Trying to find the cheapest tender but struggling!

Kelpie said:
Avons are not especially terrible to row. They have good strong rowlocks and if you have the seat properly inflated they're actually pretty good. You need decent length oars- 6ft is about right for a Redcrest.
In flat water with a light load, an Avon isn't really too bad. But in choppy weather or heavily loaded it quickly becomes very wet, slow, and no fun whatsoever.
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Also no directional stability at all. You're continually having to check that you're actually moving in the direction the bow points at. But no worse in that regard than many another inflatable.
 
I snagged a 12 yr old Avon from my sailing club for 100 quid. round tail 2.4m. no leaks, little used.
I bit the guys hand off.
rolls up tight, inflatable seat, fibreglass o/b mount and i can throw it around myself, so now the 2 yr old pvc airdeck honda (nice for planing) stays in the shed un til I have a proper big trip....!

find a used Avon......
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Also no directional stability at all. You're continually having to check that you're actually moving in the direction the bow points at. But no worse in that regard than many another inflatable.
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Everyone who has read Swallows and Amazons (I assume that’s everyone here!) knows how to row in a straight line by lining up two marks astern of you!
 
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With mademoiselle in the stern, I found rowing the Avon to be fairly hard work, even with floorboards to take the irregularities out of the underwater form. By myself, the Redstart flew along - only the thickness of the oars made it harder, as the rowlocks gripped the oars so tightly.
 
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Kukri said:
Everyone who has read Swallows and Amazons (I assume that’s everyone here!) knows how to row in a straight line by lining up tow marks astern of you!
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Working through them at the moment, my son is hooked on them.
I'm sure if I hadn't picked up a copy of We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea when I was a kid, I would be a much wealthier man today ?
 
dancrane said:
Tow marks? ? That sounds like the caption under a Thelwell cartoon...a well-oiled tugboat captain leaving a series of scuffs and dents as he swerves through a superyacht anchorage.

With mademoiselle in the stern, I found rowing the Avon to be fairly hard work, even with floorboards to take the irregularities out if the underwater form. By myself, the Redstart flew along - only the thickness of the oars made it harder, as the rowlocks gripped the oars so tightly.
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A plank of wood as an aft seat makes quite an improvement. And gives herself something to hit you over the head with if you suggest that the boat is trimmed a little down at the stern.
 
Try asking local harbourmasters, yacht clubs, marinas, etc if they have anything suitable. 2 of the south coast harbourmasters offer unused or washed up dinghies for sale at giveaway prices, in fact sometimes they are given away as it saves the harbourmaster getting someone in to dispose of a boat in an environmental way!!
 
I don't know how old OP is, but for those of more mature years, an inflatable with a transom has the advantage that wheels can easily be fitted. My flubber seems to be getting heavier by the year, and being able to drag it about rather than carry it is a big bonus. A round tail could have a little trolley, but folding wheels are a lot easier.

As an aside, I'd really like to know how it manages to be so much heavier when putting it away at the end of a trip than when I get it out.
 
Stemar said:
I don't know how old OP is, but for those of more mature years, an inflatable with a transom has the advantage that wheels can easily be fitted. My flubber seems to be getting heavier by the year, and being able to drag it about rather than carry it is a big bonus. A round tail could have a little trolley, but folding wheels are a lot easier.

As an aside, I'd really like to know how it manages to be so much heavier when putting it away at the end of a trip than when I get it out.
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I'm gonna go with fatigue :D.
 
Those old Avons are really heavy for their size. It doesn't tempt me to get a lighter, less durable dinghy, but it did make me think about portability ashore.

I bought a neat little kayak-trolley, to which I attached two short pieces of old carbon windsurfer-mast, just wider than the diameter of my oars...

...the oars slide into the carbon tubes, I drilled through and fitted bolts to keep them in place, and used a latex exercise-band to hold the oar-blades together at the other end.

The result is a folding trolley which supports the floorboards, on which the deflated Redstart, pump, anchor, picnic-bag and sundries, can be rolled from the car to the water's edge with one hand, in places where the distance (and weight) would have been prohibitive.

The biggest benefit is that there's no need to leave the trolley on the beach. When I have a new laptop, I'll post pictures of it. The trolley, not the laptop. ;)
 
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