BUILDING ‘PUNGA’

Icall my little Spindrift 10 nesting dinghy my first boatbuilding project in anticipation of the time and reasons that will present themselves in the future for building another boat. It was a great learning experience, and this is the story of Punga’s creation.

What’s a Spindrift 10?

To describe a Spindrift 10 for building purposes: it is a stitch and glue plywood dinghy, a single-chine design — i.e. only four panels make up the hull — with a forward flotation chamber in the bow and two aft flotation chambers on each side.

Twin mating bulkheads in the middle are where the boat comes apart for storage ‘nested’, and a removable thwart (seat) goes over the top of them when assembled.

I made the sailing version, meaning all sorts of added complications and extra parts to make: the mast, boom, sail and rig, a rudder and tiller assembly, a centreboard — all removable, separate items; the mast step and mast collar (king plank); and a centreboard trunk that carries the centreboard — all integral to the actual boat.

“This was a good moment to pride myself on the fact I had not made any problematically large mistakes yet”

I also invented something that is partly a seat extension, but mostly a removable plug for the centreboard trunk because I was aware that this hole in the hull might allow water to come into the boat when we were travelling at speed without the centreboard — i.e. motoring.

Is this design right for me?

With paper plans in hand, I still found Punga difficult to imagine in three dimensions, so I mapped it out on the floor of the shed, sat inside it, and imagined taking up the tiller in an effort to convince myself that this style of dinghy would be real and it would be the right