That's about average for pinning the seats and installing the transom.
Let's add as few steps to that:
-Gathering parts
-Padding Cabin Top
-securing boom out of the way
-Moving Hull to assembly location
-propping hull open
-pinning seats and installing transom
-installing bow piece, painter and lock cable
-rigging sling and launching dinghy
-installing motor and fuel can
-collecting and installing anchor and safety gear
-restablishing order on mother ship

Yeah, forty minutes is about right.
As for my missing arm, I specifically asked Bob not to tell any one.
Very cruel BB











On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 14:17:46 GMT, wrote:

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 13:19:05 GMT, Marc wrote:

I agree with Jax. Putting the portabote together athwart the cabin top
is a time consuming PIA. With practice, we've gotten it down to 40
min. Having said that, it beats towing. The trade off is that, due to
laziness, we tend not to assemble the dinghy if we are only going to
be in a given port ovenight. Longer stays are worth the effort.



??? The last time my wife timed me, it took me almost 7 minutes to
assemble the boat on the foredeck by myself. Are you missing an arm?

BB




On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 11:53:11 GMT, wrote:

On 31 Mar 2004 04:38:47 GMT, (JAXAshby) wrote:

It takes me about 20-30 minutes the first time of the season -- mostly
figuring things out again and working against the stiffness. After that,
it's 10-15 minutes to set up or down

all things in a pile on the shore, yup.

On the deck on my boat with seats, transom down below along with bolting
hardwar, plus engine on the rear pulpit of my boat, plus the gas tank for the
o/b engine, plus safety gear, plus rigging the harness to lift the Porta-Bote
off my boat, plus lowering the bote, plus all else, well the time is a mite
longer than on shore.


Sounds more like you are very disorganized and inept. It would take you an hour
to get any dinghy in the water, based on your descriptiion.

BB

It weighs 50 pounds, Marc! I pick it up and drop it over the
lifelines.

bb, you just pegged the bs meter. A 12 foot Porta-Bote weighs 89 pounds, PLUS
the (3, not 2 as you stated) seats PLUS the transom. The total is a lot closer
to 120 pounds or more.

btw, you don't just tie the bote to the lifelines, you also tied the bote
tightly before taking it to the lifelines to store. the bote is stiff and half
opens up on its own if you don't tie it together.

btw, the VAST majority of Porta-Botes are the 12 foot model, with most of the
rest being 10 feet. Very few 8 foot Porta-Botes out there. In fact, I have
never seen one. 12's and 10's have three seats. only the 8 has two seats.
the 8 footer is considered too small to use for more than one person under most
conditions, and the 10 and 12's are very little more money.