Dinghy Wars: Hard, Soft, Nesting, Folding...

[imagine2frolic]

Frolic being a 30ft. Columbia. I used an 8ft rollup with plywood sheets for flooring. I had a Nissan 5hp that I kept on the stern pulpit. Using the end of the boom, block, and winch I would lower, or raise the motor. It wasn't the best dink for a little chop, and would slide sideways, but it fit Frolic, and my budget. I could store the dink on deck, or inside depending on the length of distance travelling.

The dinghy is our extension to life ashore. I would get as large as a dinghy as will fit the boat. It should have a keel of some sort, even a blowup for directional stability. Planing is fun, and I plane whenever I can. It is not a necessity, and for those that are agreeable to a 20 minute trip instead of 5....I love you for it!

I recently bought a 12ft inflatable kayak to tow behind the dinghy on Imagine for excursions to out of the way places. My fingers are crossed it will be stable enough at what ever speed is needed to use it to haul awnings, coolers, snorkel gear, fishing poles, and any other accessories so 4-5 people can comfortably use the dink. This way we can take our shade, and toys with us to stay for a complete day.

I have a small a piece of 1" stainless tubing, and the main halyard that we use as a crane to get the dink off, and on the stern. You can see the crane in this pic situated in the middle of the boat.

Then again if you really want a boat that will plane.....HERE YOU GO!!

[Glenn C]

Originally Posted by Erik C

What was your impression of the Perry?

Hi Erik, the Perry was very easy to lmanage with 3 adults and 3 kids on board. Only chartered for 12 days and had mostly light to 10 Kt winds, with the occasional day of 15 + kts. The boat really seemed to need the +15kts to get going, but then as a charter boat I do think she was undercanvassed. Galley down worked well, with enough open space that the cook didn't feel socially removed from everyone else, and still able to produce gourmet meals ! There was plenty of room for all of us in the cockpit and saloon.

Sail controls were mostly okay. The boat was fitted with 55hp yanmars, which had heaps of power, and very fine manouevering under power. I would cetianly charter one of these again, although I still have the Lightwave 45 at the top of my list for next boat,

Glenn

[ssullivan]

Here are a couple photos of the best dinghy I've ever seen. We all like to *think* we have a great one, but really... this one is the hydrogen bomb of "dinghy wars." Yeah.... it's the BOMB. ha ha

This "dinghy" arrived today for an afternoon, remained tied up to one of the boats and left just before sunset. Some advantages are:

1) Windward performance

2) Keeps groceries colder between store and fridge

3) Helps avoid all those pesky "no trespassing" signs where you want to put ashore with your dinghy

4) Alleviates the need for a dinghy dock

5) Makes an excellent coastal life raft/safety accessory

6) Smooth ride in the roughest of harbors

7) Oh yeah... you can impress even megayachts with this dinghy - look cool as you come in to your boat.

[GordMay]

How about a Flying R.I.B or Flying Inflatable Boat (F.I.B) (FLIB?)
Goto: Flying Boat Adventures

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by GordMay

How about a Flying R.I.B or Flying Inflatable Boat (F.I.B) (FLIB?)
Goto: Flying Boat Adventures

Great link, Gord. I like these. I saw one in Ohio once and thought it was home built.

[GordMay]

Saw them (FLIB) at the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show, circa 1996 (?), at which time they were asking just under $20K. Tho' consumed with lust, I didn't buy one.
Current prices for the complete FIB or Flying Inflatable Boat starts at $22,500.00
This includes the Boat, shipping by sea to your closest sea port, Wing in choice of two sizes (19 Sq. Meter or 21 Sq. Meter) your custom sail colors/combination, 503 Air Cooled Rotax engine with a three blade propeller and instrument pod with temp gauge.

[GordMay]

The Scorpio 10, from Pelican, is a Rigid Plastic (“Ram-X”) Tri-Hull Dinghy, similar to the Water-Tender* (Liesure Craft or Johnson Outdoors):
Goto:
Scorpio fishing boat - Pelican International inc.

Length 10' 3'' - 314 cm
Beam 61'' - 153 cm
Max. capacity 520 lb - 236 kg
Max HP 7 hp
Weight 109 lb - 50 kg

See also the article “A Tender for Cruisers” ~ by Bob Steadman, in the May/June issue (#60) of “Good Old Boat” magazine.

Like Steadman, I happily used a Water Tender 9.2 for several years. We had several dinks (Zodiac, Boston Whaler) at our disposal, and Maggie always chose the Water Tender for her personal use.
At about $500 new, how can you go wrong?

[Minggat]

Folding boats are not new. They have been around a long time and I understand that aside from looking funny, they do well. I considered one for quite a while. They are just too strange for me.

I have both a hard dink (Walker Bay) and an inflatable as well as an inflatable kayak. Haven't played with the kayak yet. Walker Bay gets the most use because it's so darned easy to launch and retrieve with my setup. And I love sailing it. The inlfatable is my "go fast" toy.

Walker Bays have the optional flotation which really helps in several ways. One I like is the lack of noise of the hard hull hitting the hull of the mother ship.

[northerncat]

from my point of view this is the perfect dinghy, stable good foe diving out of, good in rough water and efficient to move along
sean

[Jay Knight]

Several years ago I built a B&B designs 9' nesting dink called 2 Paws 9. It sails fairly well, motors fine and rows.... It fits aft of the mast, fwd of the dodger on my PSC Orion. I pitch the aft (larger) section in, pitch the fwd section in then get into the aft and draw them together with simple all thread rod and wing nuts. Each section weighs less than 45 lbs. and it sits on two fender boards like a small car top carrier. Only negative is no flotation, save for 6 fenders tied around gunwale to protect the mother ship's paint. Easy/cheap to built. Sure has proven to be tough, it was our primary vehicle for 2 weeks after Katrina!

[sandy daugherty]

Since I sail a catamaran, I had this mildly romantic notion that I would like to have an inflatable two tube catamaran dinghy. There are a few out there, but none with sails. I spotted what appeared to be exactly what I was looking for at eht Annapolis boat show, and talked with the eager inventor. It seems his $5000 pride and joy was a little to much like a sailing catamaran. Bolted together with what looked like brick layer's staging, It had these enormous cast aluminum shoes that attached to the bottom of the tubes, with fins for keels. I politely left before my opinion leaked past the tongue I was biting. He apparently had never boarded a limp sausage vessel....

[Talbot]

Th is one of these sailing dinghys with inflatable cat hulls that has been around in UK for the last 10 years or more. Dont see them very often cause they are expensive, but look like good fun and easy to take your boat to the coast provided you remember your tool box

[GordMay]

I kinda like these ...

[svcattales]

We've been using a 10' Livingston catamaran dinghy for 4 years and love it. It is a hard fiberglass dink and has many cruiser-friendly features. It is very stable and I can stand on the gunnel without swamping it and this makes it a great platform for snorkeling and fishing. There are stainless strips on mini keels of each hull, so dragging it up a beach or over stones or shell isn't a problem.

I use a 15hp Yamaha 2-stroke on it and it planes off with 2 large adults plus laundry and groceries. With just me, it will do 19kts on the handheld gps. Because of the catamaran hulls, the chop tends to funnel itself between the hulls and we can stay on a plane in a serious chop without getting wet or spinal compressions. On windy days we were one of the few dry cruisers in Georgetown, Bahamas.

The dink is supposed to weigh 135lbs, but I think it is closer to 150. We made a radar arch to lift it so the weight isn't a problem for us. (Livingston also makes a 7.5' and a 9' boat.) I had to make some modifications to make it a good cruising dink. The vinyl rubrail is a joke, so I sewed a fender out of textilene mesh filled with pipe insulation foam, but pool noodles will work also and help prevent theft (too ugly to steal). I also had to install towing eyes in each hull with a bridle to allow it to tow straight.

The price was also an attractive factor. It was about $1800 4 yrs ago which was about half the cost of the same sized RIB.

The Livingston isn't for everybody, but it's the closest we've ever come to an ideal dinghy.

[svcattales]

PS. If you want some more details, go to www.livingstonboats.com
(I don't have any commercial interest, I just like their dinks)