Dear Harold and Marie,
The Westcoast dinghy we bought from you early this year has met or exceeded all of our expectations. We used her constantly on our ten week cruise this summer from Victoria to Port Hardy and back to Seattle.

First of all she is just plain pretty. She looks right whether rowing, sailing, sitting in the chocks on the big boat, or tied to the dock. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard, "That sure is a pretty boat. Where did you get her?" (I told them.) On top of that the construction is outstanding and the finish is superb.

The sliding seat rowing unit has worked out exceptionally well. With my 6'6" 215 LB frame moving fore and aft the boat pitches only two or three inches. She tracks in an absolutely straight line with the rudder mounted and lashed amidships but is hard to maneuver. Without the rudder she is exceedingly maneuverable and, surprisingly, tracks almost as well. Certainly no special attention is required to keep her on course.

She seems fast too. I'm a mediocre oarsman at best and I haven't done an accurate speed trial, but based on approximate times and distances run while rowing for exercise I believe I am "cruising" for periods of an hour or so at about four knots with my heart rate at a comfortable 120 beats per minute. I think I go at over four and one half knots for shorter periods with my heart rate at 140. Not bad for a 53 year old man and an 11 1/2 foot boat under oars. She certainly blows by and other rowed dinghies of comparable size and she turns heads and drops jaws whenever I row through an anchorage at speed. When the boat is loaded heavily the long sculls in the outriggers don't work well because the boat is lower in the water and the handles hit the gunwales on the recovery. Perhaps adjustable outriggers would solve this problem.

The sailing rig is easy to set up. She is fun to sail and seems to sail well as far as I can tell, but because of the generally light winds we had during the summer in B.C. I rowed more than sailed and haven't really put her to the test yet in a variety of conditions. When I get here back to San Francisco I will let you know in more detail what I think.

The 5 1/2 horsepower Mercury long shaft has worked out well. The short shaft might have worked too but might have had the prop working in turbulent water from the keel so I'm happy with my choice. We use the motor for fishing trips in the dinghy or when we have a long way to go with a heavy load. Again, I haven't done an accurate speed check, but my best guess, based on approximate distances and times, is that with three people and some gear in the boat we are running at better than 5 1/2 knots at full throttle and very close to that at half throttle My only regret is that the boat won't plane for me, but then she's not a planing hull and I never expected her to. Still, since the boat is at or above hull speed at half throttle, I wonder if some kind of deployable trim tabs wouldn't convert the extra power into planing instead of bigger bow and stern waves. Then you would have the "perfect" dinghy: one that excels at rowing, sailing, efficient displacement hull motoring, planing, and looking beautiful!

Dr. Henry Turkel