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Originally Posted by markmark
As for the dinghy, cant you buy one that inflates and deflates and you dont have to leave it at the dock or hidden in the trees.
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Sure you can, but I'm betting you'd give it up within a few months.
Realistically, an
inflatable dinghy tough enough to survive every-day use as your primary way to and from your home in any sort of
weather - with a bicycle onboard, no less - is going to weigh about 50lbs deflated and won't fit into a backpack. I know a guy who used much smaller, lower quality inflatables, but he had to replace them pretty much monthly and I had to
rescue him several times.
I've been through several dinghies over the last few years - a folding Porta-Bote and a
Zodiac hard-bottom were the most useful. f I were to do it again from the start, I would choose a small, sturdy
fiberglass rowing dinghy. Something ugly enough to prevent people from stealing it, large enough to carry me and a friend and my bike and some groceries and no larger, and something with positive buoyancy and strong oarlocks. Something that rowed well! I'd go straight to the longest solid-wood oars I could get (seven-foot minimum!) and make sure that everything not nailed to the
boat had a padlock on it. By locking my oars to my Porta-Bote, I was able to leave it dragged up onto public beaches without locking it to anything immoble for days at a time without having it stolen... that's in the winter, of course, I sure wouldn't try that in the summertime!
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Anyway, ya so my idea was just anchor offshore in a proper place, and have one of those decent rowing dinghy's and or ideally some sort of converted electric bike setup to swap back and forth from dinghy to bicycle as I am ashore with electric bike in hand.
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Have you spent much time with the electric bike yet?
I'd strongly consider ditching the electric and spending a lot of time ocean-proofing a regular pedal bike... electric bikes are mostly plastic
import crap, much heavier than your average bike and definitely *not* made for daily use in a
marine environment. Depending on your
boat you'll most likely have to leave the bike outside all the time and you're definitely going to dunk it in
salt water sooner or later.
I'd replace all of the bolts with
stainless steel, put an "inox" (ie stainless) chain on, and keep everything well greased... I did this with mine, but then a rogue wake dumped it in 30' of murky
water off Kits Beach and even divers couldn't get it back.