Got a "mystery photo" for you today...

A few read more »

It's been a long time since I posted anything about my first build, the 8' Origami Dinghy. The boat got a brief trial and then put away in the garage. read more »

It's been a while since I've heard from DB and his nice little Origami Dinghy Barquito. Yesterday I got this nice video showing a Origami sailing away... looks like great fun!

In DB's words:

"It may not be crusing in a nutshell, but it was sailing in one." read more »

A big congrats for the finish of Barquito! This is a nice looking little boat, and the detailed pictures and progress reports on the web are really nice for those of us looking to learn more.

The WoodenWidget folks have put up a gallery of some of the photogenic Origami Dinghy's that have been built. Check it out.

Origami stored inside my 15' micro-sailboat:

Beginning of birthing:

Fully erected on cockpit railings:

All in the safey of my driveway.

Now to test its ability to be a mico-tender for micro-crusing sailboat sailing to a micro-brewery.

We wish asloth well on his cruise! - Bruce

Just a regular little boat factory here... asloth has twins!

He built another and watched the weight closer... got it down 10 pounds less than #1. Even made oars from a split 2x4 and plywood.

Weight is important to somebody going cruising on a "micro" sailboat (15' I believe)... that's hardly bigger than the dinghy :-)

Looks really good!

In the water at last!

It floats!

So it was just a swimming pool... that's all we had available.

I found it to be quite stable... surprisingly so. Its also heavier than I expected. Of course I have added the extra cloth up the sides (its well above waterline, as you can see). Some trim pieces along the edges of the cloth (as recommended in the instructions) would look nice.

There was a little water inside, but as near as I could tell that was from my intrepid testing crews' bathing suits... they were already wet from swimming before we tested the boat. The wet interior is the reason that I am crouched down instead of sitting (I wasn't dressed for this :-))

All-in-all it was a success, and we all had a good time playing with it.

You can see my small "outboard motors" hard at work :-)

We didn't even have a proper paddle around, but Dane used a piece of PVC pipe to surprisingly good effect... I would have thought it didn't have enough surface area, but it did pretty well.

Not the level of fit and finish most of the online examples have shown, but very servicable for us... and the crowd really enjoyed it :-)

The Duckworks Magazine mailing list crowd has come through with another folding dinghy design that might be of interest. You've seen the "Origami Dinghy" (and the sailing version) all over this site. I've also linked to the Micro Folding Dinghy.

Now we have the Flapdoodle Dinghy. Described as "a no-nonsense rigid hardwood and ply 8 foot folding classic dinghy." Its designed as a sail boat with a centerboard/daggerboard and flip-up rudder. The web site also states:

Designed after 6 years of research and testing to be as simple, rugged, and painless as possible. I will not claim this is an easy boat to build, but I made sure it could be built totally by one person with no assistance at any point. Every step will most likely be fun if you like to build things.

This is a "hard shell" folding dinghy that relies on metal hinges with PVC cloth (protected in a "groove") for a waterproof folding mechanism. Looks like the design would be pretty versatile and tough, although might be a bit of a pain to build. Plans are quite reasonable. A Yahoo Groups mailing list is available for group support.

Well, its pretty much together... cloth has a few "rough" spots where its hard to get things around the curve. Note that this would NOT have been a problem if I wasn't doing things different than designed :-)

Yes, I know its nowhere near as nice looking as some others (Origami 6' - California Style, for example), but we had fun, learned some, and have something that will work for what we need.

We don't have the keel "guard" or strip on, and we'll see what we do about the "trimmy pieces" along the edges of the fabric, but it should definitely float now. No slick rope edging on the cloth, and I have some trimming to do at the stern (some of that you see is loose and needs trimmed down.

Its kind of a handful to pick up... an 8' boat is bigger than I thought, really :-)