At last Ive decided to buy an inflatable

[Nick2]

Only question (other than which one of course) is it to be slatted, solid or inflatable floor ?
Likely to be 2.4M - 2.8M with 4hp motor and will be davit hung.

Thanks

Nick

 

[hlb]

Get a puff up floor thingy.

<font color=blue> Haydn

 

[DavidJ]

Buy a slatted roll up one and an electric 12v pump to go with it. I'm sure it will tuck away somewhere and keep the stern clear. We bought a Bombard AX3 some 10 years ago and it's still going well.
David

 

[MarcusMan]

I'd vote for the inflatable floor if you intend to use it off davits. Simply because my impression is that its more stable overall. Just ordered a Zodiac 2.4 from the Boat Show. Not cheap, but after looking at a lot of stuff there my impression was it was good (and they did us a good deal). If you're going there we spoke to Phil Lynch of PA Lynch on the Zodiac stand and he was very helpful, not pushy and willing to negotiate.

Mark

 

[lyc]

Get the inflatable floor, more rigid than slatted and with an inflatable keel.

 

[jimg]

Inflatable floor, no question. I have had one for serveral years ( Zodiac with inflataable keel ). It feels like a solid floor and behaves like one, but you can still lift it and move it around a beach. I settled on the 3hp Yamaha Malta which pushes along with 2 adults and dog ( large ) quite well. I would never go back to a RIB ( small size ) or slatted floor.

 

[sfh]

Ive got one for sale, wetline 260 slat floor with 2.5 mercury new 2001

 

[byron]

<font color=blue>I knew you'd buy an inflatable, someone told me you always did prefer a blow job </font color=blue>

http://www.alexander-advertising.co.uk

 

[Bejasus]

bet you could use one right now...............and I know which one I mean....../forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/h00>http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/h00</A>

 

[tcm]

Hmm everyone seems to be suggesting an inflatable keel. We had one of these on a zodiac cadet, 2.4 m I think. The inflatable keel is okaish, but there's floorboards too, and they aren't rolly-uppable except max once per season I'd say.

The received wisdom was that the rigid hulls are loads better - you can scufffem on the beach, they stand a better chance of planing if solo and so on. Valiant do very light versions, haven't had one but was impresssed at low weight at a visit to a dealer in Itchenor, or perhaps via web, worth a look?

 

[whisper]

I started with a borrowed one, 2.6m with slatted floor - convenient to stow & assemble/light/cheap but very unstable to stand in.
Progressed to 3.1m with solid floor + inflatable keel - awkward to put together/heavy(especially wooden floor) - stable to stand in.
Now, 2.3m with inflatable floor & keel - convenient to stow & assemble/light/relatively stable but expensive.
If you didn't need to fold your dinghy up then I would go for one of the new alluminium hulled little ribs as they have the advantages of appearing to be lighter than solid floor inflatables plus they are more stable than any of the above and handle far better under power. They are probably the most expensive option though.

 

[terryw]

We bought one at the show on saturday. Decided on a Yam with Yamaha package. Show deals and intrest free credit. We went for the slatted floor for 2 reasons. First it folds down much easier and smaller, and second, after reading previous postings on this forum the slatted floors are lighter when you are trying to pull them up the beach or slipway.