Adjustable Dinghy Hull Beam

Very cool!

 

we discussed doing that in Moths about 40 years ago!

Richard Woods

 

yeah but did anyone actually do it til now?

 

The problem is not changing the beam per se, the problem is the consequences. Given a typical dinghy skin, with convex curves both fore and aft and laterally, if you pull the sides in the rocker reduces, and if you pull them out it increases. You can see it in the video. As conventionally one wants a narrow boat with plenty of rocker for light air, and a wide boat with less rocker for planing conditions, the conclusion I reached back in the day was that I couldn't pull the hull skin about and have both rocker and waterline beam change in the directions I wanted, instead one would tend to cancel out the other. That's why, for me, it never got beyond the thought stage. It would be interesting to know what the design aims were for this one.