I’ve been trying to think of ANY 10-foot-long dinghy in Tenderly’s class that is “self-rescuing.” That is, once righted from a capsize, little water is left inside, and the arrangement of reserve flotation renders the boat stable enough after a capsize to embark an adult without shipping water faster than it can be bailed.
The answer is: I don’t know of a tender that can manage that without being mostly decked-in. Functionally, Tenderly is supposed to be a good tender, capable of shifting miscellaneous loads of crew and dunnage between shore and mothership. Good utility dinghies need interior volume and flexible seating, and it’s just not possible to do that in a 10-footer that’s been decked in. I can’t find an extant example of a versatile rowing/sailing tender that size with that much reserve buoyancy. It’s a lot to ask of a boat that size and weight.
One popular tender that is in the same size class is WoodenBoat’s Shellback Dinghy, and it hasn’t any foam flotation at all. Yikes.
Stability is a key part of Tenderly’s design brief, both for climbing in and out at a dock, and while under sail. Lots of primary and secondary stability and unusually high freeboard make capsizes unlikely to start with—I find it extremely difficult to capsize that boat, even intentionally. Its thwarts are broad, precisely so that a lot of foam flotation can be packed beneath them.
Fortunately, we can look at a test case of what it takes to convert a 10-footer into a sailboat with most of its interior given over to flotation tanks:
That’s a “Lake Union Swift.” It’s Tenderly’s hull, with airtight bench seats down each side and a sealed compartment forward.
The Lake Union Swift was developed as a junior sail-trainer.
The Lake Union Swift can do the racing-dinghy/sail-trainer trick of floating very high after a capsize.
Thus it’s possible to close up the interior of a Tenderly Dinghy so that “self-rescue” is plausible, at least in protected waters.
But the decked-in, “Lake Union Swift” variant of the Tenderly Dinghy is crap as a tender. It’s heavy, it really can’t be rowed with more than one person in it, and there’s no place to put the dunnage, cooler, kids, and dogs when shuttling between shore and mothership.
(I tried it. That’s a Lake Union Swift in the davits of the family stinkpot. Didn’t work as a tender.)
The Lake Union Swift is a terrific knockabout and sail-trainer. But I would choose the Tenderly Dinghy layout every time. Tenderly is stiff, dry, not over-rigged, and roomy.
One of my cherished sailing memories is a long afternoon in a matched pair of Tenderly Dinghies, on a beautiful cool fall day. One skippered by my friend Geoff, with my then-five-year-old snug and shoulder-deep, myself and my wife in the other. There’s a place to stow the oars. The water was cold, but you can see how deeply Geoff and I are sitting in the boats, placing the center of gravity very low. There’s lot of legroom and many comfortable seating options. And…there are two boats! Safety in numbers. If one capsizes, the other is nearby to render help.
I am sure I don’t know how to make a good 10-foot dinghy capsize-proof or misadventure-proof. But Tenderly would be my first choice, of all the dinghies and tenders out there in that size class, as an all-weather daysailer. Be careful. Mind the weather. Dress for the water temp. Wear a life jacket. Tie in a reef when the wind gets up. Go sailing in company if you can.
Finally, air bags for dinghies are available and would be a straightforward addition to Tenderly.
