I concur with Gord's post. The dinghy length should not exceed the boat's beam! Currently, I'm carrying an 18' tandem sliding seat pulling boat and towing my 11'
inflatable. Towing is unpleasant after a year of carrying the
inflatable... but I just really wanted that sliding seat boat too. It does not make a good dinghy but for excercise it's great. I'm currently considering the option of stacking the inflatable
RIB &
outboard OVER the pulling boat.
My dinghy stowage consists of using a boom extension to pick and launch the dinghy off stern chocks attached to my 'back porch'. It's far superior to davits as it offers secure, lashable stowage. No sliding and chafing dinghy that can never be properly snugged up under the davits. I am considering some additional fold out arms/chocks that will
permit the stacking. I've also considered davits for the 18'er so it can be mounted aft of the inflatable in chocks. The boat can handle the weight aft as it currently floats in a slight bow down aspect according to my eye. The extra 50-200 lbs aft won't be an issue but will extend my
LOA a couple more feet thus upping my overnight costs at a
dock.
It's a bit of a pain to deal with two small
boats when the one you want needs to have the other one moved first but worth the overall effort. Stacking the
RIB over the pulling boat allows access to the 'work boat' easily when needed.
The biggest issues in the
current mode is that leaving a dinghy in the
water for an extended period of time will create growth issues. I'm currently swapping the boats out when I'm in one spot for a few days so that the growth process has to 'restart'. No problem yet here in the
PNW with 10 consecutive days in the
water for the RIB.