Tenders- what do you use?

[owly]

Probably the smartest thing is to build a stitch and glue two piece dinghy. They often take only two or three sheets of plywood, and you can step a mast and use a centerboard. Make the tender look rough and a bit trashy. Build it out of cheap plywood, such as the 1/4" 3 ply fir marine plywood I can get locally for $50 a sheet. Perhaps put a water tight round screw in deckplate or two in the bottom, and remove them when the dinghy is beached.
A light weight rowable and sailable plywood dinghy that you can hang an outboard on if you want makes sense to me. It will cost far less, be more versatile, and be less likely to be stolen..... which is a significant issue these days.



Below are photos of a design by Richard Woods (Duo) that I really like. At 10' long it can be built as a two piece nesting dinghy, and weighs only 45 lbs. Here is his page on that design. Sailing Catamarans - Duo 10ft Sail/Row Dinghy (nesting option)

Note that the flotation tubes shown in the photo below are optional...........

[3Days_at_a_time]

we have a newport vessels inflatable, its our second from this company, they have awesome customer service as we had a very small leak in our first during the warranty period and they just sent us a new one. we've been really happy with it, we would like a rib, but at 1/5 the cost this will have to do for a while. we have an 11'9" one with big 18" tubes and it runs well with a 15hp two stroke.

[garrens]

A key thing to keep in mind anywhere in the Caribbean is your dingy must be lifted every night or it will be stolen! Depending on what you have for davits weight can be an issue given you will be lifting it daily.

I have a 10' Portabote which I am happy with. It weighs about 50 lbs and goes well with a smallish outboard so the two together are not very heavy. I have davits with double blocks on the lift. The motor end is good exercise but manageable.

[Auspicious]

As a delivery skipper and long-term boater I've used a lot of tenders. I love a good sized center console Whaler on hydraulic crane or davits. Wonderful. I've been dumped in the water when heavy crew shifted in a small inflatable.

I had a Trinka 8 with a sailing rig and a tiny outboard. I loved that little boat. Not great with passengers who would not stay still but I could carry a lot of stuff. Tippy. I had a Caribe "light" RIB - I will never do that again, especially with a four-stroke outboard - flotation aft is not enough to keep the bow down so we could plane with two on board but NOT with one. Frustrating. It's a problem with the light concept, not with Caribe - they are all like that. I currently have a 9.9 HP Honda with both recoil and electric start. The recoil is more effective but my wife has bursitis in her should and can't start it. The electric start keeps her from feeling trapped on the boat. Extra benefit is that a tiny 300W inverter on the dinghy battery means we can run a crock-pot in the dinghy on the way to beach potlucks and even drag the battery up to the tables and keep pigs-in-a-blanket or Swedish meatballs hot. Laugh all you want. If you laugh, "no meatballs for you!" *grin*

Starting from scratch today on a moderate sized boat (35 - 50') I'd get a 10' aluminum RIB and a 10 HP or 15 HP dual start (electric and recoil) outboard, built in fuel filter with water separator, and a nice bow locker, Mantis dinghy anchor, and a padded seat with storage beneath. I've sort of been thinking about this. *grin*

[owly]

The cost of good factory built dinghies is pretty significant. RIBs are not inexpensive, and the Portabote is in the 3K range. A stitch and glue dinghy is something that one can literally build on the beach... it's been done more than once. A few hundred dollars and some sweat equity.


I started wondering about home build folding boats, and there are a number of interesting designs. Here are some sites with plans, etc, the first being a build article for the Barquito.
Barquito a homemade folding dinghy row sailboat
http://www.seahopperfoldingboats.com/
https://www.christinedemerchant.com/...s-folding.html
https://www.boatdesigns.com/10-Fold-...t/products/13/

[Peeew]

I am in the Bahamas with my aluminum bottom rib and 9.9hp 4 stroke Yamaha. I do use it a lot for exploring and I can anchor out often to save mooring ball fees and still get to town to walk or shop. Down here with all the shallows I find a good fast dinghy a great help. The aluminum bottom rib is very light to lift and store on deck for ocean crossing legs. I really have not heard much about theft here of small boats but will probably lock it if I get near busy islands.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by owly

The cost of good factory built dinghies is pretty significant. RIBs are not inexpensive, and the Portabote is in the 3K range. A stitch and glue dinghy is something that one can literally build on the beach... it's been done more than once. A few hundred dollars and some sweat equity.

Interesting DIY idea Owly. If my current portabote ever packs it in, I might consider this.

One thought about price. Portabotes are not cheap, but they are no more expensive than most similar sized rubber dinghies. And unlike their plastic cousins, botes typically last a lot longer. Mine is approaching 15 years old now and is still going strong. So amortized over the expected life of a portabote, they are actually pretty cheap.

[contrail]

Originally Posted by SY Kelpie

Just trying to be considerate to my other half. She can't start the brushcutter here at home so I'm guessing an outboard might be a struggle as well.

Had that same situation.

[JMaav]

9 ft Dyer Dhow. Have had it almost 40 yrs, and was my grandfather’s before that. 2hp Johnson.
Tows well with a long lead (2nd wake), engine off. Engine mount on transom rail for the dink outboard.
Easy to row.. can row from center or bow seat with oarlock mounts at each. Available as a sailing dink.

[SY Kelpie]

Thanks for all the replies.
Clearly there's a lot of love for DIY plywood tenders. Certainly something I'm interested in- I completely understand how an expensive top of the range RIB could end up being a bit of a millstone, and I'd constantly be worrying about it getting damaged or stolen.
A 2.9m alu hulled RIB with a 9.9hp would cost about three months of our cruising income, so having to replace it would be a huge blow.

Has anybody built a plywood dinghy that can actually plane at a decent speed with a useful load aboard? The big attraction of the RIB would be that it would allow much longer excursions from the boat.

[Allied39]

Now where's that string so I can go measure it....[/QUOTE]

Twice half it's length.


Oh, the locals love 15hp's.....they find them really handy.
Not so much the smaller motors. I find it a big upside to actually have a motor, all be it small.
Something to keep in mind.

[JMaav]

Take a look at some plans for Simmons Sea Skiff and scale it to 1/2. Had a neighbor who did it, and it planed beautifully as a dink with four aboard. Will try to find some photos...

[BoatandBeach]

Our always-available tender is a 12' aluminum Highfield RIB with 20hp Suzuki on the hardtop.

The main tender whenever we are leaving the US is a towed 18' Boston Whaler Dauntless with 135hp Optimax.

[SY Kelpie]

Well this looks very promising:
Motor Boats up to 16'

2.9m 39kg and they say it will do 20kt with a 10hp outboard. Should carry 3-4 adults.
If I used WBP ply, I wonder what the total build cost would come to?
And how will she behave in a chop with that pram bow?

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by Glansing

I just bought a trailerable Hunter 240 sailboat and immediately began looking for a dingy. Our first planned trip was to sail into the Urbanna Virginia oyster festival earlier this month and there were no slips available. The only choice was anchoring out and coming into the Town Marina to the dinghy docks. Searching diligently on Craigslist, I was fortunate to find a used Sinbad fiberglass 8-foot dinghy. Very little information is available on the internet but appears to likely be a 1960s error fiberglass dinghy. It came complete with a sail kit but no Sail. Our experience with it over three days was fantastic. It rows well and towed behind the boat well even with a small craft warning on our return trip. I just need to find a way to minimize the water coming up through the center board slot. Think I will use two c clamps on the dagger board slot cover. Since the Hunter 240 draws as little as 1.5 feet, I do not see myself having to anchor far out. Anyone familiar with this dingy? I would love to find a sail for it.

Some life jackets are made with layers of this very tough foam. It's usually not hard to find one thats fabric has degraded. Take the foam, lay it over the centerboard slot, wedge the cover on top, cut off extra with razor blade. After repeated use it will wear out, simple enough to make another, you have plenty of spares.