Which is the best dinghy ?

We like her too!
Here's a red one next to our Achilles 370...
very stable & fast, enough seating for 5 or more.

IMO, the best dinghy is not about the dinghy itself but how it is launched, retrieved, and stored. Solve those and you have the best.

The best dink is the one you have, just like the best of anything else be it steel/fiberglass hull, twins/single, anchors, and you get the idea. Happy with NO dink nowadays, but glad I had one when the boat was bigger.

rgano said:

The best dink is the one you have, )

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If that were true people wouldn't be looking for better dinghy's.
We went through 3 before getting what we are now happy with.

Saying that we do need a second smaller lighter one for dragging up a beach when a jetty is unavailable
Need to build a new version of the 8ft flatty I did on a previous boat.

But if you don't have anything, and you need one, you're wet. So I reiterate, with a grin, that the best one is the one you have. Guess you missed my vague humor.

I haven't found the best dinghy or an easy way to store it on a "smallish" boat. I deal with an inflatable roll-up (questionable term) as best I can. I do believe I found the best dinghy motor which is an ePropulsion electric that I covered in another thread.

backinblue said:

IMO, the best dinghy is not about the dinghy itself but how it is launched, retrieved, and stored. Solve those and you have the best.

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BINGO!!! I have the best baddest dinghy I have ever owned. But I cannot bring it with me on my 41 foot boat. So it amounts to a boat I use for a runabout locally. It is damn nice....14 foot Caribe with a 60hp Yamaha. Truly an amazing boat. But it does not serve as a tender to my big boat. I will end up selling it and trying to solve the 3 things you have listed in your criteria. The lightweight 12 foot Caribe with that lightweight 25hp Yamaha on Hurley Davits is what I am leaning toward. There are other solutions. The Ilmar aluminum (RIB)dinghies are becoming popular around here as there is an aggressive dealer pushing them. I have 3 friends that have recently bought them.

Baker said:

BINGO!!! I have the best baddest dinghy I have ever owned. But I cannot bring it with me on my 41 foot boat. So it amounts to a boat I use for a runabout locally. It is damn nice....14 foot Caribe with a 60hp Yamaha. Truly an amazing boat. But it does not serve as a tender to my big boat. I will end up selling it and trying to solve the 3 things you have listed in your criteria. The lightweight 12 foot Caribe with that lightweight 25hp Yamaha on Hurley Davits is what I am leaning toward. There are other solutions. The Ilmar aluminum (RIB)dinghies are becoming popular around here as there is an aggressive dealer pushing them. I have 3 friends that have recently bought them.

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Looks just like the Aluminum Rib Zodiac I picked up.
Light, fair price. If mine last 5 years I will be very happy!

Light is a relative term.

rgano said:

But if you don't have anything, and you need one, you're wet. So I reiterate, with a grin, that the best one is the one you have. Guess you missed my vague humor.

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When you had a dingy did you just tip it on its side or have to hoist it onboard?

RonR said:

Looks just like the Aluminum Rib Zodiac I picked up.
Light, fair price. If mine last 5 years I will be very happy!

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I sure hope it lasts longer. I know you’re assigning a value of dollar versus time of possession. But that 14 footer that I was talking about is 15 years old and looks damn near new. One of the reasons is “Hypalon”. DuPont quit making Hypalon ten years ago. Now everyone had their own interpretation of what hypalon is. West Marine’s version is not a very good one. I have a hypalon WM310. It is pretty much toast after 7 years. I guess I can’t complain. I paid $1700 for it on sale. But it has nowhere near the durability of the Caribe. I do believe you get what you pay for in this case.

Having had numerous inflatables I migrated to a fiberglass Boston Whaler. I'll try very hard to never go back to anything with inflatable tubes. My slip neighbor just purchased a "Rigidboats" dinghy after giving up on his RIB. He's waiting for delivery in the next week or so. I've seen them at boat shows and I think it will be a great purchase.

My only knock on the Whaler is the ride and dryness. Otherwise you can’t go wrong.

Baker, my Whaler has a different hull shape than the older models. The ride is very dry and fairly soft although not as soft as a deep vee other than occasional spray if you hit a big wake head on.

The pudgie is a decent enough row boat. It tracks well. It’s a multipurpose boat, so I wouldn’t expect it to be the best row boat. It sails well, rows well, moves well with my torqeedo electric motor, and serves as a life boat. Yep, for pure rowing I would get a custom-ish build from Gig Harbor Boats....

Baker said:

BINGO!!! I have the best baddest dinghy I have ever owned. But I cannot bring it with me on my 41 foot boat. So it amounts to a boat I use for a runabout locally. It is damn nice....14 foot Caribe with a 60hp Yamaha. Truly an amazing boat. But it does not serve as a tender to my big boat. I will end up selling it and trying to solve the 3 things you have listed in your criteria. The lightweight 12 foot Caribe with that lightweight 25hp Yamaha on Hurley Davits is what I am leaning toward. There are other solutions. The Ilmar aluminum (RIB)dinghies are becoming popular around here as there is an aggressive dealer pushing them. I have 3 friends that have recently bought them.

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"BINGO!!! I have the best baddest dinghy I have ever owned. But I cannot bring it with me on my 41 foot boat. So it amounts to a boat I use for a runabout locally. It is damn nice....14 foot Caribe with a 60hp Yamaha."
Tow it behind your boat - you will have a great time.

I have a little bitty 8ft RIB and a 6hp gas motor. It works for me. I can go ashore and come back. I dont have a dog to transport. My sweet Yen is about 4'9", 88# so she doesn't take up much room. LOL
I have to add air to the RIB once every 2 weeks, it is tired and needs to be replaced soon.

Look in the boats for sale, there is a 10 dingy, honda outboard and seawise davit system on there for $6500. We have a hydraulic seawise system on our lindell works great.

We have decided it is time to donate the 2002 11 Novurania RIB with the 2002 25HP carb'd four stroke Yamaha to the local Boys Home. Just time to retire it.

On its way is a AB Mares 12' RIB with a 30HP EFI.

We have owned an AB 15 DLX with a 60 Yamaha on the transom for nearly ten years and love it. Hence the selection.

New skiff

Picked up a hobie power skiff for the tender for my 42 foot boat, it’s a little large but I can’t think of anything that would do the job better. Has 2 3” scuppers in a fiberglass deep V self bailing hull. The 30 on it now is a bit heavy and the boat only does mid 20s with it but the 30 is minimum recommended power for the boat.

It will probably be towed the majority of the time but while in protected waters, and docked in a marina I’ll prob have it on the davits on the stern of my boat. I’ll have it set up so It will stick out a bit on the bow end but blow boaters do it all the time so why can’t I have a longer skiff than my boat is wide at the stern lol

smitty477 said:

Tow it behind your boat - you will have a great time.

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I run at 20 knots. I have done a practice run and it was very unhappy over 8 knots. I think what needs to be done is the engine needs to be lowered and the helm lashed in place....then it will track straight. Just a matter if I want to tow a 1000lb boat at those speeds. I am a weekender. So maybe I should just keep it for when I slow down!

Baker said:

I run at 20 knots. I have done a practice run and it was very unhappy over 8 knots. I think what needs to be done is the engine needs to be lowered and the helm lashed in place....then it will track straight. Just a matter if I want to tow a 1000lb boat at those speeds. I am a weekender. So maybe I should just keep it for when I slow down!

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We have towed similar and larger RIBS at near those speeds for 1,000's of miles each season. If the bilge is self bailing, and you have a good bridle ,and you can get it to track well, it is a great alternative. In no case did we ever lower the engine(s) but often we did add 2 tow points to the RIBS on either side and slightly lower than the existing bow eyes.

Is there any issue with towing when the weather gets fairly rough?

backinblue said:

Is there any issue with towing when the weather gets fairly rough?

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Well we never knowingly cruise with really poor weather but when it has stirred up we never had a problem with waves or heavy rain for reasonable periods of time. Long swells are no problem, close waves would slow us down with the larger boat anyway so we would not be near the 16-18 knots anyway. A RIB that is self bailing and large eneough to handle the water on its own with a well setup bridle always was OK for us. We never needed to tow smaller RIBS than 15' or so ...so we would not know about those.
A couple of times in Long Island sound with short 5-6 footers and heavy rain was not a problem with a 19' RIB ...and slighlty worse conditions in Haverstraw Bay also went well.

Thanks! I'm also in Long Island Sound mostly and have a small rollup inflatable but it's still a pain to haul in and deflate/inflate. I'm thinking that with the motor removed, it would skim along ok while towing. most of us don't knowingly go out in bad weather but sometimes find ourselves there, so having a dinghy that could get swamped or flipped is a concern and not something you want to deal with in rough conditions. I think I will try it next year and plan not to tow if the weather is iffy.

backinblue said:

Thanks! I'm also in Long Island Sound mostly and have a small rollup inflatable but it's still a pain to haul in and deflate/inflate. I'm thinking that with the motor removed, it would skim along ok while towing. most of us don't knowingly go out in bad weather but sometimes find ourselves there, so having a dinghy that could get swamped or flipped is a concern and not something you want to deal with in rough conditions. I think I will try it next year and plan not to tow if the weather is iffy.

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"Thanks! I'm also in Long Island Sound mostly and have a small rollup inflatable but it's still a pain to haul in and deflate/inflate"
AOK - but just to be clear I have no experience nor would I recommend towing a small inflatable or RIB that was not long enough to stay stable, large enough to take the typical wave action, did not have suitable attachment point(s) , or that did not have a good self draining hull

I think if planning on towing majority of the time a self bailing boat is a pretty important when you are making your list of wants and needs for a skiff. For those times when the weather does get bad not having to worry about your boat sinking after being swamped is pretty nice. So far I’ve had my little hobie power skiff out once in prob something around 13 foot waves and have felt relatively safe. Now it was super uncomfortable but I didn’t feel unsafe in the little 15 footer.

smitty477 said:

We have towed similar and larger RIBS at near those speeds for 1,000's of miles each season. If the bilge is self bailing, and you have a good bridle ,and you can get it to track well, it is a great alternative. In no case did we ever lower the engine(s) but often we did add 2 tow points to the RIBS on either side and slightly lower than the existing bow eyes.

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Thanks Smitty. You encourage me. Going through all of the gyrations in my head on how to solve this issue has been tiresome....not to mention very expensive. I apid a whopping $7500 for my current Caribe. I say "whopping" sarcastically because it was such an amazing deal. Every single one of my friends say "DO NOT SELL THAT DINGHY....YOU WILL REGRET IT!". They are as impressed with it as I am and I think I stole it. While a 2005, it was VERY well cared for. I bought on principle alone....IOW, I simply could NOT not buy it.

I have a bridle. BUT it only has the UNreinforced center tow eye. My thoughts were to simply reinforce that tow point and like I said, tow it with engine down. I looked into it and it won't harm the engine. Where did you add tow points? Did you add it to the fiberglass or glue on tow rings to the tubes? I think I am past the point of glue on tow rings as I am not sure they are up to the task....maybe I am wrong? Otherwise, I would have to put those new tow points into the hull and reinforce them for more of a sheer load. ANyway, just thinking out loud. It would certainly a LOT cheaper to be able to keep current dinghy....AND not only cheaper, but I really like the damn thing. But I do need a boat that can be my tender and not just a local runabout.


We have even gone so far as to trailer it 200 miles to our destination. Drive home. Drive the boat there. Drive boat home. Go back by car and trailer dinghy home. I have done that once and don't really care to do it again. Our other "normal destination" destination is Galveston and is less than 30 miles by car. Not a huge deal to do the trailer round trip twice there.....but still inconvenient.

John, I bet if you can shift the CG further aft while towing combines with the low tandem tow bridle points, it just might become more stable on the fast tow.