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"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