New boat does not have dinghy.

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Crime Pays

Crime Pays

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Although the new boat has an electric davit, it did not come with a dinghy. As full-timer on Pacific Coast from La Paz to Skagway oh, any suggestions on a dinghy tender for a 46 foot trawler? We have plenty of set down room behind the fly bridge station. What size works for you guys? I'm only interested in a 4-stroke gasoline outboard motor. It's just the wife and I into small pups.
 
Rigid floored inflatable or fiberglass? Are you comfortable sitting on thwart tubes or side tubes, or do you want seats (or at least a hard bench)? Tiller driven, or with a small console?

Will you be taking it to a beach or just to and from docks and the like? With dogs I think I might know the answer, but, beaching yes /no is important for dinghy selection.

Davit, or real crane (what is the load rating?)

Nothing's ever simple ;)
 
Crime Pays said:
Although the new boat has an electric davit, it did not come with a dinghy. As full-timer on Pacific Coast from La Paz to Skagway oh, any suggestions on a dinghy tender for a 46 foot trawler? We have plenty of set down room behind the fly bridge station. What size works for you guys? I'm only interested in a 4-stroke gasoline outboard motor. It's just the wife and I into small pups.
Click to expand...

I'm only interested in NON-gasoline motors. No gasoline on our boat, please.
 
Crime Pays said:
Although the new boat has an electric davit, it did not come with a dinghy. As full-timer on Pacific Coast from La Paz to Skagway oh, any suggestions on a dinghy tender for a 46 foot trawler? We have plenty of set down room behind the fly bridge station. What size works for you guys? I'm only interested in a 4-stroke gasoline outboard motor. It's just the wife and I into small pups.
Click to expand...

I have had two Rendovas (11' & now 14') They are RIBs. YOU cant buy them new anymore but if you are in the market for used they are a good option especially with dogs. and if the tub is in good shape worth re-tubing.
They have a small deck that protrudes over the tubes and provides solid and stable boarding for humans and animals. I reinforced the bow at the waterline with a sacrificial patch and have no qualms about nosing up to rock beaches to let the dogs on/off.

Ultimately you will be limited by the rated capacity of your davit. Check that first.

~A
 
10 ft with max hp as a minimum for going fast. Hard dinghy or chaps for inflatable with dogs claws. Watch your weight limits of your davit.
 
More information needed. As AlaskaFlyer states, pull-start with tiller-steer, or center-seating with steering wheel? What is the capacity of your davit and where is it located (stern, boat-deck, over a trunk cabin, etc.)?

How will you use the dinghy? How far? In Mexico, there are two schools of thought on dinghys. Latitude 38 have long advocated for the largest/fastest dinghy you can reasonably handle because it's your transportation. Makes sense if you're venturing some distance. There is a second school of thought for cruisers who just use a dink to go directly to shore - smaller OB that is lighter, less expensive to run, easier to secure, and less attractive to thieves. In Mag Bay, home to many sedentary cruisers, it's possible to trade a 3.3hp for a 9.9hp.

I lean KISS here, so a sit-on-tube and tiller OB is more my style. If price were no object, I'd go with an OC Tender - made in NZ and shipped in batches to the US to help reduce shipping costs. The 350 (12-feet) is a good size and will plane well with a 20hp.

https://octenders.co.nz/

Within the next year, I will be buying a new dinghy. Will likely go with an Achilles. I looked at Highfield, but I talked with a very knowledgeable person at Defender who carries several brands. In his opinion, Achilles has thicker and more durable hypalon. He was more enamored with fiberglass RIB than aluminum, and made a good argument that any knucklehead can fix a figerglass hull whereas Alum can turn into an Alka Selzer fizz-tablet if neglected. Fiberglass is quite a bit heavier though.

https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?id=6899982
https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?id=6062631#

As far as OBs, I'm a Yamaha guy. 15hp for a 310. 20hp for a 350.

Peter
 
Crime Pays said:
If not gasoline what, diesel? I've never seen a diesel outboard?
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They make them, I think I saw a Yanmar example recently in an advertisement, but they are larger - not for dinks unless you have a superyacht.

Electric outboards have come a long way from the trolling motors of my youth :D There was a recent discussion on them here somewhere. I would consider one myself for an inflatable or even a small tiller-driven RIB.
 
11.5ft Walker Bay with center console w/40hp, Honda. Setup for trolling with electric downriggers and pot puller. Raymairne MFD and a iCom VHF. 20181017_081349.jpeg20190714_171055.jpeg
 
What is the beam of your boat? That will determine the maximum overall length of your tender since most of us don’t want the tender or lower unit to hang off the side of our boats.

The bigger the tender and motor the better, if you want to take two couples on sightseeing trips or to distant beaches, snorkeling spots or fishing holes.

We have an 18’ beam and our tender is 15’ with a 60hp outboard and a 12 gallon internal fuel tank. There is a console with chart plotter and full instrumentation and seats for six.
 
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Woodland Hills said:
What is the beam of your boat? That will determine the maximum overall length of your tender since most of us don’t want the tender or lower unit to hang off the side of our boats.

The bigger the tender and motor the better, if you want to take two couples on sightseeing trips or to distant beaches, snorkeling spots or fishing holes.

We have an 18’ beam and our tender is 15’ with a 60hp outboard and a 12 gallon internal fuel tank. There is a console with chart plotter and full instrumentation and seats for six.
Click to expand...

:thumb:

WH has a bigger boat, so has more "set down room on the flybridge".
For yours, I would still go big. My 44 carries a 12', 40hp, but if I had more "set down room" I would carry something bigger. In yours, measure for a 14, crane for 1000#, then you can enjoy.
 
16' Beam




QUOTE=Woodland Hills;992612]What is the beam of your boat? That will determine the maximum overall length of your tender since most of us don’t want the tender or lower unit to hang off the side of our boats.

The bigger the tender and motor the better, if you want to take two couples on sightseeing trips or to distant beaches, snorkeling spots or fishing holes.

We have an 18’ beam and our tender is 15’ with a 60hp outboard and a 12 gallon internal fuel tank. There is a console with chart plotter and full instrumentation and seats for six.[/QUOTE]
 
So go to the tender store with a tape measure. Also be sure to buy a set of chocks that are made for your tender.
What’s your budget? $15k? $20k?
 
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IF you are new to cruising and have not decided how the lifestyle will fit you a simple get ashore boat that can be powered or ROWED is probably best to start with.

Most condom boats require a motor as few row except in very calm waters.

Simple and cheap is an aluminum "john boat" a few bucks on craigs list , strong enough not to be harmed in a dock dink pack and low on the list of toys to be stolen.
 
FF said:
IF you are new to cruising and have not decided how the lifestyle will fit you a simple get ashore boat that can be powered or ROWED is probably best to start with.

Most condom boats require a motor as few row except in very calm waters.

Simple and cheap is an aluminum "john boat" a few bucks on craigs list , strong enough not to be harmed in a dock dink pack and low on the list of toys to be stolen.
Click to expand...


Agreed. Inflatables and RIBs are great if you need a ton of weight capacity in a small tender and/or want to go fast. But they're not so great for everything else.

Some people love the ability to cover a bunch of miles quickly in the tender, but not everyone needs that ability. It all depends on how and where you cruise, and also what the mothership is. If the mothership is big and harder to get in close to places, or harder to find occasional dockage for, dinghy needs scale up significantly. A slow mothership can add to that as well.

But for a boat like mine that's as fast as any tender it could reasonably carry (just at the expense of more fuel), not all that big, reasonable draft and very maneuverable for easy docking when that's desired, a tender that's optimized for shorter runs mostly to get people and dogs to/from shore with only smaller amounts of stuff is quite effective. And cheaper and lighter to carry as well.
 
Ummm....OP said no gas. Kinda limits the options. A lot. Most answers moot.
 
stubones99 said:
The OP didn't say no-gas, some other poster did...

The OP said four stroke gasoline outboard...
Click to expand...

Oops. Stand corrected. Little screens...little comprehension.
 
We just got a Highfield 390. Love it. Very dry ride, stable and gas tank fits in bow locker.
 
My boat came with a Rendova dinghy and a 40 hp Honda outboard. As another poster noted, this is a great dinghy. Very stable and we added a crab-pot puller. It runs as fast as we could want to go. There are lots of other good brands. You can find clean used dinghies on Craigslist or ask local yacht brokers. Many of them remove the dinghy when selling a yacht and they will often sell them for a good price.
 
We have used a variety of dinghies thru the years: Hard fiberglass 10' dinghy with 4 hp, hung in davits with a 13" inflatable and 25 hp carried on deck. A 12.5' RIB with 15 and 25 hp outboards, plus a 9' inflatable weight only about 60# so we could carry up on beaches and 3 hp. We also used a 12' DuraBoat Aluminum skiff with a 15 hp, on the top of the Sundeck of a Symbol 41' MY which fitted athwartship with the outboard in place.

With the RIB used AK and all along the West Coast thru the Canal at the end of each season (once a year) turn the dinghy upside down, and asses how much abrasion had occurred. We would add sacrificial glass along the keel with epoxy, fair and put a coat of bottom paint on. We had two Labrador retrievers, so at least 3 daily shore trips onto rocks etc. No damage from the dog's claws in any of the boats, and we always had dogs aboard.

It would be just as easy to add a sacrificial Aluminum plates to cover possibly abraded areas on an aluminum dink. Although I have owned inflatable for 60 years, the aluminum boat has its advantages: Certainly a lot more interior room. We put fire hose over the gunnels, and had Sunbrella covered seat cushions, with non skid on the floor boards of the aluminum boat.

Today with a smaller pilot house boat we use a 9 1/2' high pressure air floor with a manual davit and a Toqeedo 1103 for the outboard. I prefer the electric when dealing with a lower hp OP--and would have used that if available when we had 3.5 or 4 hp outboards on the smaller dinghy.
 
phillippeterson said:
I'm only interested in NON-gasoline motors. No gasoline on our boat, please.
Click to expand...

Some good electric outboards available especially suited for trips to the nearby beach, etc. ePropulsion is my favorite.
 
My suggestion to the OP is a Bullfrog dinghy (locally manufactured in Bellingham, WA) with a center console and a 20 or 30 hp Honda, Suzuki or Yamaha four stroke.
 
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