Best Hypalon Dinghy and outboard right now

[tomtriad]

Not all hypalon dinks are equal. I'd avoid any of Chinese manufacture; I inadvertently bought a Wa - Wei thinking it was Achilles - wrong! It was a knockoff and the glue failed at all the non hypalon joints - including the transom!

I now have an Achilles airfloor, LSI 290E and love it. I had several wood floor Achilles of similar size but they are a pain in the butt to install the floors - real knuckle busters. The new dink planes with my wife and me and a 3.3 hp Mercury 2 stroke which weighs 28 lbs. Highly recommended! I bought it lightly used for half price ($1,300) on Craig's list.

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by captainmarknc

I know, it's on sale. You are right, it says PVC. I will stop back at Costco because I know I saw Hypalon.

I was at Costco today and they had that dinghy hanging from the ceiling. The sign says PVC and $600.

[model 10]

[QUOTE=NorthCoastJoe;e. PVC is cheap and throwaway.





Polyurethane whitewater rafts are the hot set up these days. SOTAR and Wing, maybe others.

[mikedefieslife]

I came across a whaly in the flesh today at the dinghy dock. Not sure on the size. My 2.7m air deck is behind it.

Note that the oar locks look to have failed and have been replaced by webbing, and the oars themselves are these pathetic little things that so many dinghies seem to come with these days.

[tomtriad]

The row locks were the first to go on my Chinese hypalon dink.. Then the oar stowage clips, then the transom. And finally the plastic cones at the stern of the air tubes (!) gave me that sinking feeling. Avoid cheap knockoffs and buy a known reliable manufacturer of hypalon, like Achilles, Caribe, or ABI.

[Sand crab]

I wonder if Caribe is still in business because their only factory appears to be in Venezuela.

FWIW Avon is owned by Zodiac.

[Sand crab]

It looks like Hypalon was discontinued about 10 years ago as the PVC boat seller said but other similar fabrics have been developed.
https://www.anixter.com/en_us/resour...ontinuing.html
AB uses an Orca fabric.
Why AB | AB Inflatables
https://orca.eu/en/produit/orca-engi...rics-for-ribs/

[jmorrison146]

Lehr is still making propane outboards and we love our 5hp model. There is no good place to store gasoline on a sailboat. We use the propane outboard with one of the tanks that dirt in the boat's propane locker. Lehr recently introduced a 15 hp outboard.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by jmorrison146

Lehr is still making propane outboards and we love our 5hp model. There is no good place to store gasoline on a sailboat. We use the propane outboard with one of the tanks that dirt in the boat's propane locker. Lehr recently introduced a 15 hp outboard.

I would have thought there are more good places to store it on a 40ft yacht than on a 2m moped.

[iota27]

I had an Achillies 10.4 hypalon with a Yamaha 9.9 2 stroke on it. Nice set up but I always felt it was a little over powered. However, it would quickly get me to the fishing grounds and back at around 28 mph, if I remember correctly.