The Uses of Inflatable Boats: as a Tender
Inflatable dinghies were used as a fast means of transportation that can easily be inflated
, deflated and stored in a jiffy. It was purchased for with the intent of being used only in dire cases when a better mode of transport is not available. Many large boat and yacht owners purchased these inflatable dinghies solely for occasional use.Renting a mooring place in marina costs money. Think of it as parking your car in a parking lot where you are charged by the hour. If you have a real big yacht, it would be hard put for you to moor your boat in real tight spaces. At times when you are gallivanting from one port to another, it would be a better deal if you just anchor a few miles from where you want to be.
A smallish soft tail will do as tender if the nearest landing is about 100 yards away only. Equip it with a 2 horsepower motor and you are all set. However, more cruising enthusiasts are acknowledging the fact now that a small sport boat is better than a soft tail in terms of speed, loading capacity and maneuverability, never mind the extra cost and more difficult storage. A bigger sport boat is more appropriately called a tender as it allows more flexibility in transporting people in and out of a yacht even if you anchor away from the crowd. Think of a high-speed sport boat as a family car when you are off cruising in far-flung places. With a reliable inflatable sport boat as tender, you can practically go anywhere once you are anchored.
Hard or Soft Dinghies?
More cruisers are opting for inflatable dinghies nowadays. Hard-shell dinghies are not really fading away to oblivion but the soft inflatable ones are preferred by yacht and cruiser owners as tenders. The trend is not meaningless though as the primary reason for the switch is the load-bearing capacity of inflatable boats. It is quite impossible to sink an inflatable by overloading. A regular hard-shell 10-foot dinghy will tip over or sink when overloaded two crews and a six-pack beer. An inflatable can easily carry three crews, a dog, a few cases of beer, loads of chips and food, coils of rope and what-have-you and it will still have enough flotation.
Inflatable sport boats are very stable. You can step on any part of the boat and there is no fear of tipping over. With dinghies you have to be sure to step into the center of a dinghy. Stepping on a dinghy's gunwales is a sure trip to a good flip. An inflatable boat is seaworthy even in bad weather and choppy water. Swamping a dinghy is a sure sign of a sinking boat. When that happens make sure you secure your life vest and stay close to the boat. An inflatable can get swamped and that's no big deal as you can continue rowing. If you feel like bailing water out, by all means do it.
Inflatable boats are fairly easy to inflate, deflate and stowed away in a locker or on deck. During off season you can store the deflated boat in the garage or in the attic. Note that the larger an inflatable boat is the harder it is to deflate and store it. There is also the matter of inflatable sport boat with floorboards. The solid floorboard is an excellent addition to inflatables to make rowing easier and the addition of a small outboard possible. However, these add-ons make it harder to pack this for storage. Good thing someone thought of the inflatable roll-ups.
There are still the hardcore traditionalists who still prefer hard-shell dinghies. Hard dinghies will sail and row like a dream. There is nothing more beautiful than an expertly handled dinghy that glides over water. An inflatable will not row, sail or glide. A hard dinghy can run aground will not suffer any credible damages. What to get, a dinghy or an inflatable?
Weighing all the pros and cons, the best solution for a cruiser or a yacht is to get both.
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The Uses of Inflatable Boats: as a Tender
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