Even though Grizabella is a relatively shallow-draft boat for her length, still a dinghy would be a handy (and potentially fun) thing to have along.
Rather than simply buy a modern plastic dinghy, which are insanely (to me) expensive, I figured I'd build one. The problem is not in the construction - I am, after all, a hard-core do-it-yourselfer and have more tools than brains. The problem is that there are about umpteen thousand dinghy designs to choose from.
I am particularly fond of
Ian Oughtred's Humble Bee pram:
It truly is a lovely little thing.
Everything I've read about the Humble Bee convinces me it's a wonderful little craft and would serve well.
However, it's a slightly more complicated build than some other, simpler options - which means it will take longer to build. It also will be more expensive, because it uses epoxied plywood lapstrake construction.
While at a marina down in Mathews, Virginia a few weeks back, I was chatting with the boatyard manager, and he had a nice, simple little plywood pram dinghy with a lug rig. I asked him about it, and he told me he had built it from S. A. Rabl's book "Boatbuilding in Your Own Backyard."
So of course, as soon as I got back home, I ordered the book from www.half.com.
The dinghy is Rabl's "Midge".
Advantages: it's very simple glue-and-screw construction and can be built in a couple of weekends, using relatively common lumber. I will, however, use better-quality marine plywood. But it needs only one sheet of 1/4" and one sheet of 3/8" plywood. So it shouldn't end up being too terribly expensive.
And I can maybe build the Humble Bee later, but in the meantime I'll have a nice little dinghy to use.
Now I just need to source the plywood.
And it would be nice if I finished a couple other projects before I start this one. But I've never let that stop me before.