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Wayne Prichard asked for an account of experience with an air floor
inflatable.
My experience is similar to that of Andrew Fraser. We had a Zodiac high
pressure air floor inflatable and found that it did not really work as advertised.
In particular, we found it to be a very wet boat and the air floor was never
hard enough to act like a true rigid hull. We bought it because at the time
we had a sail boat and needed to be able to roll up the dinghy. This was
really its only redeeming feature. Once we moved to a Nordic Tug and began to
carry the dinghy on a powered davit system on the transom, we switched to an Avon
3.10 RIB. This boat is drier and faster with the same motor, an 8 hp Yamaha.
Also, because the floor is rigid, it is easier to move around the interior
when loading and unloading the dinghy with gear and people. The air floor had
too much give and made for an unsteady process. I would never go back to a
high pressure air floor again as my primary dinghy as we find the RIB to be very
satisfactory. It is a bit underpowered with a number of people aboard and
when we sell North Star, we will sell the dinghy with it. When the new boat
comes in, we will put an Avon 3.40 RIB on it with a 15hp 4 stroke. About the
only way I would get another air floor dinghy is as a back up dinghy that will
live most of its life rolled up!
Jim
(Jim & Mim McCrea, Nordic Tug 32-154 "North Star" Home Port
Norwalk, CT)
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