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