Inflatables; Need advice

[ahab211]

I have two dinghies and three kayaks. The two man ocean kayak is OK to tow, the 8 foot river kayak ins good on the foredeck and the inflatable kayak is good to stow. The 9.5' soft floor inflatable is easiest to inflate and the 10.5' aluminum floor inflatable with a9.8 HP. merc is the best all around utility vessel. As you see none of these are the perfect choice and you just have find which boat is best for what you need or you'll end up with a bunch boats on the inclined wall or in storage at the Marina like me.

[CLucas]

I have an inflatable with an aluminum floor, but would not want to inflate on board our P30 if I could avoid it. That said, I'm very happy with the Baltik brand dinghy I purchased on eBay. Receives very light use, but it's been very durable. Usually tow, but have also brought it up on the bow. Think I have a 9' -- two adults or one adult and 2 small kids.

[PalmettoSailor]

The internet is clearly populated with some studly sailors. I certainly wouldnt want to be slinging the weight of a 9-10 hp engine from dink to stern rail and cant imagine slinging that much weight off the back of a 28 footer is gonna be great for sailing performance.

My recommendation would be a slat floor style roll up with as light an engine I could find. Honda has an air cooled 2hp for example.

Leave the dink inflated and tow unless you expect foul weather then stow on board. Always hang the outboard on the pushpit when towing.

Good luck.

[peterchech]

Originally Posted by midlifesailor

Always hang the outboard on the pushpit when towing.k.

Why?

[peterchech]

Originally Posted by bljones

Forget inflating and deflating, and don't even think about trying to stow it onboard. It ain't fun, it ain't pretty and it ain't necessary. On a 28 foot boat you are gonna need all the storage you can find aboard for general cruising stuff. On our 23 footer we installed davits for storage, but most often find ourselves simply towing our inflatable. It slows us slightly, but not enough to be horribly annoying, and the fact that it is ready to go when we drop anchor or tie up is a nice advantage after a long day.

Davits are great but on a 23' boat? How does a 100# dinghy hanging above the waterline effect performance?

[bljones]

The dinghy weighs 60 lbs., and underway is usually towed, but when hanging the effect is negligible.

[jrd22]

A high pressure air floor inflatable would be the easiest to inflate on deck, and the lightest but it still requires a lot of room to do it. Just plan on towing it like everyone else does, you probably don't have the storage room for it when it's deflated anyway (they take up a lot more space once you open them up than when they are new in the box).

[tjvanginkel]

We have an 8 foot wood slat floor inflatable on our 31 foot sailboat.
We are able to inflate and deflate on the foredeck with little trouble however I don't think we would be able to easily manage anything larger in the available space. We do not tow this dinghy except very occasionally so it is regularly inflated and deflated, and sometimes stowed wet with no apparant ill effects. It does not fit in any of our lockers so we stow it on the cabintop or in the v berth.
The flat bottom dinghy does not row well at all so an outboard becomes necessary. We have a 2 hp suzuki that works well.
All that being said we can only carry 3 adults max and that is on a calm day.
As with all dinghy solutions this one is not ideal.....
Tanya

[dabnis]

We had an 8 foot soft floor inflatable with a 2 HP Honda. Worked well, not fast but could beat against chop and current. I would say 2 adults would be max capacity. Not too big a bundle when deflated if rolled tightly. Had the motor for 25 years, still have it, runs great, bullet proof and only weighs 27 lbs and the little one quart tank will take you a long way & back.

Dabnis

[PalmettoSailor]

Originally Posted by peterchech

Why?

Because if you run into unexpected weather, you won't have to pay for expensive engine repairs if the dinghy flips.

I've had it happen when an afternoon thunderstorm whipped up enough waves to get the dink rocking and the wind took it from there. All I lost was a seat bag and the number plates, because I at least moved the outboat to the pushpit. I now remove everything when towing.