Zest 14

A 14 ft singlehanded hiking dinghy by Richard Woods of Woods Designs, drawn from his decades of dinghy racing. The hard-chine stitch and glue hull carries demountable foam-filled sitting-out wings, a self-draining cockpit with open transom, and a simple stayed rig that can come second hand from a 420 or similar. Ideal helm weight is 70 to 90 kg. Light enough to car top.

Woods and helpers started one on a Friday morning at the Edensaw challenge in Port Townsend and sailed it on the Sunday afternoon, and a middle school class built another over a six week summer camp. A lone builder finishing and painting properly might budget 60 to 120 hours as a rule of thumb. Measured medians from build logs appear below.