A marriage made in wood

In the days before inflatable dinghies it was common to have a hard dinghy, to be left on the mooring or hoisted onto the foredeck of your yacht, or atop the main deck forward of the cockpit.

Instantly launchable, it would be hard-wearing, characterful and unlikely to let you down. There were many designs. A particularly attractive one was the 7ft 9in Humble Bee, which could be built in marine ply planking for lightness and stiffness and indeed can still be built using available plans.

While living in Canada I founded a boatbuilding academy as my night job, where we used plans for various small boats sourced within Canada and the USA. Another small boat which caught my eye was the Eastport Pram. This 7ft 9in dinghy had pretty yet practical lines as a rowing yacht tender, and could also be sailed with a standing lug rig or motored with an electric or petrol outboard up to 2hp. Such a design could be brought to a conventional sharp bow. However, this would