Classic Boat — January 2018

CLASSIC BOAT JANUARY 2018 77

/M\QVOIÆWI\

See boats for sale at classicboat.co.uk/type/buy-a-boat

NIGEL SHARP

C/O CLC

TENDERLY

Build your own dinghy

If you have ever toyed with the idea of building your own boat,

winter and spring is a good time for it. There are countless models

out there to build, from Selway Fisher, Chesapeake Light Craft, Paul

Gartside, Vivier and 100 others, but it’s important to know, if you

are a first-timer, that the designer has beginners in mind – and a

good track record. The new Tenderly dinghy from Jon C Harris of

Chesapeake Light Craft ticks both those boxes. The boat is built

upright on simple saw horses, so no strongback is required. The

build method is stitch-and-glue (think Mirror) clinker, and build

time is estimated to be 100 hours, as proven by CLC’s time-lapse

video on YouTube, showing seven boats built in a week by a team.

Once built, this is a classic-looking British ‘stem’ dinghy (so you

don’t get the volume that you do in the company’s pram-fronted

efforts, but the appearance is improved) of 10ft (3.1m) with a hull

weight of 130lb (59kg) and a very decent claimed payload of 425lb

(193kg), with enough space for two adults and a child. She’s a

daggerboarder with an optional sailing kit (single lugsail on a

mast), or can be rowed or easily propelled by a 2hp (or electric)

outboard. The boat is available as a kit or plans and manual, but the

first thing to do with all kits is to buy the study plan and start there.

HUFF OF ARKLOW

Ocean-racing legend

The Uffa Fox-designed Huff of Arklow, named after her builder (Tyrells of Arklow), was launched in 1951 for RAF pilot

Douglas Heard. Her bizarre appearance masked a new sort of racing yacht, and she was the first to feature a fin-and-skeg

hull profile combined with a planing hull and masthead bermudan sloop rig. Sound familiar? These are the essentials of

the standard racing yacht today, but Huff was the first. She was recorded at over 23 knots in the 1960 Azores Race, to

prove her designer’s hunch. As noted in CB, she has recently benefited from a lengthy restoration at the Mashfords yard

in Cornwall, from 2009-2015. This included a complete refastening, with 8,000 copper nails and roves to complete the

job, and a new engine. Below decks, she features a five-berth interior. She comes with a restored, original Uffa dinghy.

She’s as unusual-looking and fast today as she ever was, one of the most pivotal sailing craft ever built.

Asking £75,000, lying Cornwall, tel: +44 (0)1905 356482, classicyachtbrokerage.co.uk

Available in Britain from fyneboatkits.co.uk or from

chesapeakelightcraft.com in the USA. Price for the British kit is

£1,672 (incl VAT), with the sailing kit a further £1,180. Plans and

manual are £125 and the study plan is £1.