JEM Watercraft

Hi
I started building the sailing dinghy vee yesterday. As the others, I love the plans and I'm excited about the design - but I have 1 concern: the depth of the boat. I'm not really a boat expert at all, but the boat seems really shallow to me. I would like to use the boat in larger bays and rivers, such as the Chesapeake bay. I decided to increase the side panels by 4 inches in height. I'm not changing any other parameter and leaving the height of the seats the same, although this of course increases the breadth of the boat by about 2 inches. What's your opinion on this change? Is it overkill? Would it effect stability at all? Should I also increase the height of the centre board?
Thanks, Laszlo

I am glad to hear you have started the building. Hope you will send some pictures.

I think your idea is good and it will give some extra advantages to the design by increasing the side height. It will give the boat some better carrying capacity, that's for sure.

The boat as it is will have plenty of stability for the rig it is carrying. Therefore it is not from a stability point of view necessary to increase the side height. But I can't see any disadvantages in doing so, except if one has any preferences for the beam.

It should not be necessary to make the centreboard trunk any higher than it already is.

By the way, I reduded the depth, so that the sides are now just 3 inches taller. This was in order to avoid bying additional plywood, plus after I cut out the frame members, the extra 4 inches seemed like overkill.