Dinghies: small, open and crew-balanced.

What makes a boat a dinghy

Wikipedia describes a dinghy as a small open sailboat used for recreation, for sail training and for tending a larger vessel. The defining features are what it lacks: a dinghy carries no ballast and has no cabin. Keelboats are generally larger, though Wikipedia notes the two overlap in size. A dinghy carries up to three sails: a mainsail, a jib and a spinnaker.

ASA's small-boat course gives a practical working definition. ASA 110, Basic Small Boat Sailing, covers non-ballasted centreboard or daggerboard boats from 8 to 20 ft, and capsize avoidance and recovery are part of the syllabus.

Centreboards and daggerboards

On a keelboat, the keel provides the underwater area that resists leeway (sideways slip). A dinghy uses a board that can be raised instead. Wikipedia lists retractable centreboards and daggerboards among the alternatives to a fixed keel, and Discover Boating describes a centreboard as a fin-like appendage that pivots in and out of a slot in the hull.

Because the board can move, how far it is down becomes part of sailing the boat. The US Coast Guard Auxiliary gives the basic pattern: fully down upwind, where side pressure is greatest, partly down on a reach, and not needed dead downwind. Our dinghy technique page covers board position and the rest of the "five essentials."

The crew is the ballast

With no weighted keel, the crew's own weight does the work of ballast. A Sailing World study by Loe and Smith measured how much righting torque different hiking styles produce: legs-out hiking produced more than any legs-in style, and hiking mattered most when the boat was nearly flat. Some dinghies also have trapezes. In the Olympic fleet, Wikipedia says the 470 uses one trapeze and the 49er and 49erFX use two.

Capsizing

A dinghy can capsize, and capsize avoidance and recovery are taught from the first small-boat course, as the ASA 110 syllabus above shows. US Sailing says boats usually capsize to leeward, when the wind overwhelms the crew's ability to hike or ease the sails. Its basic guidance is to stay with the boat, check for injuries, and never go under the boat or its sails.

US Sailing's dinghy entrapment report says the most serious risk is a sailor trapped in or under a hull that has turned fully upside down (turtled), and that turtling can happen in light winds. Its findings include:

• A hollow 420 mast of about 25 lb dry can weigh about 75 lb waterlogged, which speeds inversion.
• Masthead flotation kept a 420 from fully turtling in the report's tests.
• Rig entanglement, such as trapeze hooks snagging, is a cause of entrapment; the report encourages tight Lycra pinnies over life jackets to reduce snagging.

The recovery methods themselves are taught on the water. See capsize recovery for the principles as US Sailing describes them.

Classes you will meet

Where dinghies are sailed and raced

• College sailing. The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association says most college racing uses single-handed and double-handed dinghies.
• A first step into racing. The RYA points newcomers to racing through dinghy racing or recognized junior and youth classes, and says a sailor needs RYA Level 2 or Stage 3 to start racing, and Level 2 to start a foiling course.
• Canada. Sail Canada's CANSail Dinghy Program runs sailor levels CANSail 1 to 6, plus Wet Feet, ICANSail, Spinnaker, Trapeze, Foiling 1 and 2, and Para 1 to 6.
• Mixed fleets. Where different dinghies race together, the RYA's Portsmouth Yardstick handicaps them on observed performance without measuring the boats. Wikipedia says dinghy racing in North America more often uses Portsmouth Yardstick than PHRF. See handicap systems.

What to wear

The RYA treats dinghy and yacht clothing differently. It lists a buoyancy aid as essential for dinghy sailing and recommends a wetsuit, since beginners are likely to get wet, plus a hooded waterproof jacket. For yacht sailing it lists a lifejacket instead. PBO recommends a 50 N buoyancy aid rather than an inflatable lifejacket in a dinghy, while noting that a 50 N aid will not turn an unconscious wearer face-up and that crotch or thigh straps are best. More on dinghy clothing and life jackets.