help tender heavy for pathetic female!

[millym]

hi & help
im finding carrying our tender down to the water & out again a bit of a struggle, its a lodestar about 10ft & is made really heavy by the floor slats which are heavy in themselves.

the slats make the boat really stable but gawd the weight. we obviously try & inflate as close to launching area as poss but i still find it v hard to lift my half & my husb is sick of me huffing & puffing & complaining. i know it sounds pathetic but i find it a real effort. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

thought of 2 options - get some lightweight material & get the slats copied to size out of it- but what???
or does anyone know where we could buy a small fold up plastic trolley thing that might make life easier.
saw a bloke with a little plastic trolly for his tender the other week, looked a bit small for our tender but there must be something we could get.
thanks

 

[Becky]

Why not make a travois, with two poles, tied together at one end. Place under dinghy, and then fix the tied ends to husbands waist, and lead down to the water with bottle of beer, brandy, whatever 'carrot' he requires for such work?

'Course, you could just get one of those little trollies, but couldn't he make something up to do the job. Just needs a pair of wheels fixed to a wooden platform to shove under the dinghy. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[tcm]

quite right

the hubby shd make some wheels, no question. They could actually be attached to the boat if it's a bit clever, and swung up when afloat.

Meanwhile the better half should organise drinks as soon after his exterions as is practicable and convenient. I suppose she *could* reasonably be expected to pull her weight from time to time - by orgainsing cocktails, crushed ice and so forth.

 

[savageseadog]

Get an old golf buggy and use the wheels

 

[Talbot]

I use a small plastimo dinghy down the slipway to my boat, but it is a dinghy for sheltered waters only. However it is light and already has a couple of wheels. My main tender on the davits on the boat is a Zodiac 2.6m airdeck, and I have fitted wheels to that as well

 

[ninnes]

Try one of these
http://www.seamarknunn.co.uk/catalog/items/item549.htm or
http://www.seamarknunn.co.uk/catalog/subcat272.htm

 

[LadyInBed]

Pop down your local charity shop (or you may even have one under the stairs /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) and pick up a shopping trolley, ditch the bag and bolt on a long pole (mine separates in the middle to make it compact). If you don't want to use a pole, you could adapt the trolley frame to slot in one of your paddles.

 

[roger]

It's not only you that has problems. A lot of dinghies nowadays are terribly heavy. Its also difficult getting thenm onto and off the boat. Its one reason so many of them are towed all the time. There are wheel kits that attach to the transome and fold up for rowing which might be an answer. Another possibility is to check at the boat show for a light one. When I did this I got some very unfriendly answers from thos selling heavy dinghies - they implied for instance that the light Zodiac dinghies were not good enough for the job!!

 

[William_H]

The lightest dinghies seem to be aluminium not inflatables. These have the difficulty of lack of stability on the side when transfering from tender to boat however they have the advantage of being easier to row and probably drier. A 10 ft size could easily be carried on a car roof rack and of course they last forever. you could then add transom wheels. just a thought olewill

 

[millym]

[ QUOTE ]
Why not make a travois, with two poles, tied together at one end. Place under dinghy, and then fix the tied ends to husbands waist, and lead down to the water with bottle of beer, brandy, whatever 'carrot' he requires for such work

[/ QUOTE ]
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
thanks becky!!! really made me giggle at the picture of that one!
& thanks everyone - some sort of wheels are the answer.