What Dinghy Is 'Unsinkable' ?

[MarkSF]

Originally Posted by atoll

we used a mirror dingy as a tender and life raft for many years,bow,gunnel seats and stern seats all filled with expanding polyeurathane foam,could still be rowed when full to the gunnels with water!!!!!!

It's spelt "gunwales"

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by MarkSF

It's spelt "gunwales"

Actually it's either.. and more if you go to where it came from, the "Olde English".
From the Nautical dictionary:
Gunwale: Also gunnel. The upper edge of the side of a vessel; a low bulwark. A wale was any of the strakes on the side of a vessel, from walen, an Old English word meaning "ridge." A "gunwale" was that part of the bulwark structure along the main deck where the guns were carried.

[Mouse]

The hunter liberty sailing dingy. It's a rowboat, takes a motor and also has a sail. It's unsinkable and very light.

[islandplanet]

Didn't Hunter have some problems with ACP though? I thought there were some lawsuits regarding failures and it's notable that Hunter no longer manufactures with ACP.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by islandplanet

Didn't Hunter have some problems with ACP though? I thought there were some lawsuits regarding failures and it's notable that Hunter no longer manufactures with ACP.

I'm not familiar with APC nor do I follow Hunter, I do however own a Liberty sailing dingy and can attest to fact that it does not sink as I have flipped it many times while racing with it. It fills with water but floats there about 3 inches above the water line. Takes a while to bail out but it still floats. I also use it as my tender so it is very versatile I feel. Still available on the open market as well.

[islandplanet]

Originally Posted by Mouse

I'm not familiar with APC nor do I follow Hunter, I do however own a Liberty sailing dingy and can attest to fact that it does not sink as I have flipped it many times while racing with it. It fills with water but floats there about 3 inches above the water line. Takes a while to bail out but it still floats. I also use it as my tender so it is very versatile I feel. Still available on the open market as well.

I was curious and did a bit of research. Be careful not to leave that dinghy out in freezing temperatures as many have cracked when exposed to cold temps. There's been some other issues as well and apparently Hunter quietly discontinued the products and went back to fiberglass construction.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by islandplanet

I was curious and did a bit of research. Be careful not to leave that dinghy out in freezing temperatures as many have cracked when exposed to cold temps. There's been some other issues as well and apparently Hunter quietly discontinued the products and went back to fiberglass construction.

No worries, I'm in the south and going to the Caribbean so I don't think I'm at risk

[endoftheroad]

Regarding considering using an inflatable as a dinghy liferaft.

Has a shark ever bit into an inflatable?
Sorry but I had to ask.
Perhaps the witnesses aren't around for the details?

[Roy M]

I've got the plans for a three meter sailing dinghy, with a daggerboard and windsurfer mast. It is designed to be built with 1" square foam strips and epoxy/glass skins. Unsinkable, even if it gets chopped up by a freighter's prop. The designer is the late Jay Kantola, and it was supposedly designed specifically for the Searunner trimarans to sit atop their sterncastle cabintops. I can't wait to build it!

[sy_gilana]

Privyet, O.P. The Terhi dinghy is 2 layers of ABS sandwich over PU Foam. You can cut the dinghy into 50 pieces and every one will float. Our one, we tested by filling it with water and then 5 adults stood up in it. It did not sink, but it was not stable.
400 - Motor boats - Products - Terhi
more photos of our Micro-fun (no longer made) at our web page gilana.org
Good luck...

[CrazyRu]

Originally Posted by endoftheroad

Regarding considering using an inflatable as a dinghy liferaft.

Has a shark ever bit into an inflatable?
Sorry but I had to ask.
Perhaps the witnesses aren't around for the details?

Russian team went around a world on inflatable multihulls It was staged circumnavigation and they used three or four boats, different boats for each stage. They suffered from cookie-cutter attacks several times. (Cookie-cutter is one little ugly nasty shark http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookiecutter_shark)

[Krogensailor]

A wooden Dinghy. Wood floats. And it's beautiful!

[Andrew B.]

May be sinkable, but I would feel pretty safe in a Trinka.

[ato]

Walker Bay sailing dinghys!!! Tried it and flooded mine, even full of water it's swimming. The rigid hull is hollow and the bumper tube around it makes it float. Only bad point is that it can support only a small outboard of maximum 3 hp. But so far it did an excellent job, even loaded with 2 kids, 2 adults and 8 crates of beer :-)