Well, anybody have knowledge of both for a dinghy?


I have both, and use the Porta-Bote almost exclusively. It rows easily, it
motors easily, it carries large loads. It also takes upwards of an hour to
assemble from scratch on deck (including getting together the three seats and
transom from down below, the bag of hardware, twisting it up on deck,
assembling, rigging a hardness to attach to the main halyard, putting into
water, mounting the engine, getting fuel can and safety gear)

my inflatable is an Achilles "donut" style, which takes maybe 20 minutes start
to finish including mounting the engine etc, but only holds *max* of two
people, and that is crowd. The damned thing rows likes a submerged garbage
can. Engine required.

btw, most inflatables you see on boats out there look spic and span brand new
in the last two or three years. Most hard dinghies look like they have been
around since Nixon was president. Interesting is that about half of those who
have a hard dinghy also have an inflatable. Not sure which came first, but
they put up with having both, it seems because each did things well the other
didn't.