Given the very high prices of good inflatables/RIBs these days, I cannot come up with any rationale for spending that kind of money for a finite-lived object. If I had a dollar for every uninflated, sagging, weatherbeaten, leaking inflatable or RIB I see on boats in our marina I could proably afford to buy Tony Fleming's Fleming 
This is why the Bullfrog is so appealing to me. All the buoyancy, stability, freeboard, and speed advantages of an RIB in a boat that will last forever, or at least last as long as I would ever need it to last. To me, the Bullfrog has rendered RIB's to being yesterday's solution.
Now if you actually need to deflate and stow a dingy for space reasons or whatever, sure, an inflatable is the answer. And if fabric dinghies cost a fraction of something like a Bullfrog, that would make them a more viable alternative to me. But they don't. They cost an arm and a leg and I'm not willing to pay that for something that in a few years I'll be fighting air leaks and patching and worrying about tearing the fabric on those oyster shells and barnacles as I pull the thing up onto the shore.
Tony B--- Your query about Boston Whaler is well founded, I think. I do see them used a lot as tenders, and have known people who had them. Excellent boats, no question. But they tend to be larger than is practical to carry on something like a 36' cruiser. I do see people with cruisers our size towing them, however. Towing is very practical and popular in our inside waters in the PNW, BC, and SE Alaska (as just about every sailboater will tell you). New Whalers are pretty pricey. On the plus side, since they are hardshell they last pretty much forever and so can often be found used at very reasonable prices if you aren't hung up cosmetics.
And there are plenty of other hardshell dinghy options, too, from the inexpensive Walker Bay to "proper" rowing skiffs and everything in between. Even the lowly Livingston is a great shoreboat as long as one is aware of its limitations, particularly in the smaller sizes.
There was another interesting dinghy along the lines of the Bullfrog but made of fiberglass called the Boss Boat. They are/were made in Florida but I've only seen one or two of them out here. I seem to recall they are now out of business, but they, too, combined the advantages of the harshell and the RIB without the disadvantages or either one. I've never been in one so have no firsthand knowledge of their quality and characteristics as I do the Bullfrog, but I've read a lot of good things about them in the past.
This is why the Bullfrog is so appealing to me. All the buoyancy, stability, freeboard, and speed advantages of an RIB in a boat that will last forever, or at least last as long as I would ever need it to last. To me, the Bullfrog has rendered RIB's to being yesterday's solution.
Now if you actually need to deflate and stow a dingy for space reasons or whatever, sure, an inflatable is the answer. And if fabric dinghies cost a fraction of something like a Bullfrog, that would make them a more viable alternative to me. But they don't. They cost an arm and a leg and I'm not willing to pay that for something that in a few years I'll be fighting air leaks and patching and worrying about tearing the fabric on those oyster shells and barnacles as I pull the thing up onto the shore.
Tony B--- Your query about Boston Whaler is well founded, I think. I do see them used a lot as tenders, and have known people who had them. Excellent boats, no question. But they tend to be larger than is practical to carry on something like a 36' cruiser. I do see people with cruisers our size towing them, however. Towing is very practical and popular in our inside waters in the PNW, BC, and SE Alaska (as just about every sailboater will tell you). New Whalers are pretty pricey. On the plus side, since they are hardshell they last pretty much forever and so can often be found used at very reasonable prices if you aren't hung up cosmetics.
And there are plenty of other hardshell dinghy options, too, from the inexpensive Walker Bay to "proper" rowing skiffs and everything in between. Even the lowly Livingston is a great shoreboat as long as one is aware of its limitations, particularly in the smaller sizes.
There was another interesting dinghy along the lines of the Bullfrog but made of fiberglass called the Boss Boat. They are/were made in Florida but I've only seen one or two of them out here. I seem to recall they are now out of business, but they, too, combined the advantages of the harshell and the RIB without the disadvantages or either one. I've never been in one so have no firsthand knowledge of their quality and characteristics as I do the Bullfrog, but I've read a lot of good things about them in the past.
