Our aluminum dinghy is now five years old. When we decided to go this route rather than another inflatable we had several objectives. These were:

• Tougher construction to survive in hostile cruising environments.
• Easier ingress and egress.
• Drier ride.
• More comfort in a chop.
• Efficiency in terms of outboard gas consumption.
• Use as a life boat other than in heavy weather.
• Ability to take it through the surf to a beach if required.

So, how has this worked out? In all regards great. The cost was twice a RIB and after five years with essentially a new boat we are ahead of the game, and we don’t worry about tying to pilings and sharp rocks.

The handrail forward, which we refer to as the “granny bar”, is wonderful for getting in and out. Standing up at the steering station is both drier and more comfortable than sitting on an inflatable tube.

The fender plate on the bow makes it easy to hold the dinghy steady against a dock or mother ship, and to use the dink as a thruster (so far only for photo orientation). The fenders on the topsides add significant stability and buoyancy while allowing us a narrow, efficient, hull form.

We are just wrapping up six months of cruising during which we have consumed 15 gallons (58 liters) of outboard fuel.

There are a few things we would change, but they are minor. We would make the storage locker forward larger.

The helm station would be designed to better house and keep dry our life jackets. And we’d probably back off from 30HP on the outboard to 20HP (we typically run at about 1/3rd throttle). The 30HP is only used for waterskiing which we don’t seem to do that much these days in colder climates. However, that the 30 will drag Steve up on a slalom, albeit slowly.

When we designed the dink we were trying to keep it as light as possible, but it still weighs in at over 700 pounds with its miscellaneous equipment and two six gallon fuel tanks. Doing this again we would pay a weight penalty to add maybe three inches (75mm) to the freeboard raising the lower “deck” at the same time. This is not necessary for the two of us, but would be drier when we have guests with us.

A final note on the Yamaha outboard. It has run without a hitch and starts on the first twist of the key.