Inflatable - Dinghy

[FreestyleBruce]

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

[mikep996]

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...

[Ed Nolan]

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

[Genesis]

... 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.

[PascalG]

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

[mikep996]

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.

[zrida]

Dear Bruce I am selling a zodiac 11 foot with a 4 horse power Yamaha 4 stroke. Its in great condition only 3 years old. Please email me at americanairtite@aol.com

[divernc]

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.

[FreestyleBruce]

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?

[Walter Pereira]

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