Hi Skip,
That's the one aspect of the dinghy we haven't tried yet, and one of the
reasons we still keep the Avon (the others being for simple redundancy
on long trips and also so if one person goes ashore, the other is not
stranded on the boat until he/she finally returns).

The factory claims it's easily usable as a skin diving platform and I
have talked to at least one owner that confirms this. But, I don't
believe anything until I have actually done it a few times. We had
hoped to do a trip down to the Channel Islands (where the water is warm
enough to enjoy skin diving), last summer, but a family crises prevented it.

We are now trying to arrange our schedules so we can do it this summer.

As I'm sure you're aware since this topic comes up periodically both
here and CWBB/CSBB (been an interesting week - what?), in all other
aspects of using the Porta-Bote as a dinghy, I heartily endorse it from
the perspective of 2+ years of ownership. So much so that if it turns
out that it is impractical to use it as a dive platform, we'll keep it
and continue to use it as a tender/taxi, and just use our Avon for diving.

Sitting here thinking about other possibilities, (if it turns out to be
just too hard to get into the Bote from the water), I may also try
towing a surf board out to the dive site, then going from the water to
the board then into the Bote. Dunno, but knowing me, I'll try a bunch
of different ideas (most of which will fail laughably) before finding
the best way, then stick to it until something better comes along.

Case in point: A number of years ago, after deciding that I was killing
myself working 7 days a week and further deciding I'd get back into
sailing, I purchased a MacGregor 25' trailerable. My thinking was that
if I couldn't change my lifestyle, and it sat unused, I'd eventually
sell it for about what I paid for it and the venture wouldn't cost me
anything.

Anyway, my wife and I tried a huge number of ways to step/unstep the
mast looking for the quickest, easiest and most reliable method. Never
broke or damaged anything, but there was one time we had just hauled the
boat and washed it and were unstepping the mast when a guy in a blue van
pulled up behind us. At this point, I really don't remember the details
of the particular method we were trying, but it was a dismal failure.
The mast got away from us and came crashing down the last several feet,
the top of it just barely missing the windshield of the blue van. The
look on that guy's face was priceless. His eyes were as big as
saucers! He never even got out of the van, just slammed it in reverse
and got the HELL out of there!

The point of my story is that we eventually did come up with a very
quick, easy and reliable way to do it (we could even wait until after we
launched the boat), but we had to try every other way first.

BTW, How's the boat search going?

Take care - Dan

Skip Gundlach wrote:

About PortaBotes...

Have any of you owners done entry and exit for diving with these? That's
about the only concern I have about them. An inflatable sides are very easy
to grab in order to get in, and probably a great deal more comfortable to
slide over, as well.

That said, their website shows some fire or police department or some such
diver being pulled into the boat by some couple of guys standing in the bow,
to demonstrate that it's stable. Same reservations, as I don't expect to
have a couple of boat gorillas to haul me in :{))

L8R

Skip




--
Dan Best - (707) 431-1662, Healdsburg, CA 95448
B-2/75 1977-1979
Tayana 37 #192, "Tricia Jean" http://rangerbest.home.comcast.net/TriciaJean.JPG