Dinghy for Catalina 34. How big is too big?

[Dave2424]

Hey Folks

My 8.5' dinghy finally died this year. Boat show's coming up and I'm trying to decide what to get. Looking at one that's 11'2". Searching the forums (incl Cat 34, Stu) and see some chatter about dinghys being too long. Anyone have any experience with this long a dink (sorry, couldn't resist). Plan to carry it in davits .

Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[Stu Jackson]

Dave, don't know if you found this:

Steve, before you do that and buy too small a dinghy, stop and think about it some more.

In most cases, when it comes to dinghies, bigger IS better. Unless you only intend to row to shore from anchorages, if you're planning to use a motor on it, you'll find it a lot more fun and useful if you get the biggest one you can get, which usually for our boats is the 10'-2" model.

OTOH, you might well be happy with a 3 hp engine on an 8'-6" dinghy, but the tubes will be smaller and the load carrying will be a lot less.

You could also continue to solicit input here to see if anyone has a 10'-2" dinghy on davits. If the davits are high enough, the length shouldn't be an issue.

Just don't want you to end up with too small a dinghy.

We have a 10'-2" Zodiac high pressure air floor after having an 8'-4" WM with a 1.2 hp. Night and day. No davits, fits on the foredeck, but that's not my point...

From this: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,7221.0.html

 

[Dave2424]

Thanks, Stu. Actually, that's the thread that got me thinking.

 

[Sea Mistress]

I have found the overall factor for dinghy's to be weight. The davits only hold so much weight and I would like to have my dinghy on the davits with the motor. I have also determined that rigid hull is critical for any dinghy on davits. So the math on weight, of a rigid hull with a motor ended up with the max length of 9'6"

I would suggest getting the davit specs and boat specs and do the math for your setup.

Cheers,