Babylon
Well-Known Member
As others have noted, its not an either-or equation as, assuming you don't burn/sink/suffocate, you still need a working tender - either hard or inflatable. A hard tender will row much better than an inflatable, although they can be tippy.
As our main tender, we carry an 8ft plywood pram, which is much lighter than a GRP version. I'm happy to tow this in protected waters, but offshore or on longer passages it's carried capsized and lashed down on the foredeck. (We're only 27ft long but cutter-rigged, so the mast is stepped further aft; with a small sloop one should have sufficient room aft of the mast on the coachroof.) Launch and recovery is relatively easy using the spinnaker halyard, although I've made up a block-and-tackle which clips onto the halyard to make life a little easier. All old-school.
The original small inflatable is also carried as a backup, stowed low down in a deep cockpit locker, but the *** is getting it out and finding room on deck to inflate the pesky thing - then trying to row it when the outboard is playing up! There is also a liferaft which came with the boat mounted on chocks forward of the main-hatch, so I've indeed got the option of four vessels in which to remain afloat.
View attachment 47780
HINT: The *** word I originally typed is also slang for 'homosexual', 'cigarette', or 'little-boy-slave' in an English public school, as well as my intended meaning of 'bother', but the server in its infinite and atrocious wisdom decided to censor it!
As our main tender, we carry an 8ft plywood pram, which is much lighter than a GRP version. I'm happy to tow this in protected waters, but offshore or on longer passages it's carried capsized and lashed down on the foredeck. (We're only 27ft long but cutter-rigged, so the mast is stepped further aft; with a small sloop one should have sufficient room aft of the mast on the coachroof.) Launch and recovery is relatively easy using the spinnaker halyard, although I've made up a block-and-tackle which clips onto the halyard to make life a little easier. All old-school.
The original small inflatable is also carried as a backup, stowed low down in a deep cockpit locker, but the *** is getting it out and finding room on deck to inflate the pesky thing - then trying to row it when the outboard is playing up! There is also a liferaft which came with the boat mounted on chocks forward of the main-hatch, so I've indeed got the option of four vessels in which to remain afloat.
View attachment 47780
HINT: The *** word I originally typed is also slang for 'homosexual', 'cigarette', or 'little-boy-slave' in an English public school, as well as my intended meaning of 'bother', but the server in its infinite and atrocious wisdom decided to censor it!
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