LOA = LOD

This decodes to “Length overall is same as length on deck.” You see, boats spend a lot of time at marinas, and marinas charge by the foot, based on LOA. If your boat has a bowsprit sticking forward from the bow or dinghy davits hanging off the transom, then you are paying lots of money to rent space for a few sticks which don't do you any good at all while your boat is sitting there at the marina. I know some boats with huge, glorious bowsprits, complete with so-called “dolphin strikers,” protruding majestically (homoerotically?) from their bows. These boats have sat at the same marina for years, perhaps venturing out into the harbor for a day or so once or twice a season. I shudder to think what those silly sticks have cost their owners in slip fees.

There is no reason for a bowsprit on a Junk-rigged boat, making that decision easy. As far as the dinghy davits, a better solution is dinghy forks. These are sticks that hide in deep sockets built into the hull and slide out when they are needed. To store a dinghy, the dink is lifted out of the water on a halyard, plopped down onto the forks, and flipped over, so that it sits on two sticks bottom-up. A single line can then be used to secure it to the sticks.

This approach works very well with hard dinks, and less well with so-called “deflatables.” Some people optimistically call them “inflatables”; however, they are never guaranteed to inflate and always guaranteed to deflate, so the term “deflatable” fits better. Deflatables cost lots of money, don't last very long and row like pigs. On the other hand, it takes just a couple of days and a few tools to fashion a good hard dink out of a couple of sheets of plywood, some fiberglass and epoxy and some paint, and the result is surprisingly durable and effective.

There is room for three sets of dinghy forks: off the transom, and one each to port and starboard, for a total of three dinks that can be stored while at anchor. When underway, only the transom forks can be used because the others would hit the water when the boat is heeled over. When the sea is rough, dinks should be secured on deck, and having a large and level flush deck makes this easy. If they are nesting dinks, than this saves even more space. Dinghy forks can also be used to fashion swimming or fishing platforms. Canvas can be stretched over them to collect rainwater.

That is a lot of functionality for the cost of a few sticks!