New wood and paint.

I went to Goose bay lumber over the weekend and got a nice piece of mahogany. It is from Figi and much cheaper than Honduran. I have more than I need but; you can never have too much mahogany.

Jack decided to help so I made him wear my safety glasses I used when I went to Worcester Industrial Technical Institute. He does not mind wearing them which makes me feel better when I am using power tools with Jack watching. Most of the time things are too loud for him anyway. We took the dagger board trunk apart and I started to lay out the new pieces. We took some of the hardware off the old seats and the flotation off the rear seat. I plan to reuse the two seats I have and make the front seat.

I ordered the paint and primer the other day. I got it from Defender in CT. I love Defender it is a family owned marine store and they are great to deal with. My order came to the office today which is great one day by UPS ground. www.defender.com

I have managed to get started on some of the "big boat projects" as well. It feels good to be making progress.

I am considering ordering the paint and primer however; in old salt talk "it is cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey" and the stuff can only be shipped ground. Extra credit to anyone who can tell me what the quote means.

I finally got started working on The restoration this weekend. I got out the random orbital sander and a big box of 80 grit and set to sanding and sanding and sanding. The boat had been painted and shows signs of previous repairs. In the pictures you will see one side of the bottom is sanded and some photos of the previous repair work. There are a few places that need to be filled with thickened epoxy prior to priming. There is one place where I think I will grind out and repair on the chine. Because of the hard chine I may put in a fillet and glass tape to reinforce the chine.

My plan for this boat is to use it as a tender for the big boat and eventually get or build a sailing rig to teach my son how to sail and have some fun while on the hook. We will paint it red at Jack's (my son) request. At three and a half everything should be red. I will use Interlux Perfection two part polyurethane.

I need to make a trip up to Goose Bay Lumber in Chichester NH. They have a great selection of exotic wood, marine plywood, burls, and pen blanks. I will need some wood to fabricate a seat, skeg and dagger board trunk.

I have always loved the look of the Dyer Dingy however; they are hard to come by and generally out of my price range.

Having said that I have a small fleet of boats. I am always looking at boats, it doesn't hurt to look right? I was on Craig's list and what should appear but a dingy that looked curiously like a Dyer. I shot off an E-mail and did not here anything for hours. I was bummed. Then the phone rang and the guy on the other line said I was the first to get get in touch with him. I told him I would be there in twenty minutes.

When I got there it was a home run a Dyer dingy taken apart for restoration. It is mostly there missing the gunwale, a seat and some other bits and pieces. The best part is the guy only wanted $75.00 for it, I didn't have the heart to haggle with him. I handed him the money and he helped me load it in the good old van.

The other cool thing is that Dyer is still in business and sells parts. The boats design has not changes since the 1950's. I got in touch with Dyer with the serial number of my boat. I was very impressed when I got the following response.

Good Morning Mr. Baker: Your dinghy has an interesting history. Our records show hull #2811 as being a 7'11" DYER Dhow Midget but the rest of your number the SL signifies a 7'9" DYER Dhow Midget sailing model Low Sheer version of the boat. SH after the number would signify Sailing High Sheer - the 7'11". The boat was damaged in a huge fire we had here in 1963 and it's possible that the damage was on the top edge of the boat so we simply cut it down to make a 7'9". It shipped from here on 10/19/1963 which was about a month after the fire. There is a better measurement to take to determine the size - measure from the top edge of the transom down to the bottom of the hull - do not include the skeg. If it is a 7'9" the measurement will be about 13-1/2"; if it is a 7'11" the measurement will be about 15-1/2".

If you could supply a mailing address we would be happy to send you a brochure showing the dinghy. We still build them so all parts are available. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call us at 401-245-3300.

Sincerely,

Anna Jones