Plastic Classic Forum

This is one of two dinghy sails that came with our Triton. It is about 6' 11" along the foot and approximately 10' 10" along the luff. I don't recognize that symbol at the top and a brief Google search yielded nothing. The other sail is very ratty and looks like it's been resown a couple of times. It has another, different marking (two overlapping "D"s) and I haven't measured it. I want to build a new rig for the dinghy, and knowing where the sail came from would help. I don't know if it was ever used for our dinghy, I doubt it.

The two overlapping Ds is the sail emblem for a Dyer Dhow. A 9 or 12 1/2 foot plastic classic in it's own right. I learned to race at Scout Camp in the 9s.

Thanks, that helps. Do you happen to know if Dyer changed the design of their boats at any point? My dinghy is about 8 ft give or take six inches and has a round-bilge hull. All the Dyers I've seen around have hard chine hulls with the exception of a REALLY old double ended boat that was being called a Dyer Dhow.

I don't believe Dyer has ever changed a hull design. There may very well have been changes in how they finish them though. They still make most of their boats today very similar if not identical to how they did them originally.

The 8' boat you mention is quite possibly the Midget. I have a mast, lug, boom and rudder from one in my garage.

The sail with the sort of starburst emblem would be for a "Pilot" dinghy. They were built by a company called "STARWING" in Bristol, RI.
The sail wit hte interlocking 'D"s would be from a Dyer Dhow, and they did make a 7'11" model I have attached a pic of that model and one of the 8'1" "First Mate" Pilot Dinghy. The Pilot Dinghies (8'1" and 9'5" models) were round bottom, I think they also made a 7' "Dyer-clone" and a 8' "tri-hull" design, (like and old Boston Whaler hull).

The Dyer Dhow you show the picture of is the Midget. Note the standing lug instead of a one piece mast. That is the one I have the spars and rudder from.

Dave, unless you are looking at a different picture than hte one that I posted..... the DYER Midget pictured has a "Gunter Rig" not a standing lug rig. I will add a pic below of a standing lug rig, on a Nutshell Pram.
The Gunter Rig as sort of a cross between the bermudian / Marconi rig and a gaff rig. The yard may be hoisted by a halyard on larger boats, in which case it will end up vertical or nearly so extending the luff of the sail above the mast (becomes a sort of "mast-extension"). On smaller boats like a sailing dinghy, the yard may just attach to the mast with a pair of hooks like on the DYER, or may slide up and down the mast on a pair of mast-hoop like rings (HOWMAR HAULER 8') From a distance, the gunter rig appears just like a bermudian rig that has a continuous mast (wanted to say one-piece, but many dinghies, including the larger DYERs, and most aluminum mast dinghies have a splice in the mast to allow it to break down into two pieces to fit inside the boat). Another example of a gunter rig is the old CAPE DORY 10 and the CAPE DORY 14.

The Standing Lug rig has a more squared off sail ,like a gaff rig, except the luff of the sail is not attached to the mast or hoops, it just flies free. The yard works more like a GAFF or the yard on a square-sail, in that it it attached to the head of the sail and spreads it out. There may or may not be a boom as well.

In reality it isn't either. I guess it is more of a 2 piece mast. The top piece hangs onto the lower part via 2 hooks. A gunter is a wire that raises the gaff to near vertical. On the Dyer Dink it isn't raised at all but assembled.

The Pilot sounds like a good match for my mystery dinghy. Thanks so much for the added info and pics, that's really a huge help.

Well, technically the "upper section" of the mast on the DYER Midget is more of a yard than top section of a 2-piece mast, the lower section is a round mast that tapers like a typical mast for a gaff rig or lug rig, and the upper part is a rectangular slotted spar that the upper half of the sail luff slides into. The lower part of the sail luff is laced to the mast. I'd call that more of a "modified" gunter-rig, rather than a "2-piece mast". The larger DYERS (9' and 10' models) have 2-piece wooden masts where the two sections are identical in shape, like the mast was cut in two at the splice. The DYER Midget rig is just simplified due to the small size of the boat, but still represents the spar configuration of a gunter-rig, that is a short mast with a near-vertical yard attached (or hoisted up) to the mast. I've attached a scan of the specs for the DYERs from the book where I got the picture that I previous posted. (note the prices <GRIN!> this was 1981), but gunter or sliding gunter.... both would be a "gunter" rig.
PS: That dinghy pictured is OLD, looks to be a PLYWOOD 9' Dhow.