THE TEST
SAILING
The Nomad 3 sails relatively well but feels rather more like a rowing-and-motoring tender with a sail. As such, her upwind performance leaves a bit to be desired and she generates a significant amount of leeway. This isn’t a major issue and she sails along well but making significant headway to weather is a slightly slow process. For sailing around in a harbour or off the beach she works well enough.
With a bigger sail area and more aggressively veed hull, we were keen to see if the Orca could deliver more performance and make her a more viable option for ship-to-shore under sail alone. Results were mixed. The Orca does make better headway to weather, but carries a lot of lee helm. She is 50cm longer than the Nomad, and it seems much of this additional length has been added forward of the thwart and daggerboard. With the increased sail area and the mast still at the bow, the Orca has become a little unbalanced with too much sail in front of the daggerboard. It takes some getting used to, but she does go to windward better than her smaller counterpart.
UNDER MOTOR
Both performed well under engine. Though neither reached the speeds achieved by the Seal or the Seahopper they felt like reliable tenders. The increased vee in the Orca gave her a touch more directional stability than the Nomad.
You could happily motor across an anchorage or up a river on either boat. The Orca’s increased length will certainly make her a touch drier in more wavy conditions and with extra space for luggage and passengers she comes out on top.
ROWING
Both Dinghy Go options rowed very well. As relatively lightweight inflatables they obviously suffered from headwinds and crosswinds more than a traditional tender might. We thought the oars might feel a little lightweight when in use, but both they and the retaining clips were sturdy enough to get the job done without any fuss. The Dinghy Go’s setup of aluminium boom and mast means it is not really possible to row with the rig still in the boat, so these need to be dropped before you start rowing in earnest.
YM VERDICT
As a tender to row and motor with an option to sail both models work well. There are some frustrations in sailing both, but these are relatively minor issues that you will get used to over time. However, their principal role is as a tender, and they perform well in this department. Given the very minor difference in weight (3kg) and size when packed (rig bags are the same size and the boat bag for the Orca is a couple of cm larger in length, width and depth) beyond the price we would say there is little reason to go for the Nomad over the Orca.