Living on a Sailboat - Choose the Right Dinghy
Living on a sailboat is a great way to travel and live. Choose your dinghy careful. Also learn from our mistakes, we made a bunch of them.
We cruised the Caribbean living aboard a sailboat for 8 years. It took us 3 years to get the right dinghy motor combination. Do not let this be you. Get a hard bottom dinghy, with a large tube diameter (16" minimum), a 15 horse motor, and install dinghy davits on your boat to handle this combo.
Our first dinghy was a rollup dinghy we brought from West Marine that could be stowed in a bag. It weighed a 100 lbs. We combined that with a 5 HP motor that had no auxiliary tank. Dumb...you don't want the hassle of blowing up the dinghy after a passage. Your buds are on their second beer while you are manning the pump.
The 5 HP motor was totally inadequate and with no auxiliary tank had a limited range. Not enough power to plane which makes for a wet ride and bad language if you are dressed for a night ashore. Really dumb...
We did buy a 10 foot Caribe hard bottom dinghy that weighed about 130 lbs. Much more stable than the rollup. But we were not through making mistakes. I increased our motor HP to 8, with an auxiliary tank that increased the range we could go. It would not plane with 2 people. Still wet, still caused bad language...dumb, really dumb.
The only good thing was dinghy davits which enabled us to haul the dinghy up at night and on passage. Towing the dinghy on passage slows you down a half a knot...do not do it... get davits. Since the davits were on the boat when we bought it I can take no responsibility for this situation.
After 3 years I finally bought a 15 horse Yamaha. All was well, we could plane, and it was dry...no more bad language.
All I would have had to do to start off right would have been to open my eyes and look at the dinghy docks in the islands. What do you see but Caribe hard bottom dinghys and 15 horse Yamaha motors. The answer was there all the time.
Living on a sailboat can a lot of fun, learn from our mistakes in dinghys and motors and start off right.
Frugal Living - Living on a Sailboat - Choose the Right Dinghy