New Dinghy!
Meet Roti. (Thanks to Wendy Clarke for the excellent name choice!)
Floor model of what we bought
She’s an Achilles Rollup, 310. Hypalon. With an aluminum floor. We’ll use our current 15 hp motor (a 2-stroke we bought in Trinidad almost 30 years ago, still going strong) as the power plant until it dies, being careful with speed. The transom can support the weight!
Our first dinghy was a small fiberglass pram (less than 7 feet long) that came with the boat. Barely big enough for the 2 of us with any stuff, the primary benefit seemed to be was that it would fit on chocks on the cabin top, under the boom. This was replaced with a slightly larger, wooden dinghy that Jeremy built. We named it Soca and used it with a 2 hp Yamaha all through the Bahamas and Eastern Caribbean.
Working on Soca in the backyard shed
Soca definitely fit with the aesthetics of Calypso, but she was not exactly ideal for things like snorkeling or spearfishing (too tippy), or fast transport to and from the anchorage, especially in any kind of chop. By the time we reached Trinidad, we’d experienced enough RIB rides to know that that was what we wanted. Picked up a 15 hp motor in Trinidad, sneaked over to Venezuela to buy a big AB there, and we were set for 25 years.
Chutney alongside
Chutney was fantastic in so many ways. She was big, fast, stable. Easy to get in and out of. Her 15 hp motor gave us incredible range for exploring areas far away from our anchorages. She could easily plane with 4 people, a couple of dogs, and any of our gear. We have so loved this dinghy we halfway seriously contemplated buying a bigger boat just so we could continue to use it.
Because the real drawback with Chutney? She’s just too big for Calypso.
Or at least too big to store on deck and allow us to access the foredeck, meaning we can either store the dinghy there OR use the staysail and Code Zero. Given that we plan on crossing oceans, and those sails allow for a lot of excellent flexibility (and speed!), having a dinghy that we can store easily is high on our list of needs.
Bringing Calypso north in 1997. Note both dinghies.
How did we decide on this new dinghy, which is, we fully admit, a deep compromise from our beloved Chutney. But all dinghies are compromises, and all boats are compromises. So here we go.
Being able to sail well offshore is key for us. We’ve dealt with the sail limitations that come with stowing Chutney on deck for the short offshore jaunts we’ve done before; multi-week passages are another beast entirely.
Towing the dinghy is a no-go for the long distances we’re talking about. Doing so reduces speed, increases drag, and is risky in terms of weather. While we’re fine towing for day sails, longer journeys or open ocean trips mean we put the dinghy on deck.
We are avid snorkelers and Jeremy loves to spear fish. A dinghy that’s easy to get in and out of is important to us, which pushed us to an inflatable.
Exploring our environment is another aspect of cruising that we enjoy a lot. Having a dinghy that can go far afield just expands our reach, both for land exploration as well as checking out the nearby creeks and bays that are too shallow for us to take Calypso. This pushed us to an inflatable with a larger engine.
There are just the 2 of us now. No need for a huge RIB that needs to plane with 4 people when we’re just 2.
Hypalon fabric is far more sun-resistant than PVC, important for where we want to cruise. Yes, we’ll build a cover for it, but starting with better material is a good choice.
No Calypso in sight.
We debated a number of things. A hard dink was out for reasons mentioned above - though the 8’ Fatty Knees IS our choice for Mischief. We’ve loved the performance and reliability of our AB and looked very hard at a smaller aluminum RIB. If we went with a 9’ RIB, it would fit far more easily on the foredeck and be markedly lighter than Chutney. Still, though, sail handling would be challenging. The ideal place to stow a dink on deck is under the boom, where it’s much more out of the way as well as safer from boarding waves. Maybe we could have done an 8’ RIB that we deflated to stow there? Is an 8’ RIB big enough to plane with 2 of us?
As much as we love a RIB, we kept coming back to the need to stow it compactly. It’s never the plan to store it below, but being able to walk around on deck for easy sail handling is definitely a priority, and no matter which RIB we went with, this would be challenging. If we were going to get a RIB that we had to deflate all the time anyway, why not look at a rollup dinghy?
And so we turned our thinking. That a rollup dinghy is a fraction of the price of a RIB ($2800 vs $5000) didn’t hurt the equation either, though if it needs to be replaced in 5 years we’ll be lamenting the false economy. We initially thought a 290 was the right size; when we realized the 310 had an additional air chamber and a stronger transom, we happily paid the extra $20 for the larger version.
We did a test run of Roti at the lake, borrowing the 6 hp motor from the old aluminum skiff. We’re fully aware that our 15 hp engine is too much engine (but it’s what we have so what we’re sticking with for the time being) - one big question was how small an engine can we get that will allow us to successfully plane. Granted, it was flat calm, but we were PSYCHED to find that we can plane easily with that 6 . . . and even plane with a couple of passengers. The 8 hp that’s on our wishlist will be the perfect size.
Successful test run!
DInghy, check.
Anyone want to buy an AB320 that’s still going strong?