How do you find the perfect inflatable? As with every other yachting dilemma, there is no “one size fits all” solution.
If you keep your boat on a swinging mooring, and use your dinghy every time you go out to it, taking not only the crew but also all their kit and the weekend's provisions, your needs will be very different from someone who keeps their boat in a marina, and only uses the dinghy occasionally to get ashore to the pub from a holiday anchorage.
How many people do you need to be able to carry? How exposed is the water you are likely to have to cross? How much space is there in your locker? How strong are you?
There are all kinds of factors to take into consideration.
Our first inflatable was a vintage Avon Redcrest, already elderly when we acquired it second hand. The tanks were airtight, though well sprinkled with patches, but the floor was porous, from having been run up shingle beaches far too often. It converted itself into a paddling pool as you rowed (yes, rowed - we had no outboard in those days.)
We eventually had its valves replaced and its floor sealed and strengthened, and it took on a new lease of life, but then it was attacked by mice while being over-wintered in the shed, and it had to go.
We replaced it with a 2.3 metre Wetline, with solid transom and roll-up slatted floorboards. Ideal for two people who only want to use a dinghy occasionally, we thought. And with a new 2 hp Honda four stroke outboard, it purred along happily in flat water.
The only problem was that it had very low freeboard. And if there was any chop on the water, we got soaked to the skin. But we were reluctant to replace it with anything bigger because it was plenty heavy enough to heave out of the locker. And we were afraid a bigger dinghy would mean a bigger outboard - and again, that means heavier. How big a motor can you comfortably pass from yacht to dinghy and back, when cruising two up?
But we fell out with that dinghy when we managed to flip it over (don't ask) in Braye harbour after a pleasant evening at the First and Last, and it drowned our (by then) 17-year-old Honda. Clearly we needed something a little more seaworthy.
The outboard had been a wonderful friend - rarely used though it was, it always started first time, even after each winter lay-up - so we naturally wanted to replace like with like. That model of course was no longer made, so we bought its 2.3 hp replacement in the range.
Our latest boat came complete with a really nice inflatable - a Quicksilver 3.1m airdeck. With an inflatable keel it looks like a mini RIB when blown up, and it's rated for outboards up to 20hp. There's no way we could lift (never mind afford) an engine as big as that.
It seemed we had two dinghies, one too small, one too big, when what we really needed was one somewhere in between. But friends persuaded us to try our small outboard on the Quicksilver, and this week we finally carried out sea trials. And we're really glad we did. Because the little Honda pushed the big dinghy along even better than it pushes the small one.
The new 2.3 hp model is considerably more powerful than the original 2 hp, and presumably the more hyrdrodynamic hull shape of the dinghy helps. In any case, the Quicksilver is an altogether more confidence-inspiring design. Its main hull tanks are considerably greater in diameter, and that, combined with its raised bow, gives it much more freeboard and makes it a lot less wet.
The inflatable floor and keel also give it much more buoyancy, and surely make it intrinsically safer (it has five separate air chambers, rather than three.) And because it has an inflatable floor, rather than a wooden one, and a plastic seat, rather than a wooden one, it actually weighs little more than the smaller dinghy, so is not much more difficult to get in and out of the locker (though a little more challenging to inflate on deck).
So we think that - by accident, rather than design - we've found our ideal combination: a dinghy that's big enough for comfort and safety, an outboard that's big enough to push it along, and both still small enough for relatively easy handling.
It's only taken 25 years to get it right!
