I used to race motorcycles. I was in a bike shop once buying a new helmet. A
young lady was also buying one and complaining about how much they cost. I
asked her, how much is your head worth? I don't profess to be an expert on
survival at sea but we did survive 50 knots of wind and 30 foot waves during
one bad night while hove to. All night long two thoughts kept going through
my mind. I kept wondering if the next wave coming was the one that was going
to kill us. I also kept thinking we should have bought a better life raft. A
hard dinghy in bad conditions just isn't going to do it. I can't think of
any place to store it where it won't be on the way. We started off with a
SportYak, unsinkable and about 6.5 feet long. I don't think there are any
dinghys that are smaller. It wouldn't fit on the cabin top without removing
the boom vang. We carried it on the fore deck and even there it was in the
way. We wound up with a 9ft Bombard with inflatable floor that we usually
towed and lashed to the cabin top when folded. We could inflate it on the
fore deck when we wanted to use it. We also had a Switlik Life Pod which
would probably have been overwhelmed had we needed it the night we hove to.
Walt S/V Lyric
PS. I would go with an Achilles next time. I loved the inflatable floor and
they're made out of Hypalon, the PVC Bombard just didn't hold up. Rriends
had the smallest Achilles and I'd go one size up from that.
