x-no-archive:yes
DSK wrote:

"Rosalie B." wrote:

See above - you do not WANT to have a nice looking dinghy. You want a
funny looking dinghy - a MEMORABLY funny looking dinghy. A dinghy
that makes you cringe to know that anyone would associate you with it.
A dinghy that everyone who as seen it once will remember forever.

You have to ride around in an ugly boat, just to discourage thieves?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's like the ugly girl said -
"My looks are your problem - I don't have to look at me."

It also helps to find it in a crowd.

I don't think our inflatable is uglier than anyone elses, and I don't
think the portabote is ugly so much as funny looking.

My theory is that nobody is going to steal a dinghy that cannot have an ouboard motor
mounted to it. Time will tell. In any event, our dinghy will be unique enough to
identify at some distance.

Will they know? My husband had some cheap speakers ($10) mounted on
the rear shelf of the car and someone smashed the rear window to get
them - and then realized that they were cheap speakers and didn't even
steal them.


The flexy bottom of the portabote is far preferable to me to the
inflatable - I just don't like inflatable - even the nice big ones.
We have an inflatable (a Nissan I think), but I far and away prefer
the portabote even though we have to assemble the portabote and the
dinghy is right there on davits.

I don't like inflatables either. The only good thing about them IMHO is that they
don't gouge up the topsides coming alongside. The usual method of mounting them in

They sometimes make black marks though. The portabote doesn't gouge
up the topsides either.

davits results in an ugly & awkward obstruction on the back of the boat. But then, it
appears to be the style and few people can bring themselves to defy current styles for
practicality.

In our case we did not want to tow the dinghy (although many people do
but it cuts the boat speed plus if it is in the water all the time you
have to worry about antifouling on the bottom) and if we put it on
deck, I couldn't see over it to steer. But we did want a dinghy that
could be deployed quickly. We didn't buy the portabote until a couple
of years later (and we got it 2nd hand).

grandma Rosalie