Advice needed please.

I've got a 26ft heavy-weight cruiser.  What's the best tender for UK cruising, a hard moulded dingy or an inflatable?

I had a cheap inflatable but lost it while towing.

Hi Paul, I may be biased, but an inflatable for me is the ideal. It combines all the good stuff of cheapness, light weight, immense bouyancy compared to a hard dinghy, doubles up as my liferaft and most importantly is very forgiving of my boat-handling  mistakes.

Inflatables may be pretty ungainly and have poor characteristics for rowing - but what versatile little craft !  I have accepted that they have a useful life of about 10 years before they become a pain to maintain, but this is far removed from trying to keep a hard tender.

That's my tuppence-worth anyway.

Tony.

If you are going to tow it, you might as well have a rigid dinghy as it will be less drag, perform better under both outboard and oars and probably give you a dryer ride.

If however you are prepared to deflate it and stow it , the inflatable will be the better option and make you sailing far more enjoyable as you will not have the thing trying to ram you up the stern when you going down wind or generally filling up with water and making a pest of itself in heavy weather.

you pays your money and you takes your choice but it's an inflatable evy time for me (unless I was going to use it daily to go out to a swinging mooring, then I would have both as long as I could afford it.

Thanks everyone

Looks like the inflatable is the answer

I keep an ancient glassfibre pram to go out to my mooring/keep my inflatable for when off sailing.

It cost me nothing so if it goes on a walk one day no problem-it takes the hammer of transporting fuel ,food spare bits and beaching on a gravel beach-get its scratches filled and a dose of dulux brilliant white every few years.

Phil

I can see from your comment Phil that both have there place.  As I'm in a marina I will get an inflatable, any thoughts about the pros and cons of inflatable sterns and wooden fixed sterms.  Slatted floors and inflatable floors?  I only need a small tender for 1 or 2 persons.

My Seago 2.6 with slatted floor and solid transom weighs nearly a cwt.-almost impossible to lift alone.

Wheras old Avon with blow up seat and no transom weighs very little.

Plastimo do a nice small one like this often on offer from various Chandlers.

Phil

I agree with all the above, not only is a slatted floor heavy but makes the thing so big when is deflated that it won't fit through most locker lids even if the locker itself is big enough.

When it comes to a rigid transom, the dinghy will perform much better with this but, once again, it does make it more bulky to fit in to a locker.We have had to compromise and go for an external bracket and put up with only using the outboard at half throttle. It still gets tou there though and uses much less fuel.

The greatest inovation is definitely the inflatable floor: Dry feet, better towing, better rowing, better outboard performance.

I found a used ten foot six inch folding "Portabote" that will stow on deck between the shrouds and the cabin of my Contessa 26. The thing folds up to the size of a surf board. I can assemble it in crossways on the foredeck in 10-12 minutes. It has enough "V" in the bottom to row well and enough beam to carry an adult passenger plus a load of supplies.

This is not a good dingy for towing except in flat water. It is the largest dingy I can comfortably carry on my small boat.

Thank you everyone again.  That portabote looks interesting but I thing I'll go for the stowage features, inflated floor and roundtail - with big tubes.

Regards to all - Paul

What do you think of the ALDI inflatable boat on  sale tomorrow.

Regards David

The perfect vehicle for fantastic family fun in the surf.

• Each boat comes with: A wet bag that fixes inside the boat, Repair set and instructions, 2 paddles which lock together to make 1 canoe paddle
• Choose from: Ocean Wave Family Boat or Sport Cruiser Sports Boat
• Capacity: 3 adults

Sport Cruiser Sports Boat: 295 × 155cm

• 2 main chambers/2 additional safety chambers
• 4 oar locks
• 8 rope eyelets

Ocean Wave Family Boat: 286 × 152cm

• 2 main chambers with valves and 1 bottom chamber
• 4 oar locks
• 9 rope eyelets

I've just swapped my Tinker Funsail for a Walker Bay RID - but entirely based on teaching my son to row and sail as the tinker was pretty poor at sailing.

I think the inflatable with inflatable floor is the best all around tender and I'll buy one when I can afford it. I plan to get as light as possible (is there a good way to launch and retrieve?) - I may even put up with a wet bum if it means I can lift it and stow it easily...

Issues with solid dinghy - No flat floor - not so much lugging space, it can't come with us when we sail the cruiser, WB rows nicer and with the tubes is pretty much unsinkable.

The Tinker was too heavy with wooden floor, transom and seat - rowed OK but would not stow and need two to carry - but was well built and motored well - and could carry loads and loads and loads....

Hello there, I would liketo fit stack packs to my Formosa CT41,she is in Spain [Bay of roses].

Maybe someone knows where I can get them at a reasonable price.

Acouple of months ago I askeb for help deisel in water tanks,Bio. washing powder has gotten rid of deisel smell,now to get rid of the Bio smell.I think I used 2 n 1.

                                          Thanks for your help. Tom Kelly.

In large ASDA stores they were selling fairly
decent sized inflatable tenders for £100. They come with paddles and
an outboard bracket which takes up to 2.5hp. They seem reasonably
strong and could easily be carried in boats of 15ft upwards. Might be worth a look?

Regards

David