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Subject: Re: TWL: dinghy/motor question
From: Chris Mangin (cmangin@XXX.XXX)
Date: Sun Apr 01 2001 - 12:30:35 EDT
Can't speak to the question about your boom, but I can tell you a bit about
the inflatable and the horsepower. We use a West Marine (Zodiac) 280
roll-up with the hinged "teak" floor, 5-ft beam, believe it weighs 75-lbs,
will transport 4. Our older Johnson 4-hp outboard would push it well
enough, but I wouldn't want to use anything less in a heavy current/tide or
wind, or especially both. In fact, we just got a new 5-hp Johnson and it
seems surprisingly much more capable -- though truth be told, I was more
interested in the newer features, like a F-N-R gearbox and a kill switch.
FWIW, I shopped long and hard on the 4-stroke engines, but couldn't find
what I wanted at a weight I can horse around. The new 2-stroke seems to be
much cleaner burning than anything I've experienced before, and the weight
is within my lifting limits, whereas the Honda 4-stroke wasn't. (Also, I
use this new motor on a canoe with max hp rated at 5-hp, so that was my
arbitrary limit; otherwise I'd have gone with an 8-hp to be able to plane
the inflatable better than 5-hp will do, when fully loaded.)
As to the dingy itself... I wanted a "hard" floor because of our big dogs; I
figured dog toenails would be too rough on the "floor" of the HPIF models
that were just coming out at the time. Turns out that dog toenails stomp
all over the inflatable barrels, too -- dogs just never seem to get the hang
of jumping straight on the dinghy sole :>) -- and the barrels haven't had
any problem yet. I deduce that the much lighter HPIF models would be quite
sufficient for my purposes, easier to lift and shove and so forth, easier to
inflate and deploy... and cautious me, I'd probably still use something like
a beach towel covering the floor and stuffed into the spaces where floor
meets barrels. Much as we (now) try to drape the boarding-side barrel with
a beach towel where the dog scrambles aboard.
Finally, floorspace becomes a problem, when it comes to big dogs. Our boat
was barely large enough for the Pyrenees and Golden together with wifey and
me. Gas tank in the way, dogs all over the place, etc. They don't seem to
know how to arrange themselves equitably :>) And forget rowing; too many
dog noses in the way, and besides, inflatables don't row for squat. Part of
our solution will be a saddle gas tank that hangs on the transom (when I get
around tuit), and the other part is a built-in tank on the new engine. The
built-in tank is small, but easily suitable for port calls; the external
tank would be more for exploring/gunkholing/diving, etc.
Oh, one last thought: when it comes to dogs, the inflatable stability has
been truly impressive. Imagine 200-lbs of dog deciding to scope out that
duck (or whatever, fill in the blank) just off the starboard gunnel. You
remember that dogs look with their whole body, so two big honkin' dog noses
suddenly about 2 feet overboard sniffin' on that attraction will surely get
your attention in a normal boat (and of course we've had our fun in the big
canoe, too, but that's a different story), but with the inflatable, we've
never gotten wet unintentionally. Yet :>)
Cheers, -Chris (RANGER, Dania Beach, FL)
> From: "M&D" <mdgoode@XXX.XXX>
> The second question is the motor: a 4 stroke/2 HP Honda will be easy for
us
> to handle, (on and off the dinghy, back into the storage shed, etc.) but
> will it push us in an 8-1/2 foot inflatable?
> Anyone with experience with a similar combination? What are the
> limitations? Advantages? If buying again, would you change anything?
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