Crayfish 2.3M
Description
The Crayfish 2.3 m (often referred to as the Crayfish 8) is a compact, pram-bowed sailing dinghy and tender designed by British naval architect Richard Woods in the early 2000s. It's a stitch-and-glue plywood construction kit boat, ideal as a lightweight yacht tender or standalone daysailer for beginners and families. Built from just 2.5 sheets of 4 mm marine plywood, it's renowned for its simplicity, stability, and portability—perfect for car-topping or stowing aboard larger vessels. Weighing around 40 lbs. (18 kg) unfinished, it's more durable and stable than inflatables or rigid dinghies like the Walker Bay 8, with options for rowing, sailing, or a small outboard. Over 20 years of owner builds confirm its reliability, though it's not a high-performance racer. Plans are available from Woods Designs for home builders, emphasizing ease over complexity.
Construction Details
| Designer | Richard Woods |
|---|---|
| Length | 7.540 ft |
| LWL | 21.250 ft |
| Beam | 10.167 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Sails
Crayfish 2.3M - MAINSAIL
| Luff | 9.83 ft - (2996 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 5.75 ft - (1753 mm) |
| Leech | * 11.33 ft - (3453 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 91.3 ° |
| Diagonal | 11.5 ft - (3505 mm) |
| Head (inches) | * 3.5 in - (89 mm) |
| Area | * 29.6 ft² |
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Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.