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Old 06-08-2019, 06:31   #1
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Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Boston area
Boat: Sabre 402
Posts: 39
Epropulsion Spirit and Newport inflatable dink - thoughts?

We've spent the first couple of years with our boat primarily daysailing and taking longer trips to harbors with launch services, and very intentionally went without a dinghy to avoid the hassles. This year our longer sailing vacation will be after Labor Day, which means launches will be running shorter hours or simply won't be running at all. I've looked into renting a dinghy but the cost adds up very quickly, to the point that we're about ready to say screw it and buy our own. However, we still don't see using the new dinghy more than a couple of weeks a year, and then only for getting us to and from a mooring or anchor in smallish harbors.

Based on this, I've been looking at a Newport Vessels Seascape inflatable and an EPropulsion Spirit electric outboard. My thought is that a lightweight dinghy with a dropstitch floor can be rolled up and live in a bag in the basement for 50 weeks out of the year, instead of living on the mooring exposed to sun and algae growth; and the direct-drive electric outboard can be charged at home before we set out and then recharged from the 12V for as much as we use it, won't require maintenance (particularly winterizing), won't need a mounting bracket on the stern of our sailboat, and can easily go in the trunk of the car without worrying about fuel or gunk. The whole setup comes to about $3k, which is no more than what a used dink of unknown provenance costs on Craigslist around these parts (Boston). I'm not worried about long-distance runs on the dinghy (and besides, the bog-standard Merc. 2.5 only holds 0.3 gallons of fuel), planing, or having a dinghy that lasts for 20 years of hard use.

Any thoughts, advice, warnings, telling-me-I'm-an-idiots? Am I looking at this through rose-tinted glasses? Anyone have a similar setup? Thanks in advance!
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