Deflateable...

For some reason, seeing old inflatables makes me sad...
Some kind of symbolism perhaps?
Bruce

Completely agree. We have one in the marina. Beautiful console RIB with a 70 or 90 HP OB. It's sitting on a trailer deflated and looks sorry and sad. Condition is like the one on the right (in your pic). However, when I look at the hull, console and OB it looks like it's in great shape. Just whoafully unloved, and for July in New England....unused.

I'm tempted to ask if its for sale. The Admiral is chomping at the bit for a console rib.

Bruce,
My feeling is closer to disgust.
But it's closer to disgust when they are inflated too.
Mine is on the roof. Mostly out of sight for us.

Wifey B: Just seeing a couple doesn't tear me up but I hate seeing junk yards at boatyards or marinas, a line of boats sitting on trailers or the ground with no future plans. Either use or destroy but clean up the yard. It's not going to suddenly get better just sitting there.

Owners emotional connections - even to decrepit boats or boats that never get used - keep them from getting cut up and scrapped or sold.

Is it harder on tubes to stay deflated for long periods? (Harder than being outside, but inflated?). I know sunlight is hard on the tubes - especially if not Hypalon.

What is worse for me is seeing a rib floating in a slip along with an unused boat. The ribs slowly grow grass and barnacles, rain fills them up so they are barely floating on the surface, and everything is covered with PNW green. We have one of those a couple slips down from me.

dhays said:

What is worse for me is seeing a rib floating in a slip along with an unused boat. The ribs slowly grow grass and barnacles, rain fills them up so they are barely floating on the surface, and everything is covered with PNW green. We have one of those a couple slips down from me.

Click to expand...

Doesn't your marina have rules on derelict vessels?

dhays said:

What is worse for me is seeing a rib floating in a slip along with an unused boat. The ribs slowly grow grass and barnacles, rain fills them up so they are barely floating on the surface, and everything is covered with PNW green. We have one of those a couple slips down from me.

Click to expand...

We had one (inflatable) a few years ago that sat at the dinghy dock all season. It had filled up with water (and algae) for so long by the end of the season there were tadpoles and small fish swimming INSIDE the boat.

johnrupp said:

Doesn't your marina have rules on derelict vessels?

Click to expand...

Interestingly, we have rules for the condition of the boats in the slips, but not specifically the dinghies. I think that marina manager will deal with it eventually. It is only noticed by the handful of us that pass that slip to our boats. If it was more of an eyesore for more folks, I think they would be more aggressive.

I see,no pun intended Dr, I guess it's all in the language of the slip agreement.

For the past two weeks, I've literally spent twice as much time researching which RIB to buy than I spent researching our trawler. I finally decided on what to get yesterday. A few minutes later, a friend told us about an old inflatable with a 2 stroke engine that the owner wants to get rid of for $100. Why not save 4500 and go with the old?!

I don't know what the fascination with them is.
Heavy, overpriced, break down in the sun, deflatable.

Give me a decent tinny any day.

After a number of deflateables we finally settled on a Boston Whaler. What a pleasure. I know there are disadvantages but so far after 3-years the benefits far out way them. The only two I can think of is they are heavy and they need to be fendered off the mother ship. Other than that they are great.

Bearkeley said:

For the past two weeks, I've literally spent twice as much time researching which RIB to buy than I spent researching our trawler. I finally decided on what to get yesterday. A few minutes later, a friend told us about an old inflatable with a 2 stroke engine that the owner wants to get rid of for $100. Why not save 4500 and go with the old?!

Click to expand...

Buy it!

We have RIB's and love them, but it's the only practical choice if you want Jets. Even if we didn't want Jets, we'd choose RIB's based on the weight and based on no damage if hitting against the boat. Now, we've had no issues with ours but they're never left in the water overnight and they're always kept covered.

BandB said:

We have RIB's and love them, but it's the only practical choice if you want Jets. Even if we didn't want Jets, we'd choose RIB's based on the weight and based on no damage if hitting against the boat. Now, we've had no issues with ours but they're never left in the water overnight and they're always kept covered.

Click to expand...

One other advantage that RIBs have over traditional hard shell dinghies is stability. Hard to beat a RIB in that department.

dhays said:

One other advantage that RIBs have over traditional hard shell dinghies is stability. Hard to beat a RIB in that department.

Click to expand...

And performance.

And in some cases, handling of rough water. We took one of ours one day across a bay to a Boston Whaler dealer. Conditions were quite rough. We asked for a demo in a similarly sized Whaler. He thought we were crazy but did it anyway. We happily got back in the RIB after. It handled the conditions much better.

For those who like hard, that's fine. Some pretty dinghies. Then Simi didn't surprise me as I've run across many Australians who favored Aluminum but very few from the US.

We don't use our RIB to go back and forth from boat to shore. We use it to explore.

Put your dinghy in a situation where the waves are taller than the dinghy is long. An inflatable will handle these conditions easily. I wouldn't feel as comfortable in a tinny or even a whaler in the same conditions.

Yes, we have been in such conditions.

Shrew said:

Put your dinghy in a situation where the waves are taller than the dinghy is long. An inflatable will handle these conditions easily. I wouldn't feel as comfortable in a tinny or even a whaler in the same conditions.

Yes, we have been in such conditions.

Click to expand...

Easy
Kapten boat collar on a tinny playing in the surf line of a bar crossing.
Adds massive flotation, stability and protects topsides for little outlay.

Old surfer adds "fins" to his boat and surfs waves

"Why not save 4500 and go with the old?!'

If you are luck the unit will be old style with removable floor boards .

Instead of rotting in the sun , the unit can be stored deflated ,

and have a far greater service life than the plastic with tubes to rot style.

My rhib came with a spiffy bag to store it in. Deflated, not much bigger than my old Avon with plywood floors that were a PIA to install most of the time.

Plus, no comparison in comfort and performance at speeds past 10 knots.

Simi 60 said:

Easy
Kapten boat collar on a tinny playing in the surf line of a bar crossing.
Adds massive flotation, stability and protects topsides for little outlay.

Old surfer adds "fins" to his boat and surfs waves

Click to expand...

I agree they are interesting and a rig I could see past my inflatable...

But "for little outlay".... not sure that is accurate.

Plus, I couldnt tell if the pricing was for just a pair of 1 meter floats...if so, that gats pricey for a larger dink.