Mini inflatable dinghy recommendations

[K2MSmith]

Thanks for the info. The Takacat looks cool. Planning on a Honda 2.3 outboard..yes - I can go for that.

Separate, but related question... In the 60's when we used to go the the NJ shore for summers, THE small outboard to have on your 12' aluminum boat was a Mercury. (although my grandfather had a Johnson). I noticed they still make small outboards (a 41 lb. 3 hp) engine. Is Mercury still a good engine for a dinghy or should I get a Honda ?

 

[1911tex]

I think..not sure, but my 15 year old Johnson 2hp engine is plated made in Japan...perhaps Mercury, and all the other used to be American outboards are made in Japan as is Honda. Made in Japan excellent...made in China, boycott it!

 

[toddster]

The pedigree of outboard motors is even more confusing than that of tractors. You need more information than the name badge to determine who manufactured it. e.g. Some "Mercury" outboards are made by Tohatsu and some by Yamaha. Or some are half and half by Mercury and Yamaha. Johnson and Evinrude used to be part of the same company, but then Bombardier bought them and started selling Suzuki's branded as "Johnson." I have an orphan "Johnson" 9.9 and just buy Suzuki parts.

 

[gabriel]

Thanks for the info. The Takacat looks cool. Planning on a Honda 2.3 outboard..yes - I can go for that.

Separate, but related question... In the 60's when we used to go the the NJ shore for summers, THE small outboard to have on your 12' aluminum boat was a Mercury. (although my grandfather had a Johnson). I noticed they still make small outboards (a 41 lb. 3 hp) engine. Is Mercury still a good engine for a dinghy or should I get a Honda ?

The mercury is a rebadged tohatsu, very good engine and in my opinion more refined than the Honda as it is liquid cooled instead of air-cooled...

my experience with Honda is that the alloys they use are weak on anything from their car hood rods, to motorcycles cases, all of which I’ve owned and have cracked on my from ridiculously small impacts or nothing at all. My 02 about Honda.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Dinghy selection seems much like that of deck shoes, with some universal requirements but still much variety influenced by personal needs and preferences.


We ordered a True Kit Navigator 250 at the recent Newport (RI) Boat Show. Thank you to Kathleen and Adam of @Momiji for first alerting us to this brand.


Our current dink is an old West Marine ~9', PVC unit with a four-part plywood floor and plywood transom. We bought it used and it's developing leaks. The repairman patched some but said the seams are starting to go. Also it is a Royal Pain to assemble and disassemble. The main grief is getting the four panels together with the aluminum side rails and under the tube/floor junction. A rubber mallet helps, but it takes about an hour and involves a fair amount of swearing. The inflatable floor on the TK seems like it should be much easier to install.

In our home harbor we have launch service to get to Kismet on the mooring ball. Our need for a dinghy is limited to those times we're cruising to a harbor without launch service, which ends up a maximum of 1-3 trips totaling 2-3 weeks per season. We mainly use the dink for getting to and from shore, not major expeditions. The rest of the time it is stored in its bags in the garage. Mostly it will just be the two of us, though sometimes we'll have another 2-4 people aboard. The 2.5m boat we ordered will comfortably handle three passengers. Some folks here have gotten four on similar sized boats. On the rare occasions we have more crew we'll just make extra trips.

We have a rather new, very low hours Honda 2.3 outboard which we will use with the new dinghy.


In its bags our old dinghy is too heavy and bulky to get below decks and store with any ease. We (okay, I) really don't want to tow a dinghy. It's one more thing to worry about and slows down one's boat. We've stowed our current boat on the bow with reasonable success, but it does encumber any work to be done up there. I run the jack-lines over the dinghy tie-downs but the resulting rats nest is potentially dangerous. One of my prime requirements for a new dinghy is the ability to stow the folded boat below when underway.

The TK Navigator 250 is lighter than our current boat by about 25 pounds. It is in two bags, the boat in one, and the floor, oars, etc in the other. Our old boat is the same, but the TK's will be smaller and lighter.


The new dinghy is a semi-catamaran design with a closed bow, recommended for tenders. The pontoons are supposed to track at least as well as the inflatable keel configuration on our current boat. The manufacturer claims oversize tubes which give more stability. There are some impressive photos of people standing on the tubes.

Jim (Chris?) @southofvictor asked about the open bow catamaran style boats in post #11 the boat show thread. I was really tempted to get one of those, though if pressed for solid reasoning I have to admit it's just because they look cool. What I've read is that the open bow makes it easier to crawl up out of the water or step onto land, and the extra floor space allows for larger loads. I think more water gets in when moving, though. They have significant transom drainage built in. It seems the open bow is recommended more for sports like diving, fishing, exploring shores.

The True Kit boats are made of a German PVC called Valmex. I spoke with a dinghy repair expert who said the German fabrics were quite good. He stressed the importance of all pressurized seams being welded rather than glued. Because ours won't be in the sun all season, I'm comfortable with this choice.

The single seat of the Navigator 250 is on a track allowing it to adjust fore/aft about a foot.

Bread Crumbs

What dinghy options for 34-2?

I'm moving the boat tomorrow, so the most of the punch list is covered for making it work. My wife and I started talking about where to put the dinghy, what size, etc. Can it fit in the starboard locker? If it does, how much does it realistically hold?

ericsonyachts.org

Dinghy Poll

Hello everyone - I'm curious about what people have for dinghys. Please vote for the Poll and then maybe post what you have for a tender if you have the time. Thanks, Chris P.S.- Please select one type of boat --- the one you use most --- and then check off whether you have an...

ericsonyachts.org

How big is your dinghy?

I know it's a very personal question, but I've been assured that size does in fact matter. I found on Craigslist a 10 foot WalkerBay high pressure floor inflatable dinghy and 6 hp motor, for about half of what it would be new. I'm wondering if it will fit nicely on the foredeck of an Ericson...

ericsonyachts.org

kayak vs. dinghy?

On my way to/from the rendezvous this year, I'd like to do a little exploring. And I'm thinking that a kayak might be a more agile way of getting around little coves and things than my normal inflatable dinghy. Anyone do this? The things I am wondering are, like, how best to stow a kayak...

ericsonyachts.org

Dinghy advice

Dear all, I'm about to buy an Ericson 35-2 in Vancouver. The boat comes with no dinghy, so I need to get one. I could spend $6k to buy a 10ft RIB with a 15HP outboard, I guess, but am not inclined to do so because it just seems extravagantly expensive for someone who plans to spend 3-4 weeks /...

ericsonyachts.org

- https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/towing-an-inflatable-tender.19874/#post-156336
- https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/trying-to-figure-how-to-set-up-my-75-dinghy-on-the-stern.18109/
- https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/e39-dinghy-on-deck.17194/

- https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/boarding-step-for-dinghy-access.20559/

- https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/pvc-zodiac-dinghy-glue.17916/

We won't get more than a trial whiz this year. I'll try to update next season after some use.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Our new True Kit dinghy arrived about a week after ordering it at the show. September 23 was a stellar shirt-sleeve Fall day in New England and we took the Navigator 250 to a nearby cove for a trial spin.



First impressions:
- Ergonomics: For me sitting on the tube and steering with the outboard was quite comfortable, somehow more so than the West Marine. Donna found the seat position comfortable. To row, we slid the seat back for me and Donna sat on the tube. This was rather cramped and rowing was awkward. If I had to row a long distance, she'd need to be further forward, perhaps on the floor.


- When being rowed this boat definitely tracks better than our old one. I saw a much more true line in the wake than I would with the old dink. Big improvement!
- It seems to track better under power as well. Not as squirrely as the WM. Though, logically enough, it doesn't spin on a dime as well as the old one.
- Even though it feels smaller than the WM, this will easily handle three people and a modest amount of gear.
- With a 10-ish knot headwind and mild chop, it was fairly dry going head to wind. By the time we got 20 degrees off the wind, spray was slapping aboard. This is on a par with our old dink.
- This new boat feels lighter. I'll try to do a more objective comparison on that.


- The aluminium transom is barely thin enough to accommodate our Honda 2.3 outboard clamp. I had to jam it on. Overall it's good that it's beefy, I guess.

- The air valves are a new kind (new to me anyway) where you push the stem once and it locks open allowing air to vent continuously. Push it again and it's closed but for air pressure from the pump. Back at home it didn't occur to me to close them when I rinsed the boat off. Quite a bit of water got inside the tubes and it was a real pain to drain. I had to suspend the boat upside-down from the garage rafters.


- The pump that comes with the boat works very well. It has a pressure gauge built in. However, it is more bulky than the old foot pump and feels more fragile. Also, it's got a kind of twist lock which is a good idea in theory, but in practice wants to twist back out if you don't have the hose torqued just the right way. Annoying but not a deal breaker. Maybe it's necessary for the high pressure floor.


- Most important metric for me:
Installing the floor was very easy and I didn't swear.

 

[Momiji]

View attachment 53829
Our new True Kit dinghy arrived about a week after ordering it at the show. September 23 was a stellar shirt-sleeve Fall day in New England and we took the Navigator 250 to a nearby cove for a trial spin.

View attachment 53830

First impressions:
- Ergonomics: For me sitting on the tube and steering with the outboard was quite comfortable, somehow more so than the West Marine. Donna found the seat position comfortable. To row, we slid the seat back for me and Donna sat on the tube. This was rather cramped and rowing was awkward. If I had to row a long distance, she'd need to be further forward, perhaps on the floor.
View attachment 53831

- When being rowed this boat definitely tracks better than our old one. I saw a much more true line in the wake than I would with the old dink. Big improvement!
- It seems to track better under power as well. Not as squirrely as the WM. Though, logically enough, it doesn't spin on a dime as well as the old one.
- Even though it feels smaller than the WM, this will easily handle three people and a modest amount of gear.
- With a 10-ish knot headwind and mild chop, it was fairly dry going head to wind. By the time we got 20 degrees off the wind, spray was slapping aboard. This is on a par with our old dink.
- This new boat feels lighter. I'll try to do a more objective comparison on that.

View attachment 53832
- The aluminium transom is barely thin enough to accommodate our Honda 2.3 outboard clamp. I had to jam it on. Overall it's good that it's beefy, I guess.

- The air valves are a new kind (new to me anyway) where you push the stem once and it locks open allowing air to vent continuously. Push it again and it's closed but for air pressure from the pump. Back at home it didn't occur to me to close them when I rinsed the boat off. Quite a bit of water got inside the tubes and it was a real pain to drain. I had to suspend the boat upside-down from the garage rafters.

View attachment 53833
- The pump that comes with the boat works very well. It has a pressure gauge built in. However, it is more bulky than the old foot pump and feels more fragile. Also, it's got a kind of twist lock which is a good idea in theory, but in practice wants to twist back out if you don't have the hose torqued just the right way. Annoying but not a deal breaker. Maybe it's necessary for the high pressure floor.

View attachment 53828
- Most important metric for me:
Installing the floor was very easy and I didn't swear.

What a great review! Yours might be the first and only detailed True Kit dinghy review anywhere, at least when we last searched for user info.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

What a great review! Yours might be the first and only detailed True Kit dinghy review anywhere, at least when we last searched for user info.

It was because of you two that we even looked at the brand. You can now apply for your Influencer Merit Badge!

 

[Prairie Schooner]

True Kit Navigator 250 review, part 2

One of the main reasons we got the new dinghy is for better storage in the cabin. Comparisons today turned out to be kind of, ahem, a mixed bag.


The bagged boat alone is just about the same as the old WM dinghy. Pictures tell the story. Using a bathroom scale I checked the weights. Interesting, 2.75m with a wood transom vs 2.5m with an aluminium transom.
WM boat: 53.0 lbs
TK boat: 52.8 lbs


The dramatic difference is in the new accessory kit which is a good deal smaller and lighter. These include floor, oars, seat, pump.
WM kit: 50.2 lbs
TK kit: 20.0 lbs


True Kit equips their boats with RailBlaza mounts for the oars and as an option for other gear mounting. We got two mounts added to the transom. We hadn't researched this aspect well. At the RB website a number of the products are labeled 'sold out'. There are a fair number of items available on Amazon, but also gaps. I ordered a couple accessories there about a week ago and one is on the way, while the other still hasn't been shipped. In our limited use, the oar mounts work fine, but seem unnecessarily complicated. RB is a New Zealand company so I expect they're trying to keep it all in the family.

Our old WM model is MS-275/0 FL which has a plywood floor with aluminum side rails to connect the four panels. Plywood transom. Homemade plywood seat. Their PSB-275 is closest to this, though with an aluminum floor.

At this writing, the 2.5m WM PRU-3 is on sale for an amazing $550. While we like our new boat just fine, if you're only looking at initial cash outlay, that's hard to pass up.

 

[toddster]

I went a little overboard with the Railblaza stuff, but one setup that I put to a lot of use in full-time cruising is a pair of "cleatports." One at the bow and one way back at the aft end of one of the tubes.

At dinghy docks, a quick wrap of the painter around the bullrail and back to the cleat is handy and keeps the working end within reach and splinter-free. The rear one helps when tying the dinghy side-to the dock to load heavy cargo. You can also stick an action camera, rod holder, etc in there, but what the socket gets used most for is a set of nav lights - also from RailBlaza. Indispensable in a busy harbor - especially one with a harbor patrol. (The rear one doubles as a flag pole for the diver-down flag.) Other cruisers frequently stop and ask for details on the setup.

(Not me - that's a RB stock photo.) I think the bulk of these things could be an issue for rolled-up dinghies, but they are great on my little RIB. Which reminds me, I was going to order a compact one for the new SUP. Maybe without the cleat.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

The dinghy sale is back, $479

I haven't had a brand new dinghy since... ever. A lot easier to get up on deck than an 18 ft canoe. It feels like Christmas Day. https://www.westmarine.com/west-marine-ru-250-roll-up-inflatable-boat-8ft-3in-pvc-material-881lb-capacity-17981143.html

ericsonyachts.org

post #3 - Another good review of the TakaCat, by @vanilladuck