With all that weight hanging off the stern, are there any boat handling issues. Looks like it can move the CG in the boat. Do you make any changes in weight distribution? What are the experiences with quartering seas? Do you ever lash the boat to the foredeck? Or deflate and store inside?
My first three years I put the dinghy on the foredeck for offshore passages but then got tired of not being able to open the front hatches and it blocking my view. Don't really notice any difference between it being on the foredeck or aft...and really haven't noticed any difference between now and when I first bought the boat. I am sure there is a little, but I haven't noticed any.
Kind of the same thing with putting 200' of chain and a 45 lb anchor on the bow, I thought it would change a lot but it didn't. The one thing I do notice a difference in is when my water tank is full or not.
My normal cruising waterline is about 2 inches below what it was when I first bought it. When I loaded it up with food, diesel and water for my 30 day trip it dropped another inch and a half. I though it was going to be slow but once again, didn't notice any difference.
Cruisers hear a lot of stuff from the racing sailors and yeah, they may be right, in that they lose a few yards, but they exaggerate a lot of the stuff they say making cruising sailors scared to outfit their boat.
I did a race in Grenada last year against non-cruising boats that were there just for the race. Considering they were much faster boats to begin with and my bottom wasn't clean and my sails are old and I had terrible crew, I did actually pretty good. Last of the racing group (have no idea why they put me in that group) but beat all the cruising boats and I would say if they rated me correctly, I would have beat a few of them on adjusted time. So, no, I don't believe the weight (total = 350 lbs including the outboard, 15 hp, on the rail and dinghy) hinders me much. Just this past weekend I was doing 7 knots with 11 knots of wind close reaching and when it hit 14 knots I was breaking hull speed with 8 knots in the water.
Quartering seas are no problem except for the ones that catch just the stern. I never had the problem until crossing the south pacific. I broached 3 times in a 24 hour period but never before or never after. I do not believe weight had anything to do with it. In fact, I think the autopilot might be to blame as I noticed it seemed to react slow on the third one. 350 lbs = two people. Some of it is high but not that high.
Also want to point out that I rode out hurricane Sandy in Marsh Harbour on anchor with my arch and dinghy on the davits. Not a problem with that either in 90 knots of wind for 8+ hours so it doesn't seem to be much of a wind catcher either.
