In preperation of cruising my opulant 44 year old, 24' luxury yacht (old boat that keeps me out of the bars) around the Indian River Lagoon and to a couple of already scheduled raft ups I've been looking for a dinghy. My boat draws 2' 9" and I can't get anyone to wade in crotch deep water down here in the winter. Come to think of it I don't like it either.
Found a Water Tender 9.4 on Craigslist with a 30lb Minn Kota troller and paid $270 for both. Boat has a few scratches but otherwise in great shape. The motor is an unknown but I'll check it out tomorrow.
I have a bum leg and back and am a mite heftier than I used to be and so wanted a larger, more stable dinghy than I'm used to (8' fiberglass, shallow v hull). I want to be able to haul 3 adults at a time and really don't anticipate my passengers (usually) being runway models. Yhe shallow tri hull and wide beam on this dink should help.
The boat has great moulded in seating but no storage. I have a couple of small hatches I'll fit into the aft seat (one side for a battery) and will pick up something for the middle seat. This will mean that the void between the liner and hull will no longer be water tight so I might need to add a drain plug in the normal drain plug position. PDFs and other required gear will have to be in a bag which will make for easy loading and unloading anyway.
I have a red/green for the bow and a surface mount stern light that I replaced on other boats and a set of 2 part aluminum oars from an inflatable I sold rather than watch it rot. Glad I rarely throw anything away!
I'll launch tomorrow, anyone want to go for a dinghy ride?
Found a Water Tender 9.4 on Craigslist with a 30lb Minn Kota troller and paid $270 for both. Boat has a few scratches but otherwise in great shape. The motor is an unknown but I'll check it out tomorrow.
I have a bum leg and back and am a mite heftier than I used to be and so wanted a larger, more stable dinghy than I'm used to (8' fiberglass, shallow v hull). I want to be able to haul 3 adults at a time and really don't anticipate my passengers (usually) being runway models. Yhe shallow tri hull and wide beam on this dink should help.
The boat has great moulded in seating but no storage. I have a couple of small hatches I'll fit into the aft seat (one side for a battery) and will pick up something for the middle seat. This will mean that the void between the liner and hull will no longer be water tight so I might need to add a drain plug in the normal drain plug position. PDFs and other required gear will have to be in a bag which will make for easy loading and unloading anyway.
I have a red/green for the bow and a surface mount stern light that I replaced on other boats and a set of 2 part aluminum oars from an inflatable I sold rather than watch it rot. Glad I rarely throw anything away!
I'll launch tomorrow, anyone want to go for a dinghy ride?
Sounds like someones got 2 LEFT feet 