Which Dinghy

[Kashmir cat]

Have you considered a small aluminum fishing boat? A good used 10-12 footer seems to be going for way less than $1000. With a budget of $3500, you could then buy a decent outboard. The only problem of course is whether you can fit the boat on deck. We carried a 12 RIB on the foredeck of our 46 foot monohull with room to spare.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Porta Bote Speed?

Every dinghy is a compromise.

We all want or value different things.

For me, the Porta Bote has some characteristics I find appealing.

It folds flat to a thin shape.
Some have lasted for years with minimal maintenance.
They can be rowed. Looking at videos showing them rowed, they appear to do so better than average for a dinghy.
The hull materials are not easily damaged (scrapes on rocky beaches).

I do not intend to use the Porta Bote for SCUBA diving. But, from reading what others have written in other threads, (search for other threads containing the term Porta Bote, there are ways to get in the boat from the water (over the side).
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Porta Bote Speed?
Here is a PortaBote (12ft) with 9.8 HP 2 stroke. With one man, the GPS shows it going 19 MPH!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRv2I-rVaeM

In the comments for that video, the video producer wrote:

"The boat is is 12' and the outboard is a 2 stroke and weighs 58 lbs so its not too heavy.

I do also have a 5 hp outboard for when I go to smaller lakes and it planes fine with me and my wife and I can hit around 14 mph.

I would guess with the Suzuki 6.6 hp you should be able to plane and hit around 10 mph with 3 people."

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Here is a PortaBote (14 ft) with 8 HP 4 stroke.

Moving fast enough for me, with two men in the boat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVtTnIC03Zo

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Here is another PortaBote (14 ft) with 9.8 HP 4 stroke.

Moving fast enough for me, with two men in the boat plus fishing gear (cooler).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HikaFbahjHI

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Here is another PortaBote using a 6 hp motor (one fisherman) and he only goes half throttle, looks fast enough to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4T3iBS3Q2g

[RaymondR]

Have a look at some of the rotomounded poly dingys. They are tough and pretty well unsinkable but are a little bit heavy.

[sparrowhawk1]

II

Originally Posted by travellerw

No I own a very crappy Yamaha 5hp, but 9.9hp are common enough to pick one up pretty cheap.

As to the comment on the port-a-boat zipping along. Maybe your idea of zipping is different then mine. The ones I have seen are not fast at all, especially with adults.

People are drawn to the Walker bay for 3 reasons.
1. PRICE
2. Capacity, it can hold a lot for the weight.
3. Stability. With the tubes its pretty stable.

The problem with a RIB is the price. IMHO they are overpriced for what they are. 6-8K plus motor is not affordable.

4 light weight
5 it's a sailing dinghy ++for kids
6 it's rowable
7 moves easily with low horsepower
8 it's chafe resistance (against rocks) is it's achilles heel. But depending on your definition they're very tough.

With that said I own an 8 foot Walker Bay and its very tippy I would consider tubes but they're expensive and seem pretty cheap. The best Dinghy for me is two Dinghys. The Walker Bay is for when I want to go to shore and not worry about someone stealing it or an outboard.
Rows very well so I don't need an outboard. Also if you have kids its nice to have a Dinghy for them. And the "ideal" is an American sail,
penate model 10 foot fiberglass sail boat with full flotation. It's very stable, rows well, sails great.I can use a trolling motor or an outboard .the compromise is it won't plane. So to me that's what you have to decide first, planing or non planing . I've also owned the Livingston 12 foot, It was very stable, very dry. very fast but it was very heavy ( too heavy for my purposes) and filled up with rain water easier than a mono hull. So that's the other compromise, are you going to put it on deck or even in davits. No dinghy does everything. Good luck with your search. Almost forgot. I also owned a rib and it was awesome having a planning vessel. But I didn't like the fact that I couldn't row it if I had to. And it leaked. I was always worried about oysters on the docks putting a hole in it and also inflatables are more likely to get stolen expecially with a high horsepower outboard. so for those reasons I don't like inflatables

[sparrowhawk1]

Two more things I just thought of. inflatables (and the walker bay)don't bang against the hull of your boat, I have to use fenders for the pennant. and the Livingston didn't row very well."last edit". My Walker Bay is over 15 years old and still looks nice. Really last edit. 9. they are easy to tow

[sparrowhawk1]

Here's my pennant in solar electric mode. I have to swap out my solar panels that are on my davits with the larger type that I'm using temporarily in the Dinghy. I'll be able to mount the smaller panel athwartship and slightly forward. The trolling motor pushes it about twice the speed I could row it. And last but not least the pennant has a huge amount of flotation so I can use it as a lifeboat.

[zeehag]

buy whatever you want to have become a hat in a surf landing. is fact an d truth. do no tbuy what you cannot handle,
do not buy that which will become damaged in first surf landing.
do not buy that which will become someone elses when you fail to lock it up with 3 locks and to mast..
i have had all kinds of dinks from portabote to metzler inflatable to sevylor to avon to caribe to...
and i now use a 10 ft walker bay. i found walker bay to not be on the top 10 stolen listing. is wonderful to not have to treble lock and lift ...every night..
no need to speed thru an anchorage for any reason. no mine has no pvc tubes.
except mebbe to save your boat from rocks or beach when the rope to chain rode chafes thru in a good breeeze and chop...
and i always have my dink in which to return home from beach after shopping.
imagine the feeling of returning to beach after shopping only to find your dinghy is GONE.
then how great is your speedboat......
my oars are not on hit list, nor is my dink.
nor do i have to concern myself about damaging an engine in a surf fail landing.
many other and better things with which to concern ones self while cruising, and dink loss is a very serious subject and is a reality.

oh yeah-- try carrying 4 garafones (5 gallon bottles) of water to boat with an inflatable floor roll up..is not funny. also try taking a heavy tool from boat to dock and back in an inflatafloor dink... aint happening without damage to dink

happy sails

[Little Otter]

I've been trying to find the answer to this same problem and i believe it to be to find a model of dinghy you like first and then find a deal on it keep in mind that a dinghy is just supposed to be something that you cruise around the marina in or make runs to and from shore while occasionally being made use of as a scuba platform depending on what you have. you really don't need to be going all that fast while carrying provisions and passengers through the anchorage because you really don't want to have it loaded to capacity and try to avoid something while pushing it as fast as you can. defender and west marine both run sales on something or another every week, so I would just wait till one of them had it for a reasonable price.

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by travellerw

No I own a very crappy Yamaha 5hp, but 9.9hp are common enough to pick one up pretty cheap.

As to the comment on the port-a-boat zipping along. Maybe your idea of zipping is different then mine. The ones I have seen are not fast at all, especially with adults.

People are drawn to the Walker bay for 3 reasons.
1. PRICE
2. Capacity, it can hold a lot for the weight.
3. Stability. With the tubes its pretty stable.

The problem with a RIB is the price. IMHO they are overpriced for what they are. 6-8K plus motor is not affordable.

The Water Tender 9.4, made here in Muskegon MI. $599 at West Marine or even WalMart. It's s polyethylene hard dinghy, cathedral hull design similar to a Boston Whaler. Pretty stable for a hard dinghy, but not as good as an inflatable. Rated for only 5hp, weight capacity 3 people or 480# I think. Weighs 114#, about the same as a heavier inflatable or RIB. Pretty much bullet proof, there are some around here over 20 years old. They are very popular here.
I can get 5 knots in mine with a 3.5 hp Nissan.

[mikeod]

With a family of four you should really think about 2 dingys. We had a small inflatable and someone gave us a small sailing/rowing dingy. We love having two even if it is a hassle transporting them thousands of miles. When you can let the wife and kids go to the beach and you can still get around freely its nice.

[Vasco]

If you`re cruising get the biggest RIB you can afford (see, you knew the answer to your post )

If you`re not cruising any old dink will do.

AB, 15hp. Planes with four adults.

[ausaviator]

$3.5k is a big budget!

I'm in Australia where the dollar is terrible.

I just bought a Chinese made (better than average for sure) 4.2 metre inflatable with aluminium removable floor and inflatable keel with soft bottom. It was $940 and is .9mm fabric. For $1300 on eBay I could have got a 3.8 metre with 1.2mm fabric.

Add to that my Mercury 2 stroke 30 HP for AUD$2,500. Also added some wheels from Ebay for $130 for launching - they are inflatable ones.

That's a LOT of boat for circa $3.5k.

[malbert73]

No doubt, depends on where you cruise and how far you need to get. On one hand, it's sort of silly that you are willing to average 6 knots to get somewhere on your sailboat but then need to go 15 knots to get the final mile. On the other hand, if you are making multiple trips of significant distance it is great to plane in a dinghy.

We just converted from inflatable/OB to a Trinka 10 with sailing rig, oars, and 3.3 hp lightweight OB. Where we mainly cruise (Chesapeake, US East Coast) most dinghy rides are short, and anchorages and harbors often have official or unofficial speed limits. I chuckle at how often I see folks lower their RIB, rig the lifting bridle for the 15 hp OB, laboriously lower it, tighten, lower gas can, etc- a 15 min process. Then they idle over to a beach/pier within 1/4 mile of where they are anchored.

I love the Trinka because I can row for short distances and avoid hassling with fitting the OB for short easy trips.

With the OB, I can motor at 5+ knots barely making a wake at 1/2 speed (much faster than an inflatable without making significant wake). Much drier ride than displacement speed in an inflatable.

Just bringing up the counterpoint. When we do extended Caribbean cruise, we may go to RIB with powerful OB. But as long as we are cruising Chesapeake/New England the rigid dinghy is much more practical. I just hate wrangling heavy OBs.

[alctel]

I have a porta-bote and really like it. It rows so well that I don't even bother with a motor most of the time.

My favourite thing about it is that it is resoundingly, stunningly ugly, so will probably be the last dinghy stolen! It seriously looks like a floating cardboard box from the back.

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by 4arch

I'm not sure where you're seeing prices of $6-8K for a RIB. I'm seeing new hypalon 10 foot RIBs from AB and Achilles starting around 3.5K for a fiberglass bottom and 4.5K for an aluminum. The bow locker models are somewhat more but, IMHO, this is not a feature you need or want as it needlessly adds weight for not much storage space. Our used Caribe was under $2K and, apart from a few cosmetic issues basically looks and holds air like new.

Also, as gets pointed out whenever this type of question comes up, there's a reason RIBs with 9.9 or 15 HP motors vastly outnumber all other dinghy choices among full time cruisers. A lot of people have put themselves through much frustration and wasted money to learn that the hard way. If you really want to consider an alternative, I'd strongly recommend figuring out a way to borrow one and test it out thoroughly before buying.

Generally agree though not about the bow locker. Absolutely loving the AB Lammina 10 aluminium rib. Light, fast, and the locker in the bow is a superb storage place for anchor, line, and various emergency kit that I keep aboard (vinegar for neutralising stings, bailer, 1st aid kit, water, food, signalling kit if used as a dive tender etc etc). Just make sure you get the UNPAINTED version. Why they insist on painting aluminium is beyond me.