CLIVE’S BOATS: FAST DINGHIES
Seabat, Minisprint, Lightning 368 and more!
Even when living in a flat or townhouse with poor access to a drive or garden for a trailer-sailer you can keep your boat on a mooring or charter one when needed and that is just what I used to do. But I also liked the idea of keeping a boat at home so that I could take her to different locations at the drop of a hat.
None of us in the UK are far from a stretch of water. Eventually, I found a boat that I could carry on its side under my arm with my fingers through the daggerboard slot and get it into my small backyard. I could store it vertically to take up less ground and even get it through the window into the sitting room had my wife been a bit more reasonable.
This lightweight boat was called a Seabat and it fuelled my ongoing interest in simple, light planing boats–the sort of boat that you can carry under your arm to the beach and launch in five minutes.
The Seabat
The GRP Seabat is 11ft 6in/3.5m long with a beam of just 3ft 3in/1m. She has very little draught or freeboard and thus no great weight. I could get her onto my car’s roof rack single-handed and carry her to launch from any beach I fancied. I don’t recall her weight but she was the lightest boat I have owned. I expect the plywood version would be even lighter. Given her light weight and hull shape, she would plane easily. Sitting out with feet under tow straps she was extremely fast until she heeled too far when either deck went under the waves and I would inevitably capsize her. She was very easy to capsize but also easy to right again.
On a summer’s day, a good capsize was part of the fun. Seabats have a lateen sail of 72ft2/6.7m 2 that could not be reefed so I would have to spill wind at times. But the low centre of effort enabled her to carry a good sized sail as long as you were agile enough to provide ballast in the right place at the right time. This was a constant challenge for me. But the great advantage of the boat was that she fitted neatly on top of my VW Beetle and I could go sailing or swimming any time at the drop of a hat and have her rigged and in the water in a trice! I have sailed her off Eastbourne, Shoreham and Priory Bay on the Isle of Wight and on one occasion even with a precariously balanced passenger. Alas, these clever little boats are no longer made and people have moved onto windsurfers which are all well and good if you like to sail standing up all day. However, Seabats are featured on the Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association (
