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Wayne B

On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:15:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:25:08 -0400, Wayne B
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:55:55 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

Cruising around the Abacos with my wife and 15 yr old daughter on my
28' sailboat. I have a home built 2-paw-9 nesting dinghy with oars,
no engine. She sorta fits on the foredeck but must be assembled in
the water as there is not enough room on the foredeck. She rows very
well and my daughter who is in Crew enjoyed rowing us around much to
everyone elses amusement.
However, as we had the furthest mooring from town, rowing to shore is
not something you want to do more'n twice a day. It seems that long
distance rowing will be necessary in the future too with moorings and
anchorages.
Worse, the dinghy really obstructs my forward view on deck and tows
very poorly. So, I gave her away in Marsh Harbor. On to dinghy
experiment #5 (cheap rowing inflatable, hard shell Nautilus,
inflatable kayak, 2-Paw-9) so I would like some ideas. I might be
amenable to having a motor on the dinghy.

===

Most hard core cruisers usually end up with a rigid bottom inflatable
about 12 ft long with a 15 horse outboard. As an alternative you
could consider a roll up inflatable with rigid slats in the
floorboards. I've used both and prefer the rigid bottom, now on my
second one. Your issue is stowage space so you'll have to tow it
everywhere. Towing is not that big a problem except in big seas but
you'll want to bring the outboard up and mount it on your stern pulpit
somehow. A 15 hp ouboard is a hefty 100+ pounds but with a sailboat
you can lift it up with a halyard winch and a bit of cranking. West
Marine sells generic hoisting straps for outboards which makes the job
easier.

I don't think Frog is a hard core cruiser. ;-)
You should be able to water ski behind his dinghy with a 15 if you
could find a 25" pitch prop for it..
A 7.5 will get my 12' jon boat up around 15 MPH and that can be a
scary ride if it is choppy.
Don and I were thinking about something in the 2-4 HP range. Enough to
get from the mooring field to the dock in a reasonable time. It is
probably a no wake zone anyway..

I know you hard core guys think a 27' Sea ray is a runabout.

===

Jon boats are much easier to get on plane than an inflatable because
of their flat bottom. Also because of their flat bottom, they will
beat the heck out of you and loosen your fillings when running in any
kind of chop. The biggest advantage of inflatables is that they are
very seaworthy and difficult to capsize. I've been in some big seas
with ours and only once felt like I was seriously at risk (big
breaking wake from a large sportfish). There's something about the
steep curl of a breaking wave that wants to flip you.

In addition, inflatable are self fendering which is an advantage if
you are trying to keep the mother ship from getting scratched up.

Small, low powered inflatables have very little freeboard and offer a
*very* wet ride in a chop. Been there, done that. It's better to be
able to get the bow up a bit, even if not on plane.

PS, our SeaRay is definitely a runabout. You have to see it, more
like an overgrown bow rider, aka, deck boat.