2airishuman
Anarchist
So I asked about dinghys of at That Other Forum and was subject to a lengthy reading from the Book of RIBs on how the One True Way is for me to get a 10' aluminum bottomed deflatable with a 15 HP Yamaha Enduro, and hoist these two pieces of kit every night to the foredeck and the rail, respectively, locking them with cables to ensure their continued presence on the morrow. Sermon then followed on how I would understand once I got Out There in the Bahamas and southern Florida, because I would then want to leave my big boat at anchor 7 miles away from shore and haul a load of laundry and gin hither and yon at 15 knots with the dink.
I see a number of problems with this line of reasoning:
I presently have a 25' plastic basket case of a boat from 1975 that I am hoping to upgrade to, say, a Valiant 40 with blisters or something
I took a serious look at the PT-11 and Danny Greene's Chameleon, both nesting designs, and have sort of shelved them out of concerns about sufficiency of capacity and ability to handle rough water. Also have looked at the trinka, fatty knees, plans for GV11 and others. For that matter a cheap 12' aluminum utility hull would be an aesthetic improvement over a RIB and would row better.
Looked at the Porta Bote and don't think it's right for us.
It seems to me that many of the 8-10' hard dinks are too small for serious use from a capacity and seaworthiness standpoint.
I note that many of you have hard dinks of one kind or another, and that there is a greater acceptance of towing. I'd appreciate any advice on designs or commercially available dinks to look at, real-world capacity, seaworthiness, what fits on the foredeck, where and when it is possible to tow, etc.
I like to scuba dive and Lake Superior has rocks, which make it that much harder to find something suitable, I guess.
I see a number of problems with this line of reasoning:
- I actually like to sail; my vision of cruising does not include leaving the big boat on the hook for weeks at a time in one spot.
- Docking the big boat once in a while on, say, laundry/grocery day doesn't seem to me like it's necessarily a bad thing
- There is very little to like about deflatables other than ease of storage
- I am actually OK with rowing a reasonable distance every day
- While the RIB+15hp approach may make sense in Florida and the Bahamas, other areas of interest to me don't have the shallow flats and shallow inlets these areas have, at least, not to the same extent (Great Lakes, East Coast, inland rivers, balance of the Caribbean)
- Having a dink that is fun to sail wouldn't be a bad thing
- Having a dink that moves through the water well enough that a trolling motor or 2.5 hp gasser can push it would be a good thing
I presently have a 25' plastic basket case of a boat from 1975 that I am hoping to upgrade to, say, a Valiant 40 with blisters or something
I took a serious look at the PT-11 and Danny Greene's Chameleon, both nesting designs, and have sort of shelved them out of concerns about sufficiency of capacity and ability to handle rough water. Also have looked at the trinka, fatty knees, plans for GV11 and others. For that matter a cheap 12' aluminum utility hull would be an aesthetic improvement over a RIB and would row better.
Looked at the Porta Bote and don't think it's right for us.
It seems to me that many of the 8-10' hard dinks are too small for serious use from a capacity and seaworthiness standpoint.
I note that many of you have hard dinks of one kind or another, and that there is a greater acceptance of towing. I'd appreciate any advice on designs or commercially available dinks to look at, real-world capacity, seaworthiness, what fits on the foredeck, where and when it is possible to tow, etc.
I like to scuba dive and Lake Superior has rocks, which make it that much harder to find something suitable, I guess.