Dave Gerr's NESTER dinghy design

[pdwiley]

As I'm going to need a dinghy for my Colvin sailboat, and like everyone else I'm limited on space, I took another look at the free (ignoring the cost of the book) plans for NESTER in 'Nature of Boats'.

I can build it, no problems, including the clamps.

Question is, should I?

Do they work well in practice?

Are there any other better/lighter/easier to build nesting designs?

I don't care about the cost of plans, I'm happy to pay for them for a nice functional design.

Essentially I need to carry up to 4 adults and say 70 kg of 'stuff' in a dinghy that can take the inevitable abuse of a tender and stow in no more than 2.1m of space - this is a bit flexible but not a lot.

PDW

 

[BATAAN]

Nester is one of the best two-piece dinghies I have ever seen. Go ahead and build it and you will not be sorry. Dave's experience really shines on this simple design.

 

[pdwiley]

Nester is one of the best two-piece dinghies I have ever seen. Go ahead and build it and you will not be sorry. Dave's experience really shines on this simple design.

Thanks, Bataan. I'll start making the clamps in between painting the hull interior. So far I've applied 25 litres of primer and half of the first top coat. There'll be about 60 litres of paint on the inside by the time I'm finished. I now hate spray painting as much as sand blasting.

Getting NESTER a bit lighter would be good. 4mm ply with a carbon fibre-epoxy skin maybe.

PDW

 

[Northman]

As I'm going to need a dinghy for my Colvin sailboat, and like everyone else I'm limited on space, I took another look at the free (ignoring the cost of the book) plans for NESTER in 'Nature of Boats'.

I can build it, no problems, including the clamps.

Question is, should I?

Do they work well in practice?

Are there any other better/lighter/easier to build nesting designs?

I don't care about the cost of plans, I'm happy to pay for them for a nice functional design.

Essentially I need to carry up to 4 adults and say 70 kg of 'stuff' in a dinghy that can take the inevitable abuse of a tender and stow in no more than 2.1m of space - this is a bit flexible but not a lot.

PDW

Peter,
I thought pretty much along the same lines and finally ended up with these 3 in addition to the Nester:
http://bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=FB11
http://www.bandbyachtdesigns.com/cpaw.htm
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/designs/greene/cham/index.cfm
The Bateau and the Nester have a flat bottom and I wanted a v. I ended up with the last one, but haven't build it yet. Plans are in imperial only and I spend some time translating all to metric. I wanted to build a model first but it appears that the bottom pannels have quite some twist in them. Impossible to build it to a 1:5 scale with 4mm ply.
But the boat should come out nice, people who have build a Chameleon love them.

Walter

 

[pdwiley]

Peter,
I thought pretty much along the same lines and finally ended up with these 3 in addition to the Nester:
http://bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=FB11
http://www.bandbyachtdesigns.com/cpaw.htm
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/designs/greene/cham/index.cfm
The Bateau and the Nester have a flat bottom and I wanted a v. I ended up with the last one, but haven't build it yet. Plans are in imperial only and I spend some time translating all to metric. I wanted to build a model first but it appears that the bottom pannels have quite some twist in them. Impossible to build it to a 1:5 scale with 4mm ply.
But the boat should come out nice, people who have build a Chameleon love them.

Walter

Hi Walter, good to hear from you. Did you end up buying that boat you were looking at?

I've got 8 litres more paint to go on the interior and I'm done with that stage. Not going to paint the exterior until later as it'll just get damaged anyway so in a month or 2 I'll start fitting out the interior (got some travelling & work to do interstate). That will be a nice change from metalwork. My hate list now has on pretty much equal first place sand blasting, grinding and spray painting in confined spaces.

I'll take a look at those dinghy plans. I'm lining up stuff for next summer.

PDW

 

[messabout]

Sixty litres of paint??? Are we talking about the Nester or a megayacht? That's a lot of paint in either case.

 

[pdwiley]

Sixty litres of paint??? Are we talking about the Nester or a megayacht? That's a lot of paint in either case.

12m steel sailboat interior. 3 coats of primer over the weld-through prime coat, 2 coats of enamel.

Yes, it's a lot of paint. You only get 1 chance to do it right....

PDW

 

[Northman]

Hi Peter,
sorry for my late response, I was away for a couple of days.

Did you end up buying that boat you were looking at?

I did. But she is on the hard some 1500 km down the coast. I have 3 beautiful weeks in June to look forward to when I bring her up north.

My hate list now has on pretty much equal first place sand blasting, grinding and spray painting in confined spaces.

And I am not sorry to miss all this. At least until I start putting a pilothouse on the boat.
Let me know which dinghy you eventually decide on. If you go with the Chameleon I can send you the metric measurments if you prefer these.

Walter

 

[Charly]

Thanks, Bataan. I'll start making the clamps in between painting the hull interior. So far I've applied 25 litres of primer and half of the first top coat. There'll be about 60 litres of paint on the inside by the time I'm finished. I now hate spray painting as much as sand blasting.

Getting NESTER a bit lighter would be good. 4mm ply with a carbon fibre-epoxy skin maybe.

PDW

hi pdwiley, are you still around?
Did you ever build Gerr's Nester or similar? I just ordered the book. I am looking for a good dinghy plan for my cat, with lots of payload but want to be able to hoist it up on deck or carry it around in my truck.

 

[pdwiley]

hi pdwiley, are you still around?
Did you ever build Gerr's Nester or similar? I just ordered the book. I am looking for a good dinghy plan for my cat, with lots of payload but want to be able to hoist it up on deck or carry it around in my truck.

About to get back to my boat building after 3 months off over winter here. I haven't built the Nester yet, still tossing up between that one and Danny Green's nesting design. A friend is building a Danny Green design and I'll take a look at his before I make a final decision.

PDW