Alaska planning - buying dinghy

[thataway]

AJF all excellent and valid points. The nutshell is a great little boat-but hardly good for 3 adults. It also weighs 90 lbs.

If you want to row, the best inflatable boat is going to be the air floor. Agree that there is nothing better than a hard dinghy for rowing. For a number of years I rowed a 16 foot dory 6 miles every morning. We took our nine foot "Fatty Knees" to AK the first summer. Eight foot oars, never had a motor on the boat. Big fore deck, windlass rigged to spinnaker halyard, 3 point bridle and still it was a pain to launch! We didn't take it the next three years--and some of this has to do with my back problems.

On the other hand, an inflatable is more stable, much easier to stow, and you don't have to tow it. I used to like the old Avon's which had the rubber "oar locks" where you could really pull and feather an oar. Most inflatable boats do not have good oar locks or oars. Many river rafting boats use an aluminum frame for the oars. You could make a decent collapsable frame out of PVC pipe and use real oar locks--and oars, if you wanted. Saturn sells NSR frames of aluminum.

 

[20dauntless]

After a day at the helm you really do need to get out an stretch your muscles and there is nothing better than rowing a well designed little dinghy.

That is a great idea. We are both runners (a few IronMan's under our belt) and have a hard time going more than a couple days without running. Rowing the dinghy around would be a great way to explore and get in some exercise. We took the View motorhome to Alaska this summer and I had a hard time running sometimes because I'm a bit nervous around bears - had to pick my runs carefully...

Have you considered kayaks? It's not difficult to carry 2 inflatable kayaks on a 22 and they paddle so much better than an inflatable dinghy in my experience. And kayaks are light and easy to haul up and down the beach when you're exploring on shore.

If you're looking to get off the boat and walk around, check out this list of Forest Service cabins. There are often hiking trails around the cabins, up to lakes, etc. I've found the hiking in SE Alaska is wayyyy better than in Northern BC.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/activity/tongass/recreation/camping-cabins/?recid=78613&actid=101

 

[BRAZO]

If you're looking to get off the boat and walk around, check out this list of Forest Service cabins.

Have you considered kayaks?

Yeah, we thought about kayaks and almost purchased the Oru Kayak - foldable. But we have two SUP's that we use in warmer water (actually used them as our dinghy that last two years in the Gulf Islands & San Juan's). We enjoyed our dinghy that we had on our Sundowner Tug - so we decided to go that way.

We did purchase the SD230 and Suzuki 2.5hp yesterday - online.

Thanks.

 

[williwaw]

I've been looking to upgrade our dinghy and recently went to the Inflatable Boat Center here in Portland. The guy there was familiar with C-Dorys and was a big fan of the Zodiac Cadet 240 Aero with the inflatable floor option. It seems very well made, has an inflatable floor and keel and is about the right size (7'11") for the roof. There's also a 260 size that's a bit bigger.

Our current dinghy is a roll-up donut style and while very light weight and easy to stow (the reasons we bought it), the downsides due to the soft floor and lack of transom turned out to be an issue for us. I also like to row and was told a high pressure floor boat will perform much better.