RE: Small Whaler, Small inflatable, or RIB? Thoughts?
I absolutely love our LT11 Caribe hard shell inflatable.* We have had it for 5 years of hard use now in the Florida/Bahamas sun.* We fish out of it, pull the boys on their kneeboard, beach it, throw lobsters and conch in it, use it as a family truck.
We have had ZERO issues with it.* I scrub it once or twice a year with comet, then put a protectant on it.* It lives under a cover on our davits when stored for long periods.
Tows well, is light enough for our less than perfect davits.* We use a 15hp 2 stroke Johnson, I'm not a fan of small 4 strokes, they are heavy, slow and hard to fix.
With just me aboard it will run 21 knots on my GPS, slows down with a heavy load, obviously.
I've owned 2 whalers in my life, a 1973 17 montauk, and a squall.* The montauk was pretty and durable but was the 2nd wettest, 2nd worst riding boat I have ever been in in my life.* And I've run A LOT of small boats.* It was eclipsed in wettness and filing jarring ride only by my buddy's 13 whaler.
The 17 was a lot of fun though, my high school girlfriend looked great on the bow.
I can honestly say that I would feel safer in a solid chop in my 11' Caribe than I would in that 17 whaler.*
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