My 2 cents worth on hard a shell dinghy...
I don't have a Vega however my 27ft Albin sailboat probably has very
similar deck area (one ft. more beam). I bought a relatively inexpensive
hard dingy the ubiquitous "Walker Bay" - 6ft. version. In short, I like it.
Actually this is my second WB. The first one was crushed because the staff
at *Reid Point Marina untied it from where I had tied it up and retied it
in a way that when the tide came in, it was caught between the dock and the
pilings and was SLOWLY crushed to the point where the gunnels to keel
measured 18 inches (!). They poured hot water into it and literally kicked
it back into shape. It *LOOKED* OK except for some tell tale white marks
that WB said were bad news and to destroy it. I bought a replacement hull
(at a discount with the **help of WB) and R&R'd the seats from the old hull
to the new. The near indestructibility has impressed me to the point that
if I can live with the fact I have a (shudder) plastic tender it will last
me as long as my Albin does.
Towing is another plus point. It tows very well. Period.
Stability: good.
Unfortunately, I can't wrestle the *(&^%% thing around my deck too well
mainly because I have ***broken both of my arms in the past and don't have
full strength in either of them. An average able bodied person should have
no problems with this. Note that mine is the 6ft. version which limits you
to 3 persons max.
Rowing ability: excellent, really easy to row, it's a really well designed
boat from a "performance" viewpoint. It "sits" well on the water and even
with my -40% -60% arm muscle I have no problems getting around in it.
Tracking is fair to good.
Walker Bay has an informative web site - it's probably not cool to post
URL's here so do a Google if you are interested. They offer an 8ft as well.
Here is pic of my Albin with a 6ft Walker Bay Dinghy on deck to give you an
idea of how much area it takes.
To anyones else that has visited my site in the past.... don't bother,
nothing new there, too many other projects.regards,
|Garry|
Half Moon
Albin 82MS #17
Horseshoe Bay
BC, Cda* Reid Point Marina is owned by a Lawyer, just guess how well THAT went
(buncha jerks)
** and not one bit of co-operation from Reid Point
*** sailing stories....****I no longer keep Half Moon at Reid Point Marina, I have moved to the
Sewell's FAMILY owned Marina at Horse Shoe Bay
-)
