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Zhik - Made for Water

Designing and building a modern cruising dinghy, small & capable - John Welsford

by Australian Wooden Boat Festival 1 Dec 2025 00:38 PST
Designing and building a modern cruising dinghy, small & capable - John Welsford - AWB Symposium © Australian Wooden Boat Festival

A dinghy cruising resurgence is upon us! Perhaps it's due to the increasing costs of owning larger boats, or the romance fuelled by books like Swallows and Amazons and Those Snake Island Kids, or the fact that cruising dinghies can be built by anyone with moderate woodworking skills in their backyard...

John Welsford is a small boat designer with ten generations of boat building under his belt. John has been building small boats and exploring the New Zealand coastline from an early age and now has over 40 designs to his name with thousands having been built and sailed all around the world. John describes his role as:

"A creator of dreams. Really, that's the aim of a designer of small recreational boats."

Watch renowned small boat designer John Welsford, in conversation with Matt and Ben from Small Craft Tasmania as they discuss the sophisticated art of designing a capable cruising dinghy, and what to look for in choosing a design to suit specific needs.

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