Plastimo Compact Light tenders - thoughts?

Looking at the site I expect they are made in the same way as the others but have different designs. For instance the transom is shorter so it will fold smaller. There's also a model with no transom which will probably be better for a smaller boat. They may also reduce floor boards too, but this is not a problem, I have a dinghy with very little hard floor and it's fine.

As you say the cost is an issue but if you need a dinghy then you're pretty limited as far as cost goes.
Cheers
Dave
 
I dont know about this one, but I have a previous version - the transom is fully inflateable, with the outboard mounting 'imbedded'. I was a bit worried about the complex seams required, but it has held up well in the 10 years or so I have had it. Admitedly, the last 4 years it has been in the locker of a larger boat and used as a spare, but I checked it out at the end of last season and it is still perfect.

Very light weight - I always wondered how people managed heavier tenders on small boats. I have the inflateable floor.

The only drawback I found was that the transon tended to lean a bit when the outboard was driving it hard.

The material seems thinner/less stiff than the full size Quicksilver I also had. But I had to patch the Quicksilver a few times if it dragged on the ground as it was so heavy, whereas the I could lift the Plastimo up high!

MD
 
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I bought a new lightweight model, of conventional design, about 10 years ago and it showed signs of wear very quickly.
I must say that the lightweight, compact 2.4 looks pretty tempting though. With proper Avon type rowlocks you can use longer sweeps, if that suits. 4 year warranty as well.
 
Just to follow up, in case this thread shows up in someone's search in the future, just went to Marine Superstore, and they very kindly let me go down to the storeroom and inspect the single Compact Light with Airdeck they had in stock.

I had been expecting that with the small solid transom, the deflated width would be substantially reduced, but this was not the case - we measured it straight out of the box, and it was only 5cm shorter than a standard 2.3/2.5 with similar tube diameter (~93cm). The reason for this is the inflatable floor, which is glued in place and non-removable. So if you were looking for smaller packing dimensions (as I was), not really happening.

The other thing was that the tube material was VERY thin and light. If treated nicely, it might last a while, if it wasn't used very frequently. But...I can easily see that it would be a worry. And if you expect to use it to commute to a mooring with constant inflation/deflation...don't.

For us, it really didn't seem to make much sense - I am not so much worried about weight as width, and the thin tubes just seemed too fragile. We went back to Ron Hale's and purchased an ex-demo (used for a magazine test for YM I think) Zoom by Zodiac 230 Roll-Up. The price was very attractive, two year warranty, and the quality of the fittings is very nice - plus you have the ability to fit all the Zodiac covers, bags, etc. I think we will struggle with fitting it where our old roundtail lived, but as we have an exposed mooring it just made sense to get something with large tubes that would be stable. If we positively can't get it to fit anywhere, at the price we bought it I am sure we can sell it.
 
I know this is an old thread but if anyone has a Plastimo Compact Light 2.4 I wonder how short it can be packed. The dinghy locker under the cockpit floor of my Oyster 39 is about 86cm long, some web sites quote it as packing to 90cm, others a bit shorter. As the transom is so small I wonder if it can be packed shorter leaving out the thwart? The post above says he could only pack it to something over 90cm, but I wonder if any one who owns one has got it smaller.

Alternatively anyone know of a dinghy with a transom that will fit in an 86cm locker?
 
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