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Inflatable - Dinghy

  • Thread starter Thread starter FreestyleBruce
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FreestyleBruce

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I am trying to decide which way to go on replacing my dinghy. I had a small fiberglass one that rode on the transom of my 43 DCMY. The stern lines cut it in half during the Frances storm surge. (I made lots of mistakes during that one but self insured them so no admonishments please.)

I am leaning towards an 11 foot high pressure inflatable (no solid floor components) by Zodiac offered through West. I picked it becauseI have a wife and 3 kids so I need the capacity but the kids are too young to be much help lifiting it on deck yet so I need the light weight.

Any thoughts on the brand, selection, or other issues of importance I may be overlookiing?

I would hate to buy something only to read a thread about what I should have bought the next week.

Bruce
 
dinghy

I had an 11 ft Avon inflatable on my last boat. It had the inflatable keel and inflatable floor. I didn't like it at all because it didn't ride very well with an 8HP motor and skidded badly because there was no real keel. It would either plow through the water with the bow 3 feet in the air or plane at a hundred miles an hour while being extremely skittish. Hated it. Perhaps the problem was that the motor was too heavy for the boat - it seemed very stern-heavy. But the rating plate said 8HP.

We now have a 12ft RIB with a little 4HP motor on it and it works fine. It's very controllable and stable. It works better with the 4 than the other did with the 8HP. Of course, it is heavier than the inflatable which is your issue in the first place.

In my OPINION, the best small dinghy is something that will comfortably move along. It does not need to plane which just beats and sprays you to death.

Of course this doesn't apply if you have a "real" boat as a dinghy. We have some friends with a 58LRC. They use a 16 foot "hard" boat with an 80HP motor. It has real seats and a helm station. Nice...
 
Re: dinghy

I think all consumer type Zodiacs are made from PVC, they are notorious for seam failure. Inflatables made with Hypalon give much better service.
 
You can BUILD....

... yes, I said BUILD, a hard dink (10'ish) for $300-400 worth of materials (plywood, epoxy and glass cloth) in stich-and-glue.

That approach does require a cradle for storage on the boat since it doesn't roll up - but (1) its cheaper, (2) you have a real boat that will actually get up and plane, (3) its very light - possibly even lighter than a pure inflateable and almost certainly more so than a RIB and (4) it doesn't have the problems that the cheaper PVC-tube inflatables have.

Oh, it'd be distinctive too - a feature not to be ignored.
 
build your dinghy!

Genesis... thank you so much for the idea... i'm still procrastinating getting a real tender to replace the pos zodiac roll up i have, and building didn't occur to me... duh... time consuming but could be a fun project with my 15 yo son...

i came across www.bateau.com, they have plenty of info, plans for sale, tutorials, etc... alittle more work than buying an out of the mold whaler or carolina skiff but i like the distinctive part...

pascal
 
Re: build your dinghy!

Pascal,

I like their V-12! It would be a neat project but, unfortunately, I have too many of those already. Let us know how it goes if you build one. :D
 
After having a roll-up inflatable, we have settled on a 10' square-nosed aliminum Jon Boat with 4hp outboard. I made a rub rail (to keep aluminum away from my hull) by cutting very thin-walled 1 1/2" irrigation pipe with a skilsaw down the length. It comes in white and light blue, is flexible enough to squeeze over caprail without heating it. It does not fold worth a damn, but is very light, tows well and indestructible when encountering oyster shells. It can be noisy if it bumps hull when anchored out at night. Oh, yeah, they can be had cheap in the used market.
 
If you had to guess, how heavy is the jon boat without the motor? Could 2 40 year old adults lift it to the deck of a 43 DCMY?

What is the seating capacity?
 
jon boats?

Divernc....... You say that used 10' alum. jon boats are readily available---cheap. Well we are looking for some old "work boats" for use for maintainance chores at our yacht club. If you or anyone knows of anything usuable for us, please let me know.. Thanks, Walt.

P.S. Our club is in New Jersey, but I can travel some
 
Re: jon boats?

Boat weighs about 60-70 pounds w/o motor. My wife and I (early 50's) can easily roll it on to the swim platform or pull it up on the dinghy dock. We have lifted it in to cockpit (43C) w/o scratching gunwales and set it on vynl mats against transom for ocean runs. It will plane with 1 person, almost plane with 2. 5hp would be better, but it was difference of 48 to 60 pounds for one more hp.

12' jon boats seemed plentiful in newspaper, 8' & 10' take some watching of boattraderonline.com and local papers.
 
Re: jon boats?

I just don't think we could lift a jon boat to the foredeck without rubbing aluminum against flass and wood railings. My wife also wrinkled her nose at having an aluminum boat sitting on her bow in plain view of the club's dining room. ( I grew up in Kentucky so what do I care.)

The best priced large inflatable is made by Mercury. Does anyone have any familiarity with these?
 
inflatable

Have you tried Sea Eagle? Bought a 9.2 new this winter for 1000.00 with inflatable keel max hp 9.9. Has a seat along with roll up floorboards. Cheaper models available for smaller hp ratings.
 
Re: inflatable

I would not encourage lifting aluminum jon boat over rail on to bow, I think you would scrape SS railing. Our marina has an out of sight dinghy dock.

I lightly sanded exterior of mine and brushed on white enamel paint to make it acceptable to Admiral.

It has been great for local use where oysters shells are common. If I was cruising long-term to the "islands", I'd go to an inflatable.
 
inflatable

I purchased a 10' AVON JET Inflatable - it's great..See West Marine Cat. no outboards, runs smooth weight about 650, fast , and easy to lift on the davit. Very Expensive but worth every penny...Perfect size and comfort. Capt Ken 53' Hat
 
You might try...

...looking at Porta-Botes: they are a sort of semirigid foldable boat that doesn't leak, doesn't require painting, and run very well with small outboards. They don't weigh much. They come in 8, 10, and 12 foot lengths. They have built-on flotation.
They don't have a keel, so there's that liability, but if you just want a dinghy that will putt around, they are great for that. The fact that they fold up gives them some of the advantages of an inflatable. Having been on both, I would rather have the PortaBote.
Also, I think Apex inflatables are better than a lot of them and if you decide on an inflatable, they are worth looking at. They used to be called Calypso, I think. they are imported through a local outfit here in Annapolis.
 
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