The perfect dingy?

[CharlieJ]

For long term cruising, particularly in Keys and Bahamas, my dinghy of choice is a small inflatable, with a small outboard.  This is the Achilles 7'6"  wood floor. Has many thousand miles being towed, and is a reasonably nice rowing dink too.. That's a 2.5 hp outboard on it which is ALWAYS removed when towing. If you are cruising, and exploring, with just a rowing dinghy, there will be many neat places you will just skip, because it's too far to go And snorkling trips for the same reason

[Owly055]

You can't really go upstream on a river in a canoe, but you can in a kayak.   
   

Sure you can.  Not sure why you'd say such a thing as a general statement.  Depends on the river, of course.  There are rivers you can't paddle upstream in a kayak, either.

There is nothing inherent in the design, hull shape or paddling techniques of canoes that precludes going upstream.  If you can paddle x knots through the water (we have hit 4 knots as measured by GPS), it does not matter if the water is moving or not.  If it's moving downstream less than x knots, you can sure paddle upstream.

If you can paddle x and the stream is moving y<x, you can make x-y knots upstream.

Now, back to dinghies.  My comment about using a canoe as a dinghy was tongue-in-cheek.

You are right in that it is a gross generalization..........
    There are rivers of course where you can go upstream in anything.............. the Thames for example, or the St Johns in Fla.   In my part of the world, you might go up parts of the Columbia or Snake due to the dams that turn them into a string of lakes more than a river.  The fact is that you can go far faster with far less effort in a decent river kayak than a canoe, and I've taken them up some surprisingly swift rivers.  You take it easy in the backwater areas, and pour on the coals where you have to get through fast water.  The maneuverability is a huge asset.  I can turn my 180 degrees with one stroke of the paddle very rapidly.   The rivers in my part of the world you simply cannot go up in a canoe except for very short distances in the slack water areas.  You'd exhaust yourself in just a few minutes.   The other negative aspect of a canoe over a kayak is wind sensitivity.

     Back in the mid 70's I used to kayak home from work in the summer at 2:30 AM on the Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers, actually shooting the spillway on a small dam on the Blackfoot a short distance downstream from my put in behind the plywood mill where I worked....  no white water except the spillway, but that was enough to wake me up!   It was about a 10' drop where a small earth fill dam made a millpond  (no longer there).    A beautiful peaceful nightime trip of 11 miles to my home on the river bank in Missoula, Mt.  A buddy would pick me up on the way to work and I'd toss my kayak in the back of his pickup.  Everybody thought I was crazy (still do I suspect)

                                             H.W.

[Frank]

Dingy's are like any other boat....compromises.

Like a boat, you have to be honest with yourself how you will actually use it
(not 'dream' of using it)

I know other than one gulf stream crossing (and I'll wait for a proper window), my next dingy will be used in the Sea of Abaco.

It will be my 'car' to visit other boats, go to town, dive from, fish from, explore with and my 'truck' to haul supplies.

I use a dingy daily here. A rugged, stable and reliable dingy is a true need for my type of cruising.

When trailer sailing back home, I've used an inflatable kayak for 10yrs now and its great!  Paddles far better than expected and fun!
It will not work here tho...

[w00dy]

If you have a long way to go, even the best rowing boats will be hard pressed to beat an inflatable with an engine big enough to get it on plane. Then again, I sure do miss having the 2'9" draft of the Aleutka, because we could often anchor so close to shore that we could spit there. Small boat, small draft, small distance to shore!  ;D

[CharlieJ]

Yep- an example- Dry Tortugas, Florida. Moored off fort, want to go to the other island and visit lighthouse, or snorkel off there. Can't anchor there
4 mile row each way? Few will even try.

Edited to add-

and inflatable dinghys are not all  THAT bad to row. Here's a friend of mine rowing his wife and my ex (Laura)  ashore after a visit to us off Key Largo. Laura rowed it back.

[Captain Smollett]

Edited to add-

and inflatable dinghys are not all  THAT bad to row. Here's a friend of mine rowing his wife and my ex (Laura)  ashore after a visit to us off Key Largo. Laura rowed it back.

I enjoy rowing our inflatable.  It's not a "rowing" boat by any stretch of the imagination, but it's okay (with acceptance of what it is).  I've rowed for a couple of miles at a time.

The only time rowing was far less than "pleasant" was with all four of us aboard and trying to row dead into the full ebb in Charleston Harbor. That stretch was only a few tens of yards, but each stroke was forward 12", current pushes back 10".  Not fun.  (So, like so often comes up, the REAL problem was trying to row against the ebb rather than waiting for slacker water...something about cruising and schedules comes to mind again).

A cruising dink has to check off as many possible boxes as possible on a long list of compromises.  For us, a 9'6" inflatable rowed (or later with a 2.5 HP outboard) has worked well.

[ralay]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3DN61Xz_9nw/VlDerCPkXKI/AAAAAAAAIWA/SigR8DjeyCI/s1600/015.JPG

The dinghy above was designed and built by our neighbors at the boatyard this summer, who are now in Panama getting ready to complete their circumnavigation.  It was fiberglass over some sort of foam honeycomb.  It was SUPER light, though they said it was plenty strong.  It had that nice little glass spray hood and the rowing seat had a watertight compartment under it that they used for hauling large volumes of water.  They'd also designed and built their mother vessel, which was also amazing and well thought out.  It was humbling to meet them and our other neighbors who had sailed from France.  We tried to pick their brains and eyeball their gear as much as possible.

[Frank]

ralay....I've always maintained it truly is the people you meet that make it so special. I could fill a book...
Just the last few days have been amazing!!!

Capt Smollett.... yep, somewhere earlier I detailed a 1/4 mile row against the tide to get a wifi forecast last year. Had a shower before I left to row to the bar/restaurant......needed another one once I got there  :o

[CharlieJ]

 ;D ;D

Understand that!!

[ralay]

Frank, we finally got two neighbor boats.  It's nice to look out and see company.  Unfortunately, (for us, not them), neither of them are doing anything but the ICW and day hops.  We're going to leave them behind come tomorrow.

This anchorage is a good example of dinghy problems.  We had a choice of a great anchorage on the Brigantine side of Absecon Inlet or anchoring IN the inlet for access to the dinghy dock in Atlantic City.  The inlet has short jetties, a 2.5kt current and is rather exciting.  We chose the good anchorage, but now there's no way we're rowing across the inlet.  Our neighbors with an inflatable plus outboard zipped right over there.  We're scoping out places to make a stealthy grocery run without upsetting all the homeowners protecting their empty docks and mudflats from vagabonds.  We have a British seagull, but it's for emergencies only as our dinghy isn't registered.  Makes me think it might be worth the $30 or whatever. 

[SeaHusky]

My current dinghy. A B andB Yacht Design MiniPaw. 6'6", and 60 pounds. No sail facility

Here with several hundred pounds of load- 275 pounds and 165 pounds)

Looks good with two persons on board but what happens without the passenger?
Do you position yourself differently?

[CharlieJ]

Yes. There are two sets of locks. and a T shaped seat. When alone, you shift the oars aft.

This pic shows the setup

[w00dy]

I have been to that boat shop a few times recently ( B & B). Those guys are wizards!

[CharlieJ]

and very nice folks also. I've built 7 boats to his plans so far, and the amas for Traveler were designed by B and B.

That's where we left Tehani for several months back in 2011