New inflatable dinghy with Open Rowlocks?

Ian_Edwards

Ian_Edwards

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I’m looking to replace my Seago270, the UV has got to the tubes, and they are now sticky and porous.
I like to row with long wooden oars and feather them when rowing upwind. The long oars are also useful for pushing off from a rocky West Coast shore and sculling with one oar over the transom to clear the weed.
So, I need Open Rowlocks (Avon stile), not pinned with oars which are too short to make any progress against a breeze.
All the new inflatable tenders I can find online, except for the Crewsaver 230, which is too small, have pinned rowlocks.
Have open rowlocks almost completely disappear off the market?
 
The SunSport brand used to have a Redcrest-a-like with open rowlocks, but a quick google suggests they've stopped selling it. Rowing rubberdubbers is bad enough without lumbering yourself with carp oars the length of toothpicks, dragging a flat transom around doesn't help either. You could always buy one of the Bark brand cheapo dinghys and try and glue a set of Avon rowlocks to it?
 
Thanks for the reply so far, I have an old Avon Restart in the garage, I haven’t tried to inflate it for at least 10years, but it’s probably OK. I don’t use it because it’s not happy with an outboard, even a Suzuki DF2.5.
But I agree with Penfold, you can’t row properly with short, pinned oars, but with long oars, an inflatable “V” floor, and the weight well forward the Seago 270 rows quite well.
It looks like PVC paint might be an option, but the cost of the paint to cover the tubes of the Seago 270, is a significant % of the cost of a new one, and I’d be concerned about how long the paint will last.
 
On a Zodiac I had some years ago, I cut down some galvanised row locks so they would fit in the pin holes. Worked fine with 5ft 6in Swedish oars.
 
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