Dinghy Issues

Shortly after purchasing the Key of Sea I lowered the dinghy that came with it and climbed aboard to take it out for a trial run. However, stepping into the little boat it became immediately apparent that this dinghy was not going to meet our needs. With only me in it there was almost no freeboard (the distance between the water line and the gunwhale). Scary. 

We started looking around and found  a reasonably priced new dinghy down in Anacortes, WA and bought it. It was around $1,000 (a boat buck) and seemed like a good deal. 

Quillback rockfish

Fast forward 6 years later to our 3 week cruise to Canada. I took the dinghy out several times on my own to go fishing. I caught a ton of these rock fish species called Quillbacks. Great fun to catch and when I'd get into a good spot they'd be on my line almost constantly. Two problems with them though. One, they are a proteced species in a lot of places meaning you can't catch them. That's a problem if your fishing and you catch them. So, I tossed a lot of fish back. Second, take a look at the photo of the fish I posted here. Notice those spiny looking fins? Well, they ARE spines. Sharp spines. Now imagine my bringing the fish into the dinghy and wrestling with the fish long enough to get the hook out without causing too much damage to the critter or me. The fish is flopping around on the floor of the dinghy, those spines bouncing off the floor. Now for the bad news. The floor of our dingy is inflatable and made of rubber. It didn't take long before I noticed the damage done. Suddenly the air in the floor of our dinghy was leaking out at a pretty fast rate.

That dinghy is our life boat should we need to leave The Key of Sea in an emergency. With the floor constantly going flat, we had ourselves a big problem. Fortunately we didn't need it for the rest of the cruise. BUT!!!

When we returned home I found a repair place in Anacortes and took the floor, which is removable, down to their shop. A couple of hundred dollars later the floor was "fixed" and I reinstalled it. It kept inflated pretty well needing refilling about once or twice a year.

Fast forward to today. When I visited the boat a few days ago I noticed the floor was entirely flat. So I took it out and brought it home to check it out.

Our current dinghy a Mercury 310

I like to lay things across the spa cover out back because it gives me a large flat space about waist high to spread things out and get a good look at them. So I took the floor out to my shop and inflated it with my compressor. Then put on top of the spa cover. I grabbed a spray bottle I'd filled with water and dish soap and started spraying soapy water across the surface of the floor. It didn't take long to see tiny bubbles beginning to form in spots here and there, even along the seams. Tiny, very tiny.What effect this has on the inflation of the floor is apparent. The solution? Probably a new dinghy.

But what to purchase? Certainly not one with an inflatable floor.

Inflatable dinghies are the biggest sellers. They are light weight, inexpensive and hold a lot of people and or weight when compared to most other options on the market. But even the inflatables come in a wide range of models.

The least expensive are the inflatable floor versions. I now see why.  Then there are the RIBs or Rigid Inflatable Boat. These have the inflatable side tubes you are familir with if you've seen the famous Zodiak boats. But, they're hulls, the bottom of the boat inside and out are made of a rigid material, either fiberglass or aluminum. The fiberglas is usually less expensive than the metal hull. You also have the option of a single or double floor, the double floor being more expensive but more stout and heavier.

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So, 3 days later, the inflated dinghy floor is still holding its pressure. So I'm thinking 1) the dinghy still has some life in it and 2) I will try and get another season or 2 out of it. Good news, for now.

The Honda 2 hp outboard that fits on that dinghy is in the shop right now as it wouldn't start when I last tried. A call the shop this morning which yielded the news that it was only one of 20 other 2 hp motors in the shop and that it would probably be another couple of weeks before it would be looked at. I suspect the slow turn around is due to the local charter fleet, which has almost all Honda 2 hp motors on their dinghies and has probably got all of them in for seasonal
maintenance.

This little fellow just barely works on our 10+ foot dinghy and I am in the market for a higher horse power engine. Maybe next season. It does the job of getting us to and from shore when we anchor out and works when I want to wander off a ways from the boat to do some fishing. Its two basic flaws are that, due to it being only 2 hp, the dinghy is more difficult to control at lower RPMs. So, when I am approaching the big boat to connect to the davit system, I usually have to make a couple of runs at it. At low RPMs the dingy just starts heading off on its own. Secondly, the motor only has an internal fuel tank. The small tank is okay for most applications but if you are heading off too far afield, you may find yourself running out of fuel. The dinghy has oars that work fine but rowing back to the boat in wind or waves or if you motored too far from the boat, well, it's just not

1 gal, fuel tank

much fun.

So we have begun taking a one gallon tank of fuel with us in case we run low. I also always make sure to top off the internal tank after returning to the boat and checking the tank before we leave to make sure we start out with a full tank.

Honda generator

We found out recently (a couple of years ago now) that the fuel most ffolks are using in their cars has ethanol in it and ethanol is BAD for small engines. So, we've located a couple of service stations in town that sell ethanol-free fuel and make sure that is all that goes into that little gas can. Using the ethanol fuel apparently has a negative effect on delicate systems inside the engine so my outboard motor and the Honda generator aboard are only fed this special and a bit pricier fuel. As a result we should have fewer mechanical issues and the devices should last much longer.