Bobsprit wrote:

We have an ancient long shaft Honda 7.5 with sailboat (slow speed)
gearing. With it, we planed at 11-12 knots with 1, 2 or 3 adults
onboard. We didn't get on plane with 5 passengers, about 1000#, but
still moved smartly.

According to Portaboat the maximum safe operating weight is 670 lbs. I can't
see how 5 200lb folks aboard would be a good idea.

http://www.porta-bote.com/dimensions.html

RB


True, that's above the placard, but we were only going a short distance
in calm water. The point is that we had plenty of freeboard left and no
one got wet.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

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

--
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover." - Mark Twain

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

--
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover." - Mark Twain

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

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

"Daniel E. Best" wrote in message
news:xYwDb.60887$8y1.245960@attbi_s52...
Hi Skip,

BTW, How's the boat search going?

Coming right along, the subject of a different post that doesn't start at 2
in the morning, and after I've had a chance to get caught up and more
'debriefed' on the trip (analyzing what happened in my third
circumnavigation, followed by a return dash across to pick up the unexpected
additions in STP on the way home, of FL). Finally seeing daylight...

Thanks for asking. Your form got a severe workout this trip, including
getting copied at two brokers' offices cuz I was running out!

L8R

Skip and Lydia

--
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover." - Mark Twain

"Daniel E. Best" wrote in message
news:xYwDb.60887$8y1.245960@attbi_s52...
Hi Skip,

BTW, How's the boat search going?

Coming right along, the subject of a different post that doesn't start at 2
in the morning, and after I've had a chance to get caught up and more
'debriefed' on the trip (analyzing what happened in my third
circumnavigation, followed by a return dash across to pick up the unexpected
additions in STP on the way home, of FL). Finally seeing daylight...

Thanks for asking. Your form got a severe workout this trip, including
getting copied at two brokers' offices cuz I was running out!

L8R

Skip and Lydia

--
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover." - Mark Twain

x-no-archive:yes


"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.

I have tried water entry from both a portabote and an inflatable (we
have an old Nissan which came with the boat). I can't get into either
one of them from the water. Bob had to make a strap with foot holds
to put on one side of the inflatable, and he had to be in it to
counterbalance it for me to get in from the water and I had to take
all my gear off first.

I tried to get into the portabote with no one else in there, and I
totally swamped the boat. It didn't sink, it just floated at the
surface of the water full of water with me sitting in it.

Of course I am very large (5'6" and weight 230 lbs) and somewhat
unfit, so that has a bearing on the issue. I'm also very buoyant of
course. I tried to shake it out like you would a canoe, without much
success - Bob picked it up with the whisker pole as a crane and dumped
the water out (without me in it).

I think if someone else had been in the portabote I could have managed
a bit better (I tried to get in over the stern so if there had been
someone in the bow) - or if I'd had the little strap Bob made for the
inflatable I might have been able to do it.

Bob talks about just towing me back to the big boat g I can climb
the swim ladder to the big boat as long as I don't have fins on.

I am also unable to get into the big boat from either dinghy any other
way than up the swim ladder.

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 :{))

We love the Portabote, but we have the inflatable on davits for
quicker use and for Bob to use in scrubbing the stern and waterline.
It's a pain as it has no seats. I don't like it.

We now store the Portabote on one side of the cabin top under the
staysail boom, with the seats and hardware in a sunbrella bag on the
other side. We used to put it on the lifelines, with the components
in the forward hanging locker.

grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id2.html

x-no-archive:yes


"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.

I have tried water entry from both a portabote and an inflatable (we
have an old Nissan which came with the boat). I can't get into either
one of them from the water. Bob had to make a strap with foot holds
to put on one side of the inflatable, and he had to be in it to
counterbalance it for me to get in from the water and I had to take
all my gear off first.

I tried to get into the portabote with no one else in there, and I
totally swamped the boat. It didn't sink, it just floated at the
surface of the water full of water with me sitting in it.

Of course I am very large (5'6" and weight 230 lbs) and somewhat
unfit, so that has a bearing on the issue. I'm also very buoyant of
course. I tried to shake it out like you would a canoe, without much
success - Bob picked it up with the whisker pole as a crane and dumped
the water out (without me in it).

I think if someone else had been in the portabote I could have managed
a bit better (I tried to get in over the stern so if there had been
someone in the bow) - or if I'd had the little strap Bob made for the
inflatable I might have been able to do it.

Bob talks about just towing me back to the big boat g I can climb
the swim ladder to the big boat as long as I don't have fins on.

I am also unable to get into the big boat from either dinghy any other
way than up the swim ladder.

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 :{))

We love the Portabote, but we have the inflatable on davits for
quicker use and for Bob to use in scrubbing the stern and waterline.
It's a pain as it has no seats. I don't like it.

We now store the Portabote on one side of the cabin top under the
staysail boom, with the seats and hardware in a sunbrella bag on the
other side. We used to put it on the lifelines, with the components
in the forward hanging locker.

grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id2.html