Mermaid (dinghy)

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Mermaid
Brochure p4.jpg
Hancock & family sailing a Mark III Mermaid
Boat
Crew2–3
Hull
Hull weight115 lb (52 kg)
LOA 11 ft (3.4 m)
Beam 4 ft 7 in (1.40 m)
Sails
Upwind sail area70 sq ft (6.5 m2)
Racing
D-PN 127 (MK I)

The Do-it-yourselfMermaid is an 11 foot (3.4m) plywood sailing dinghy designed by Roger Hancock in 1962. Usually built at home, it is suitable for a crew of two or three. It can be sailed, rowed or motored and can be trailed or car-topped. The boat is gunter rigged, with one size of jib. A spinnaker is used for racing.

Plywood manufactured wood panel made from thin sheets of wood veneer

Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which includes medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board (chipboard).

Dinghy type of small boat

A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed for use as a lifeboat or tender by a larger vessel. The term is a loanword from the Bengali ḍiṅgi, Urdu ḍīngī & Hindi ḍieṁgī. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor, but while some are rigged for sailing, they are not to be confused with sailing dinghies which are designed first and foremost for this purpose.

Gunter wire utilized in sailing

In sailing, a gunter is used for two main configurations of rig:

Contents

Design

The DIY Mermaid broke away from the post-war tradition of building the hulls of plywood dinghies upside-down on frames fixed to the floor of a shed or garage, for the duration of the hull-construction process. The innovation consisted of building the stem to stern seating surfaces of the boat flat on the floor [1] in such rooms as the kitchen, the spare bedroom or the garage during the minimum amount of time needed for the glue to set, for example, overnight. This allowed people living in quite small houses to build a boat at home for the first time.

The spine of the boat is an extended centreboard case running from stem to stern, which gives enormous strength to the hull structure. The gunter rig design allows the spars to be easily stored inside the boat and kept under a flat cover when not in use.

History

The DIY Mermaid was designed as an entry for the sailboat-building competition, organised by Stanley Tools in 1961, and the first DIY Mermaid was built by the designer on the living room floor. The Do-it-yourself magazine [2] started serialising the construction drawings and instructions in June 1963, whereby the DIY Mermaid could be built over several months, free of royalties and the cost of plans. For more rapid building, full sets of drawings and instructions were available. All the sails were supplied initially by Rockall and later by Arun. In 1966, Do-it-yourself magazine described the DIY Mermaid as "probably the only small general purpose dinghy designed specifically to be built by the amateur without the need or expense of a factory-produced kit of wooden parts". [3]

As the Do-it-yourself magazine was widely distributed throughout the English-speaking world (the former British Empire or Colonies), a number of DIY Mermaids were probably built in many different countries and fitted out with locally produced sails and fittings.

Competition for choice of which small boat to build became very intense during this period of dinghy development. Consequently, in order to respond to new public demand and the new construction techniques, a stitch-and-glue version, very much lighter in weight, with a V-bottom hull, was produced as the DIY Mermaid MK II. Subsequently, a MK III version was also developed which had no rear tank, but with extended side tanks to the transom and a shortened centreboard case.

Transom (nautical) surface that forms the stern of a vessel

A transom is that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet. A transom may be wide or narrow, curved or angled, raked forward, aft, or plumb.

Altogether, some 1000 DIY Mermaids were built between 1962 and 1975. A Mermaid Class Association [4] was established in 1963 and regional representatives were appointed with the aim of stimulating competition and further interest in the dinghy. Although the original design became an RYA recognised Class in 1965, with a Portsmouth Yardstick number for racing, insufficient numbers and the widespread geographical ownership resulted in Class racing gradually diminishing over the years. Another significant factor at that time was the emergence of a similar sized wooden dinghy, originally sponsored by the Daily Mirror. The evolution of these innovative class designs was the subject of a paper produced in 2005/6 for Industry and Innovation. [5]

One enduring success from the creation of the DIY Mermaid was the Maidenhead Sailing Club, which was originally formed from a fleet of DIY Mermaid dinghies and to this day, the club emblem is still that of a Mermaid.

Thanks to its extremely robust design, many examples of the DIY Mermaid Mk I and Mk II remain in active service today, or have an extended life due to loving restoration.

Restored MK I, sail number 137 Mermaid 3.JPG
Restored MK I, sail number 137

Registry

Work is in progress to re-create a register of existing Mermaids.

Related Research Articles

Dinghy sailing

Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls:

The Mirror is a popular sailing dinghy with more than 70,000 built.

Dinghy racing competitive sport of sailing dinghies

Dinghy racing is a competitive sport using dinghies, which are small boats which may be rowboats, have an outboard motor, or be sailing dinghies. Dinghy racing has affected aspects of the modern sailing dinghy, including hull design, sail materials and sailplan, and techniques such as planing and trapezing.

Wayfarer (dinghy)

The Wayfarer is a wooden or fibreglass hulled fractional Bermuda rigged sailing dinghy of great versatility; used for short 'day boat' trips, longer cruises and for racing. Over 11,000 have been produced as of 2016.

Optimist (dinghy) ship type

The Optimist, also known as the ‘opti’, 'oppie' or 'bathtub', is a small, single-handed sailing dinghy intended for use by children up to the age of 15. Contemporary boats are usually made of fibreglass, although wooden boats are still built.

OK (dinghy) class of sailing ship

The OK Dinghy is an international class sailing dinghy, designed by Knud Olsen in 1956.

Manly Junior junior racing dinghy class

The Manly Junior is a junior racing dinghy class popular in Sydney Australia. It was designed in 1959 for younger sailors and the length was originally designed so that the boat could be stored vertically downstairs inside Manly Yacht Club. To provide as much performance as possible in a short length, the designer, Ralph Tobias used a "snub" bow.

18ft Skiff

The 18 ft Skiff is considered the fastest class of sailing skiffs. The class has a long history beginning with races on Sydney Harbour, Australia in 1892 and later in New Zealand. The boat has changed significantly since the early days, bringing in new technology as it became available. Because of the need of strength, agility and skill, the class is considered to be the top level of small boat sailing. In Australia this boat is called the "Aussie 18" due to its inherent connections to Australia. It is the fastest conventional non-foiling monohull on the yardstick rating, with a score of 675, coming only third after the Tornado and Inter 20.

The International 14 is a 14-foot double-handed racing dinghy. The class originated in England in the early part of the 20th century. It is sailed and raced in many countries around the world and was one of the very first true international racing dinghy classes recognised by International Sailing Federation. It is a Development Class being controlled by a set of rules that allow for innovation and changes in hull and rig design as long as they fall within a set of specific limitations such as length, weight, beam, and sail area. The class has permitted its rules to be revised at various times in its history in order to keep the class at the forefront of dinghy racing development and can now best be described as an ultralight dual-trapeze sailing dinghy with large sail area. It is often raced with boats of similar design in one-design, or non-handicap races.

Otter (dinghy)

Otter is a classification referring to a particular design for a two-man sailing dinghy with a glass fibre hull. Its rig consists of a main, a jib and an optional symmetric spinnaker. The hull dimensions are 11 ft 11 in length and 4 ft 10 in beam. The boat has a draft of 3 ft 6 in with the centreboard down. The sail area is 75 sq. ft. The class symbol is a stylised glass bubble; due to the original lightweight "cigar box cedar" construction of the prototypes, the name 'Bubble' was first used for the boat. John Baker obtained the plans for an expanded version of the boat in G.R.P. and hence renamed the boat 'Glass Bubble'. After being put into production by Baker, the name 'Otter' was adopted; coming from the river of the same name in East Devon, close to where the boat was manufactured.

Cherub (dinghy)

The Cherub is a 12 feet long, high performance, two-person, Planing dinghy first designed in 1951 in New Zealand by John Spencer. The class is a development class, allowing for significant variation in design between different boats within the rule framework. The minimum hull weight was originally 110 lbs.

The P-Class is a type of small single sail dinghy, popular as a training boat for young people in New Zealand. This class is famous for being the sailing trainer vessel for many new entrants into the sport, and virtually every famous New Zealand yachtsman, including Sir Peter Blake and Russell Coutts, learnt to sail in one. The P-Class was for many years the most common sailing boat in New Zealand.

Coypu (dinghy)

The Coypu is a class of small sailing dinghy. It is a highly stable boat, suitable for beginners, and is normally sailed by two people, although three can be accommodated comfortably.

Adventuress (dinghy)

The Adventuress sailing dinghy class was designed by Ian Proctor and built by Anglo Marine of Essex. It is no longer in production.

The Bell Woodworking Seagull and Seamew are both small sloop-rigged marine ply sailing boats of the Trailer yacht type designed by Ian Proctor, who was also responsible for the design of many small sailing dinghies in seven different classes including the extremely popular Topper, and Wanderer.

Phantom (sailboat) sailboat

There are three designs of Phantom sailboats, one is a small una rig which is often raced, another is a lateen rig that was designed after the Sunfish model sailing dinghy, and a third is a larger keelboat designed and built in Sydney, Australia.

The Mirror 16 is a class of sailing dinghy which was sponsored by the Daily Mirror newspaper in 1963 and the design project was headed by Jack Holt. Its design was based upon the easy to construct stitch and glue principle introduced by Barry Bucknell for the Mirror 11 dinghy. The Mirror 16 was designed for the racing enthusiast and also the camping/potterer dinghy sailor. The concept was a relatively light dinghy with a large sail area that could easily be reefed. The main sail was designed for slab reefing and the large genoa had roller reefing. The Mirror 16, like the Mirror 11, was produced with distinctive red sails. The Mirror 16 was faster than the Proctor-designed Wayfarer.

Farr 3.7

The Farr 3.7 is a one-person sailing dinghy designed by Bruce Farr in 1971. The design plans are sold by the 3.7 Class Owners Association and they are built by a mix of professionals and home built by amateurs. The 3.7 Class is recognised by Yachting New Zealand as a national class and yachts are sailed in New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain. Full sets of plans have been sold worldwide to a number of individuals with greatest numbers in Germany, Japan, USA, South Korea, Poland, France, Belgium.

The Skimmer is an American sailing dinghy, that was designed by William F. Crosby for amateur construction in 1933.

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Do It Yourself 1963:789
  2. ↑ from Link House, 24 Store Street, London WC1
  3. ↑ Do It Yourself 1966: 1013
  4. ↑ Mermaid Class Association archives
  5. ↑ Dr Richard Blundel. Littleships: The Co-Evolution of Technological Capabilities and Industrial Dynamics In Competing Innovation Networks, Open University repository of research publications, 2006, 13(3), pp. 313–334
Sources
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