Most stable tenders/dinghies

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vid
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fireball said:
That's the second time you've posted that - have you added a link from your site back here?

We don't mind pros promoting their products - but would prefer if you had something else to say rather than just "buy my kit".

We are ppl on here - not just target audience - engage with us and you might find it a pleasure.
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Yep, needed saying, though how much trade he is hoping to get from here I don't know, I would hazard a guess that most of us are in the UK? It looks like a good product though, shame he doesn't seem to have a supplier here?
 
fireball said:
That's the second time you've posted that - have you added a link from your site back here?

We don't mind pros promoting their products - but would prefer if you had something else to say rather than just "buy my kit".

We are ppl on here - not just target audience - engage with us and you might find it a pleasure.
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I just wanted to offer a suggestion which I felt might help without making a sales pitch. I'm sorry you feel as you do.
 
HarveyN said:
I just wanted to offer a suggestion which I felt might help without making a sales pitch. I'm sorry you feel as you do.
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I thought that was a polite nudge before the moderator gets at you, because 2 out of 6 posts promoting your own products is pushing it for a newbie. Advice here is expected to be impartial.
 
chewi said:
I thought that was a polite nudge before the moderator gets at you, because 2 out of 6 posts promoting your own products is pushing it for a newbie. Advice here is expected to be impartial.
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I thought I was quite impartial since there are no similar products other than the Walker Bay tubes for Walker Bay boats, which I mentioned and said were excellent.
 
HarveyN said:
I thought I was quite impartial since there are no similar products other than the Walker Bay tubes for Walker Bay boats, which I mentioned and said were excellent.
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Ok, have you got a UK distributor? If not, too much hassle ordering them direct from you.
 
As an idea, would it be possible to fit some dinghy buoyancy bags onto the side of a rigid tender. My old stowaway had this kind of arrangement and it made the boat very stable. As an added bonus, it acted as a giant fender.
 
HarveyN said:
I understand completely. We've sold only a few to the UK.
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Well why not see if you can get a UK distributor interested? If you have a good product, and you can pitch the price so people will buy them, worth a thought no? Personally I think the Walker Bay ones, are a good bit of kit, the price is ridiculous, more akin to what can we screw out of these rich yachties, than bearing any relation to what they cost to manufacture, with a fair profit margin added on.
 
fireball said:
That's the second time you've posted that - have you added a link from your site back here?

We don't mind pros promoting their products - but would prefer if you had something else to say rather than just "buy my kit".

We are ppl on here - not just target audience - engage with us and you might find it a pleasure.
Click to expand...

More than willing to engage... and yes, I do have a link to this forum.
 
I'd long forgotten this post, until coming across it searching for something else, and hadn't realised it had produced so many useful replies.

Well, I'm still using the same old dinghy, but I still want to replace it, though I have got a bit more used to it and adopting the techniques mentioned here have helped me gain more confidence. In particular, the use of bow and stern lines to secure it alongside the yacht, keeping my weight low by sitting on the floor rather than the tubes, plus watching out for any wash or other disturbance at the time of climbing up onto the yacht, or down from the yacht into the dinghy have all helped/

I am seriously looking at one of the Bic 245 cathedral-hulled dinghies which look ideal. I'll probably keep the inflatable to take away with me and use the Bic for the shore-mooring run.

Thanks for your comments.
 
For any given size basic inflatables are always the most stable, though inflatable floors or rigid floorboards make their use easier.

I used to own the world's tippiest 7 ft rigid wooden hard-chine pram dinghy, never had any problems with it but I was young. Then added an 8 ft Avon Redstart to carry aboard, and found that infinitely more stable. Then followed for many years a series of rigid transom inflatables, currently a 2.7 metre, and all seemed very stable, even though now much older and creakier, and a bit heavier.

Borrowed a Redstart briefly last year - managed to overturn it getting out. Not a happy bunny.
 
jwilson said:
Borrowed a Redstart briefly last year - managed to overturn it getting out. Not a happy bunny.
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I bought an elderly Avon Redshank for £100 at the end of the '90s - massive thing, very stable, took 5 of us drunken hooligans to sea under oars without the slightest problem or leak.

Thinking about the dinghy-to-yacht transfer, isn't it climbing into a tender which is most problematic? If one is already in the dinghy, and has a tight grip on a boarding ladder, hopefully the only way is up...

...but climbing down a ladder in the dark, without a clear idea of the dinghy's position, will unnerve even the most agile crewman.

Doesn't anybody make a ladder that will hang over the rail, and has a good-sized, sturdy fold-down platform at the bottom end? So that when your feet are close to the waterline, you can turn round, standing on the platform (keeping a firm grip on the ladder) and ensure your step off into the tender is a safe one.

It couldn't double as a swim-ladder, but with battery-powered downward-pointing lights, it'd make a nice safe, civilised way of getting your non-sailing guests up & down the topsides.
 
Vid said:
I'd long forgotten this post, ........
Well, I'm still using the same old dinghy, ..........

I am seriously looking at one of the Bic 245 cathedral-hulled dinghies which look ideal. I'll probably keep the inflatable to take away with me and use the Bic for the shore-mooring run.

.
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I am afraid I have not read back through the thread so I am at risk repeating something already posted.

I'd definitely recommend something like the Bic .

I was given an old dinghy of similar design recently. Sadly already somewhat damaged but hopefully will see me out.

It has totally transformed my embarkation/disembarkation experiences.

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I am surprised that no one has commented that although inflatables overall are much more stable than hard dinghys you do have to be careful motoring into wind not to get bouncing and the wind undernieth!
 
FWIW we have used a Walker Bay Genisis 2.7 rib for the last three years.
It has good features-like duckboards, drink holders, storage boxes and a folding transom-and is very stable.
On the minus side its a bit heavy and at list price a bit expensive.
Ours came in at a very good price and has been faultless so far.
Worth a look.
 
I use a tender designed by American designer Edwin Monk in the 30's, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=edwin monk stubby&f=false, Its a great little boat & at 9ft is a good performer under oars, her or one of her sisters has won the BYC rowing race for donkeys years. She is light & tows exceedingly well. Payload is two adults plus dog, three adults is pushing it.
She rows so well i never bother with an outboard.
 
As said earlier, take the Caribbean approach; get the biggest RHIB/engine combination you can get on deck or are prepared to tow.

We have a 12' AB RHIB and a 15hp outboard, we are always dry, it ain't going to tip over (I can walk down the sponsoms!), it is very fast and it just works; what else do you want from your dink?

At the end of the day it all depends on if you want to row/sail your dink or just motor from A-B? We had a Walker Bay sailing dinghy and it was great, sailed well, rowed brilliantly, but it came to getting the weekly shop under engine and 1+ mile up & down (each way) river trip to get it, it was rubbish and wet under engine. So we invested in an Aluminium RHIB (only 30 Kgs) and never looked back. We replaced it this year after 6 years constant service and it just wore out with use so no complaints.
 
Here's an attractive, reputable, durable tender, under eleven feet long, all that the owner of a thirty-foot yacht could want... http://ow.ly/oJAHD

View attachment 35183

...except for the price tag...

...£21,995!!!

It's funny how above a certain L.O.A., most new boats get dramatically more expensive, per additional foot...but at £170 per inch, this little rubber-tub takes the biscuit.
 
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