plywood sheet. The benches top are not shown as it is pretty easy to make once everything else is glued together. Construction: This boat is to be built using stitch&glue method with plywood and epoxy, theres some good books and web pages that explain this building method. I have made mine using plywood covered by 6oz fiberglass inside and 9oz fiberglass outside, this is probably too much and you can go lighter. The transom was made by sandwiching a plywood between two layer of so I had the same wood pattern on the transom, again this is quite heavy and you could go lighter if you use small outboard. The keel is just a length of cheap plastic found in hardware store and is there only to take the damage when beaching the dinghy. For the sheerline I used square length of pine, anything bigger wont curve enough. 1: Most of the hull, except the extremities, you need do cut all these parts twice. 1 to 4 is from top (sheerline) to bottom (junction with bottom panel). To correctly orient the part I have included these letters: T=Top B=Bottom F=Forward R=Rear

2: The extremities, the transom of the boat should be thicker than the rest, I am sorry to have included the front in the same plywood sheet, seem like you will have a bit of extra work to transfer the pattern if you dont want to make it as thick as the transom.

3: Bulkheads, the two big bulkheads goes to full height, you will need to cut them back to sitting height. The sitting height should be the same as the back-seat so cut everything as shown, install them in the boat and mark that height on the bulkheads from the back-seat sides and cut accordingly.

Some photos and videos from this little dinghy in use, please send me yours so I can add them! Video1: Towing in the Chesapeake bay Video2: A rough pass in Georgetown, Bahamas. Please note that there is 105 pound of water canister. This particular time for the video I did not try to rise to bow to protect against spray