Tried climbing in your dinghy from the water?

[downunder]

Originally Posted by tuskie

Showing your age there Downunder!
Arh, the good old FAUI days, when scuba diving was taught properly in Australia. Before tanks and fins, we had cylinders and flippers. I remember an assistant FAUI instructor, ex Royal Australian Navy, berate a novice saying, "a TANK is an armoured vehicle operated by men in green and of limited intelligence, THAT is a diving CYLINDER!"

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I prefer to think I am not too old yet. How about you.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

That looks like a nice dink! However, that easy climb was without the outboard, with its weight might not be as easy to tilt it like that.

JackB

It is an inflatable floor and cat design, so won't make any difference if the engine is mounted or not, your weight will still bring the cat bow down to water level and you slide aboard. Since this dinghy thread is in the multi hull thread, I'm surprised more don't know about catamaran dinghies, as not all of them are for racing at 65 kt. It certainly will be my next dinghy, being able to plane with 3 hp, and being able to get in from the water with no ladder. The way it is designed, no matter how old or out of shape I get, I'll still have no problems getting into the Takacat Lite dink from the water.

[tuskie]

Originally Posted by downunder

I prefer to think I am not too old yet. How about you.

Definitely old, but not too old.

Old enough to get away with forgetting what I don't wish to do, but not too old to do what I wish to do!

Luckily diving, spearfishing, sailing and climbing back into "deflatables" is still on the "to do" list.

[tamicatana]

I'd absolutely LOVE to have a Takacat, but look at the price....and then ya gotta ship it to the States. ouch

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by tamicatana

I'd absolutely LOVE to have a Takacat, but look at the price....and then ya gotta ship it to the States. ouch

Aw, it is only money, besides it will match your Catana so well. All the attributes that you enjoy about a catamaran are now in the dinghy. Stability, being able to stand on the tube, ease of entry from the water, planing with 3 hp.

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

Aw, it is only money, besides it will match your Catana so well. All the attributes that you enjoy about a catamaran are now in the dinghy. Stability, being able to stand on the tube, ease of entry from the water, planing with 3 hp.

Yeah, go for it, using money we don't have to buy things we don't need to scratch an itch which won't stay scratched is what makes us what we are.

[tamicatana]

Bob brother man, you ain't gotta sell me on a multihull in any shape or form ;-) but it's hard going when I can find a decent used inflatable for way less than a grand, know what I mean?

[Kettlewell]

I really miss my old rowing prams I had when I first started boating, and no you can't climb into one from the water. If for some reason you did fall overboard you held onto the boat and used it to help support you as you kicked your way towards a dock or shore. That is an option to keep in mind with an inflatable. Before you exhaust yourself trying to climb into the dinghy, maybe it would be more prudent to just hold onto it and kick over to someone's swim ladder, the shore, or a dock.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by downunder

Swimming without fins or bouyancy is not a requirement of PADI.

Not true. PADI has a 200-yard swim test at the beginning of training for open water certification, followed by 10-minute water tread. My classes always did this on the first night of pool training, and I dismissed many students over the years who couldn't get beyond this requirement.

(Retired PADI Master Instructor, BTW)

[downunder]

Originally Posted by Bash

Not true. PADI has a 200-yard swim test at the beginning of training for open water certification, followed by 10-minute water tread. My classes always did this on the first night of pool training, and I dismissed many students over the years who couldn't get beyond this requirement.

(Retired PADI Master Instructor, BTW)

I would not disagree with your own training but this is not what I see and also alluded to by DOJ.

A 200 m swim test and 10 min treading water tests out and eliminates many.

[Kettlewell]

OT, but when I was a boy, my parents rule was we couldn't take any boats out ourselves until we could swim across the lake and back unaided, which was about a mile. Needless to say, it was a powerful incentive to improve my swimming skills.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by downunder

I would not disagree with your own training but this is not what I see and also alluded to by DOJ.

A 200 m swim test and 10 min treading water tests out and eliminates many.

My dive certificate is PADI also, and yes, there was a swim (IIRC 2 lengths of an olympic pool) and tread water requirement. DOJ also suggested this might have been the case when he was certified, but he had managed to talk his way round it.

[hellosailor]

I don't know if it was a NASDS standard, or a higher one set by our instructor, but we were told to come back for the first pool class prepared to do 20 laps (1000 meters) and when half of us did come back, we were delighted to hear "ten laps" with the second five done any way you pleased.

Of course NASDS went belly-up and PADI proved you could serve a larger market by lowering the bar. You're wearing a blue wetsuit, not a black one? Don't worry, there's a two-day certification for blue wetsuits. When can we sign you up for that?

No arguing with success.

But trying to come back on topic: I don't think there are any PADI certifications for dinghy diving, or dingy re-entry, are there? Did they miss that one? Boat, shore, beach, pool, cave, wreck, spear, night, but no dinghy diving, right?

[David_Old_Jersey]

For sure there was both a swim and a treading water requirement could have been 50m and 10 mins or 100m and 15 mins...........might as well have been 20 miles and 24 hours - never gonna get close to either, so figured no point me putting money on that happening!

Not saying my approach was a good idea (and not a recomendation!) - and probable that for a PADI centre who mainly dealt with locals less likely an option, but any business that is based on training transient Tourists using cheap labour is gonna follow the dollar (in this case the Aussie one!), no matter what the program says. Human nature - always predictable!

[tamicatana]

deckofficer bob,

damn you, now I'm thinking about that takacat again...

on the subject, check these kids climbing on. There is something in it

Best inflatable tender - Takacat lite - YouTube