Dinghy for 26' sailboat

[grakker]

Hey sages, I have a small sailboat: https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/voyager-26 that needs a dinghy. I was hoping to buy an F-Rib as it would fit on the little area at the bow. Unfortunately f-rib told me they are backed up on orders until at least summer of '22. What a bummer.

Anyway, in lieu of that I'm leaning toward a portabote that I can tie to the stanchions. I didn't want to go that way for the only reason that I find them kind of ugly, but really I'm in no position to judge beauty.

Anyone have a suggestion for an alternative that I might have missed?

[Pete7]

Sadly, on a 26ft yacht, you don't have a lot of flat deck space. So I think blowing up an inflatable and wrestling to get the seats or inflatable floor in is a none starter.

You might watch a few YT videos of people assembling them on board yachts, and think about which size you want.

Pete

[tkeithlu]

Anything that stays assembled will take up 1/3 of your length and most of your beam, so you are stuck with something completely inflatable. Consider whether you have space on deck for a valise, or will have to wrestle it up from below, storing it on a bunk. Probably your best bet for propulsion will be electric with a Lithium battery, expensive but small enough to carry and light enough to mount.

Anyway I can envision this is going to be awkward. Problems include even space in which to inflate - it will take up the length of your cockpit.

I'm impressed by progress in small cruiser design. It used to be that 26 ft was a day sailor; today Pete7 can speak of a 31 ft. yacht. You're pushing the limits with carrying a dinghy on what used to be a dinghy.

[jeanathon]

I used a tandem sea kayak for a similar sized boat.

[jeanathon]

picture

[thomm225]

I use a 16' 6"' Folbot Cooper kayak as my Dinghy on my Bristol 27.

I leave it put together and it stays on the starboard side deck.

It will disassemble though and can fit in a backpack.

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

[actual.lee]

I cruise around the Great Lakes on a 27' boat. Currently, we keep an inflatable stowed in a cockpit locker. It's 9' when inflated and we do not use the floor boards, to save on space and ease of launching. When anchoring, it comes out and gets inflated and launched. If only going short distances in calm water, we'll tow it. Otherwise, it gets deflated and stowed.

Surely annoying, but one of the limited options available on a small(er) boat. I've explored possibly building abuilding a small pram or even a nesting dinghy that'd easily fit behind the mast. However, once the weight and launching/stowage come into play, I'm not sure it's a better option than the current inflatable....

[Jammer]

I have an 8' fiberglass rowboat that fits on the foredeck of my 26' boat. Not much capacity or stability but it's better than nothing.

[Privateer01]

I have a 10 foot Portabote. The hull weighs about 80 pounds. There are three seats average 4.5 feet long and a transom. Assembling it over the cockpit with lifelines in place is a bit of a juggle. There are YouTube videos of people assembling it on-board that you can see and judge for yourself. They seem to last forever.

Have you considered a nesting pram stitch and glue project?

I have a Whitby Continental so close to yours with a wider stern.

[winschwab]

Check out the Mercury inflatable. 6'-7" and weighs 41 lbs. Nice boat for your small yacht if you don't need it for more than two people. I have one I bought at a yard sale for $50. It had a rat hole that needed to be repaired. New they're about $800.

[picklesandjesse]

I think a small nesting dinghy would suit you. The Eastport pram from Chesapeake lightcraft is a very beautiful design. Will last you for years and you built it so can be restored by you too. Please look it up.

[Chris Cringle]

My current boat is a 30 foot ketch. Bigger than yours but not much. I don't want a dinghy on deck when off-shore but we need an adaquate dinghy when cruising. I chose a seven-foot Achilles roll-up "donut" which is (just) big enough for my wife and I and a couple of bags of groceries or a couple of water or fuel jugs, and, when deflated and rolled up, will fit into a cockpit locker. I power it with a 2 HP, two-stroke Yamaha outboard. (difficult, but not impossible, to obtain in the USA)

[Nord Sal]

If you go the inflatable route, get one that rolls up without floorboards (slat floor or air floor). Your small boat won't have much room for assembling or taking down the boat.

I'm using a 9.5-foot Achilles hp-floor inflatable (LSI 290) on my 30' LOD Ketch. It's a bit bigger than I'd like (except in the water) but I can manage to inflate, deploy and retrieve it by myself (with effort). I have used a friend's LSI-260 (8.5' version) and it was a lot better size.

You might also consider an inflatable raft without a transom like the venerable Avon Redcrest (no longer made). Achilles has the transomless LT-2 which should work for you. See example here: https://www.defender.com/product.jsp...288&id=7483885

[Cheechako]

Porta bote or a rollup dingy.
Friends of mine had an Avon slatted vinyl floor rollup and they cruised the S. Pacific with it all the way to New Zealand, no issues.
Some rollup brands come in aluminum slatted floors instead. They are handy because you dont have to mess with removing floors, or leaking air floors etc.

[Yellowtulip]

I used to have a 9ft Avon on my 24ft Achilles. I didn’t use the floorboards. It was sometimes towed but usually rolled up and stowed on the coach roof. I inflated it on the foredeck on top of the guardrails. I never found it a bother.