Tender Suggestions for Bahamas

[Kiwi.]

Originally Posted by Funkydrum

As with all boats there are compromises. Our goals were lighter weight and durability.

• The flatter hull planes easily. If you were transiting very rough sea conditions on a regular basis, perhaps a deeper V hull might be more suitable. However, we're hopping to the beach, dinghy dock or exploring and it works well.
• The foam panels do a fantastic job of protecting both the dink and our boat when boarding, a small rub rail would be insufficient. The RIB has this protection in spades, but the OC foam panel works perfectly.
• The storage under the gunnels is a huge win over a RIB; (4) large mesh storage bags and full-size, REAL wooden oars.
• The fiberglass 330 weighs 105lb. The Highfield Classic 340 is 157lb.
• The wheels are useful on hard surfaces, rocky beaches. Not necessary if you only are on sandy beaches. Use them if needed, skip them if not.
• This is nearly a 'forever' dinghy. It won't deflate, it floats if swamped, is repairable if damaged.

Bottom line for us, with a lightweight 8hp 2-stroke OB, it's light enough for my 120lb spouse to pull it on to the beach by herself and is nearly indistructible.

Absolutely agree, it was a similar set of requirements that lead us to the OC Tenders. My only regret is that I let the tender go with the boat when we sold last year, the waiting list is long for our next one. As a percentage of the cost of the mothership the tender isn't expensive. Our tender is our car and our ute (truck), compared with the cost of our actual cars the OC plus motor is supercheap.

[contrail]

Originally Posted by Tranquilo2

Thank you. The big boat has a hydraulic swimstep and dinghy mount so it’s very easy getting it in and out of the water.

Except in a rough anchorage? I have seen people with a hydraulic swimstep/ dinghy mount have to tow their dinghy until they found a sheltered spot to get it on the chocks on the step and then lift it.

[aqfishing]

At the risk of hijacking the tread, what’s the thoughts of an Aluminium tender vs an inflatable?

If there are any previous discussions on this topic please post a link, as I did not find one. (Not that I looked very hard! )

For me lighter is better. We have a davit, so no problems there, it’s pulling it up the beach that hurts!

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by contrail

Except in a rough anchorage? I have seen people with a hydraulic swimstep/ dinghy mount have to tow their dinghy until they found a sheltered spot to get it on the chocks on the step and then lift it.

Yip, seen that too! Or they just leave it in the water. Nightmare in even slightly choppy conditions!

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by aqfishing

At the risk of hijacking the tread, what’s the thoughts of an Aluminium tender vs an inflatable?

If there are any previous discussions on this topic please post a link, as I did not find one. (Not that I looked very hard! )

For me lighter is better. We have a davit, so no problems there, it’s pulling it up the beach that hurts!

We carry a 12 foot aluminum skiff as a tender. It has a significantly lower weight capacity than a similar size inflatable (the biggest downside). Otherwise, it works well and is quite durable. It's about 150 lbs empty, about 250 in ready to use form (with 6hp outboard, full 3 gallon gas tank, oars, anchor, etc.). We carry it in davits fully rigged with the outboard, etc. so it's just "install drain plug, then drop it in the water and go".

After adding a set of trim tabs for more stern lift, the 6hp will push it at about 13 kts with a 180 lb load (1 adult). Increase the load to ~400 lbs and it'll still make a little over 9 kts (and with a clean planing wake). Running into a 25 kt headwind and 8 inch chop with the same 400 lb load it made about 8 kts.

[ItDepends]

Especially in the Bahamas, we find we are almost always landing on a beach, but we do tend to the more remote places instead of the resorts. If you are just using the small boat to buzz into the dinghy dock, your needs WILL be different.

This means a couple of things.

First, the dinghy needs to have a bottom tough enough to drag up a beach. For us, this eliminated pretty much anything with a inflatable floor.

Second, the whole kit needed to be light enough that we COULD drag it up the beach. Better yet if we could carry it up the sand.

Last, it needed to be able to be safely landed and launched by two old fogies in small surf. There are boats that meet #2, but are not safe in a surf launch.

Given those three requirements, we ended up with an aluminum hulled rib. The size should be the biggest that still works within the limits of requirement #2 above. For most couples, that effectively caps the size at 10' but 9' or 9'6" might be the better choice.

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by ItDepends

Especially in the Bahamas, we find we are almost always landing on a beach, but we do tend to the more remote places instead of the resorts. If you are just using the small boat to buzz into the dinghy dock, your needs WILL be different.

This means a couple of things.

First, the dinghy needs to have a bottom tough enough to drag up a beach. For us, this eliminated pretty much anything with a inflatable floor.

Second, the whole kit needed to be light enough that we COULD drag it up the beach. Better yet if we could carry it up the sand.

Last, it needed to be able to be safely landed and launched by two old fogies in small surf. There are boats that meet #2, but are not safe in a surf launch.

Given those three requirements, we ended up with an aluminum hulled rib. The size should be the biggest that still works within the limits of requirement #2 above. For most couples, that effectively caps the size at 10' but 9' or 9'6" might be the better choice.

Thank you for your comments. You sound like us!

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

We carry a 12 foot aluminum skiff as a tender. It has a significantly lower weight capacity than a similar size inflatable (the biggest downside). Otherwise, it works well and is quite durable. It's about 150 lbs empty, about 250 in ready to use form (with 6hp outboard, full 3 gallon gas tank, oars, anchor, etc.). We carry it in davits fully rigged with the outboard, etc. so it's just "install drain plug, then drop it in the water and go".

After adding a set of trim tabs for more stern lift, the 6hp will push it at about 13 kts with a 180 lb load (1 adult). Increase the load to ~400 lbs and it'll still make a little over 9 kts (and with a clean planing wake). Running into a 25 kt headwind and 8 inch chop with the same 400 lb load it made about 8 kts.

Many thanks. Good solid info.

[CarlF]

You will go to a lot of beaches in the Bahamas so a "not too big" tender is great. A smaller dinghy is also helpful at Bahamian dinghy docks which are crowded. If you try to dock a 3.8 or bigger dinghy in there you'll earn a bunch of nasty looks from your fellow cruisers trying to dock their smaller dinghy. Some Bahamian dinghy docks now restrict the maximum size allowed.

The "standard" Bahamas tender is a 3.1 RIB with a 15hp engine. Today's 20hp are the same engine (and weight) running at a higher RPM so might as well get that. Going up to a 3.4RIB will make it easier to carry four people and not add materially to the weight.

Get a four cycle outboard. The 2 cycle dump oil into the water, are loud, foul plugs, and get lousy gas mileage. For the four cycle be sure to get one with fuel injection not a carburetor. Far more reliable than even the 2 cycle.

A decision you'll want to make is whether to get a steering console. My wife insists on it since she likes to sit facing forward with a seat back for lower back support. If we were younger, we'd look at the OC but sitting on the gunwale is a non-starter now for my wife.

If you do get a steering console think about electric tilt for the outboard. Makes it much easier to come into the beach.

A couple over 50 will struggle to pull any dinghy up the beach. We anchor with this bungie cord. You drop an anchor attached to the bungee from the stern as you approach the beach. Drive into the beach stretching the bungee. Get out and then let the bungee pull the dingy back out into deeper water using a 2nd anchor to secure a bow line on the beach to retrieve it later. Works great https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

[rslifkin]

Seating position is a good point. That's one of the other upsides to our aluminum skiff. It's only rated for 3 people, so seating is easy. There are 3 seats with the center one being wide enough for 2 people. Driver sits on the aft seat facing forward (I sit slightly off center to give a better position to hold the tiller). The admiral sits on the middle seat, facing forward if it's just the 2 of us. If the dog is coming for the ride, the admiral will typically face backwards (on the middle seat) with the dog sitting on the floor between us.