Which Dinghy?

Alistairr

Alistairr

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Which dinghy do you recommend, we are looking for a new tender, we currently have an old Zodiac 2.6m with flat slatted floor. Looking for something a little bigger with a V hull to use as a tender and for son to play with.

We have seen a Waveline 2.9m with V hull and airdeck floor, and the quality looks quite good, it is about half the price of the equivalent Zodiac, which makes it difficult to justify the difference.
Is the Zodiac streets ahead, and are there any other dinghy's you would recommend?

All info greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Alistairr.
 
I don't actually know the waveline, but I replaced an old, tired, expensive neoprene dinghy with a slatted floor with a (relatively) cheap vinyl one with a pump up keel and an air deck. It's faster, more comfortable and easier to inflate than my old one was and easily driven by a 3.3 Tohatsu. The transom has a cast alloy plate for the outboard to rest on and it's not well protected as new but you'd be surprised how well a wire brushing and a couple of coats of enamel replace the Carp production finish.
 
I sold our boat before actually getting round to replacing the dinghy but, having crossed the Med to Malta and back over a period of 3 years, I would definitely have bought a Honda Honwave of some kind, and saw and heard nothing to sway me from that.
 
We're on our second Waveline 2.9, the previous one had inflatable keel and airdeck, current one has ply floor and after 6 years in the sun (with chaps) we've started getting glue failure on fittings which is fairly common with many makes, tubes and transom are fine. Inflatable keels and airdeck are much drier than slatted floor and easier to row and I would buy another Waveline. Beware of inflatable V hull, some people find some makes unnerving as they're very unstable when boarding, roll a lot.
 
Thanks all,
We looked online at the others mentioned and ended up ordering the Waveline 2.9m from the local Chandlery a fortnight ago who gave us a very good price.

Ours is allocated from a stock order that was somewhere on the high seas.

Today I got a call from the Chandlery saying Waveline were having trouble with their shipment and couldn’t get me a 2.9m until May sometime.

They have offered us a 3.2m for the same money if we want that option.
Question, is that size ok for a dinghy, or at that length do the length of the side tubes start to flex too much with the water??

Thanks
Al.
 
Excel Volante 290 is nice.

Inflatable V keel and floor, two seats, takes up to 10hp but planes on 3.5 (just, but 13mph!)

Inexpensive, and good quality...
 
Alistairr said:
Thanks all,
We looked online at the others mentioned and ended up ordering the Waveline 2.9m from the local Chandlery a fortnight ago who gave us a very good price.

Ours is allocated from a stock order that was somewhere on the high seas.

Today I got a call from the Chandlery saying Waveline were having trouble with their shipment and couldn’t get me a 2.9m until May sometime.

They have offered us a 3.2m for the same money if we want that option.
Question, is that size ok for a dinghy, or at that length do the length of the side tubes start to flex too much with the water??

Thanks
Al.
Click to expand...

We have a zodiac 3.1 airdeck with the inflatable keel so not quite as long as your 3.2.

I have not noticed any issues with it flexing - they key is to ensure though that the floor and tubes are pressured as much as they should be. Our electric pump ( a cheapo cordless rechargeable) won't get them hard enough so have to use the manual one to finish off but once fully inflated we can leave ours with wheels on and stern propped up and it doesn't go soggy when ashore so suspect that getting the initial pressure right is more important than length.
 
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