Might buy one

I just got an AB, like it so far.

Know of several folks on here that have that brand.
 
I have a mercury rib. Rides good. Buy at least a 9.5ft.
 
Can’t go wrong with Zodiac. West Marine brand tends to be a zodiac with their brand. Defender.com is having their biggest sale of the year later in the month. They usually have several. I have a compact rib 310. Hard bottom makes a big difference.
 
Had both Achilles & Mercury soft floor rafts prior to our 10.6 AB hard bottom with a 15 hp Yamaha 2 stroke.
The AB is by far the best of the three we have owned. The Mercury and Achilles were both both good but I would recommend purchasing a raft made of hypalon. The PVC rafts do not last nearly as long.

We love the hard bottom raft on the hydraulic platform. Our previous boat was a 400EC and we “tilted” the raft up on weaver clips. We had to take the engine & fuel tank on and off each time we used it. It was a pain but it worked.

If you are planning to put the raft on a fixed platform or use davits the lighter weight of the air floor may be helpful. If you have a hydraulic platform definitely go with a hard bottom raft.

If you can find a good used 2 stroke outboard it will weigh significantly less than a 4 stroke. It might take a while to find one but it might be worth it.
 
I think your choice is going to depend on your budget and use. I bought a Zodiac Cadet 310 last year (soft bottom) and paired it with a 3.5hp Tohatsu. I couldn't be happier.

My objectives were 1.) light weight, 2.) fully inflatable and 3.) won't break the bank. The combo above met all of these requirements. I ferry 3 kids and 2 adults around at cocktail speed quite happily. And I can fold it in half for winter storage and leave it in the cockpit.
 
Buy the largest dinghy that you can put on your boat and the largest motor as well.

I had a 9' with a 6hp and thought it was great until I got caught in an outgoing tide in an inlet and could only make 2kts.

Now I have a 10' RIB with a 15hp.
 
My budget is around $5k. Is this not enough for a decent setup? I don’t need anything too big but I get what you’re saying about get the biggest one you can..like boats. We’re going to use it for cruising the marinas and take it to the bay and on weekend trips.

My buddy has a zodiac too. Not sure which one. It seems perfect for our application. However I was told to look for a v-hull flat floor.
 
My budget is around $5k. Is this not enough for a decent setup? I don’t need anything too big but I get what you’re saying about get the biggest one you can..like boats. We’re going to use it for cruising the marinas and take it to the bay and on weekend trips.

My buddy has a zodiac too. Not sure which one. It seems perfect for our application. However I was told to look for a v-hull flat floor.

You will definitely want a V-hull with flat floor in aluminum or fiberglass hull. You don't want it wider than your boat or it will get damaged docking. And get the largest HP outboard that it is rated for. As for brands, I would defer to others. Mine is a Mercury Hypalon 310 and its been good, but there are better ones out there.
 
Previously I had a Zodiac RIB (they have changed their name to Avon).

When we were back in the market this past fall our first assumption was we would get another Zodiac (Avon) since we were very pleased with it. Wound up going to AB, much happier with the AB.

Avon is good, we just preferred several features of the AB.
 
West Marine will put their name on anything, so their name means nothing. My first WM-branded dinghy was an Avon, which is hypalon. It's true that hypalon is more resistant to UV damage than PVC, but mine stained easily and was difficult to clean. When it was about 12 years old, it was still intact but looked horrible. It had a relatively thin surface material that wore away in spots after many cleanings. My friend has a PVC of the same age that he keeps under cover. His still looks great. My current dinghy is also West Marine branded, but it's a Chinese-made PVC POS. I hate it. W-M can get NO parts for it - they can't even find the part number in their system. It's disposable.

I spoke with the Port Clinton Brig dealer at the boat show. I plan to buy one this summer or next.
 
Great Lakes I got a Zodiac 310 hard bottom with a 9.9 Mercury 4 stroke. I would like a 15 hp but the 9.9 gets on plane and does ok. It is a blast back in Fisher Bay cruising the cuts. I would definitely get a hard bottom. I rode in my buddy's soft bottom last year and my hard bottom rode a lot better. I bought mine used for 1700.00 complete.
 
I got a 10 1/2’ Newport last year and paired it with a 9.9 4 stroke Mercury.
Its a nice enough set up for tooling around but I don’t take it with me on the boat as much as I thought I would because the combo is too heavy at well over 200 lbs.
If I had it to do all over again I would first find myself a good used lightweight 2 stroke 5HP that was easy to handle and then pair it with a nice lightweight boat that weighed no more than 50 lb’s.
If I had a combo like that I’d probably take it with me all the time.
 
If you're budget needs to include davits for your dinghy - $5k isn't a whole lot. You're not going to get a new hard bottom with a 15hp if you also need a good davit system. Used, maybe? New, no way.

The bigger/heavier your combo ends up being the more critical your choice in davits will be. When the fellas above say "bigger is better" they aren't pulling their dinks up onto the platform single handedly without a slick davit setup and they very likely aren't pulling their motors off the dinghy every Sunday if/when they leave the boat for the week. I assume they are mostly parked on their swim platforms 100% of the time?

If you're not looking to invest in davits and you're not willing to deal with the dingy every time you want to use the swim platform (ie. kids) you may want to consider something lighter, more easily manageable. 98.7% of the time bigger is better. But there is that 1.3% chance you need to be able to toss the motor in the cockpit and flip the dink on it's side without having a hernia...every weekend.

I think you're going to need more budget to follow most of the advice in this thread!
 
I got a 10 1/2’ Newport last year and paired it with a 9.9 4 stroke Mercury.
Its a nice enough set up for tooling around but I don’t take it with me on the boat as much as I thought I would because the combo is too heavy at well over 200 lbs.
If I had it to do all over again I would first find myself a good used lightweight 2 stroke 5HP that was easy to handle and then pair it with a nice lightweight boat that weighed no more than 50 lb’s.
If I had a combo like that I’d probably take it with me all the time.

JVM, I'm still in the tweaking process so bare with me. I made my own davit ramps that go into my weaver mounts. I was a crane operator (now operations manager for the crane company). I use a pulley system to get the dinghy up on the ramps. I hook the eye of the line on the cleat of the boat and then through a pulley that I clip to the dinghy, then back through another pulley that I attach back to the same cleat on the boat. I have this set up on both sides of the boat. The wife gets the bow of the dinghy and I get the aft/motor end. It pulls up and launches with ease. Once you get it set up and clips on the pulleys it removes easy and stays all together. You don't have to reeve the pulleys everytime. The easier you want it the more pulleys you reeve through. Hope I explained clear enough.
 
Last year I replaced my Zodiac RIB with an Aventus RIB. I got it from Dinghy Concepts out of Jefferson Beach Marina. I use a 9.9 4 stroke merc and it moves pretty good. We use it all the time, going from Bouvier Bridge over to Island Grill, or The Raft. We also hit Deckers, Club Capri, Browns and anything else on our side of the bay.
 
You should take a look at the Highfields as well. I have a 9' 6" RIB with an 8hp Tohatsu motor which is about 160 lbs combined. Gets my family of 5 around pretty well with no complaints. I can load it on the davits by myself if i had to but the wife and i can do it with ease.
 
We have a little Zodiac Cadet C260 . I bought it new in 2005 and it still looks good today. It has a 6hp 4 stroke. It will get up on plane with my wife and I but the water needs to be pretty flat. We mainly use it to go to dinner and tour around the marina... mostly just slow idle. I rarely travel with it but when we do its small and light enough to just pull it up on the swim platform (no davit system) and picking up the outboard is no problem by myself.


4hp.JPG

View attachment 54103
 
Last edited:
JVM, I'm still in the tweaking process so bare with me. I made my own davit ramps that go into my weaver mounts. I was a crane operator (now operations manager for the crane company). I use a pulley system to get the dinghy up on the ramps. I hook the eye of the line on the cleat of the boat and then through a pulley that I clip to the dinghy, then back through another pulley that I attach back to the same cleat on the boat. I have this set up on both sides of the boat. The wife gets the bow of the dinghy and I get the aft/motor end. It pulls up and launches with ease. Once you get it set up and clips on the pulleys it removes easy and stays all together. You don't have to reeve the pulleys everytime. The easier you want it the more pulleys you reeve through. Hope I explained clear enough.
I have Nautley Dinghy Ramps that go in to Weaver Davit brackets that are mounted on my platform. That’s how I transport my Dinghy around. It’s not hard to pull it up with two adults, and it stays in place when secured. I’m not sure I’d trust it through a rough inlet or on the ocean on a rough day though.
My main issue with the excessive weight is getting it in and out of the water from the dock.
The combination is too heavy and bulky.
Although the 9.9 moves my current Dinghy along, I have to have someone sit up on the bow to keep it down because the motor is too heavy. When I’m by myself I have to keep my 180 lb body as far forward as possible while uncomfortably reaching back to reach the tiller on the 90 lb motor in order to cruise around. If I give it any extra throttle the bow goes up in the air.
My current Dinghy is rated for a max 15 hp, but I can’t imagine what that extra weight would do to it.
Two guys can drop my bare Dinghy with no motor in, but pulling it back up is still a pain.
Once the boat is in the water, the 90 lb 9.9 4 stroke is too heavy to handle safely from the dock on to the Dinghy or from the Dinghy to the dock.
A 50 lb 9’ Dinghy with slat floor combined with an under 50 lb 5 hp 2 stroke would do everything I would need it to do and it would be a breeze to drop the boat in from the dock by myself and then safely handle the outboard between the dock and boat. That combo would be a breeze to pull up and down on my Dinghy Ramps, and if I wanted to I could even opt to strap the lighter Dinghy without the motor down on the bow and stow the lighter outboard in the bilge between the motors.
My advice to anyone looking for an inflatable Dinghy and motor setup is to get the lightest combo that suits their needs and try to avoid the excessively heavy 4 strokes. Look fo a good used, and much lighter, 2 stroke instead.
 
I'll trade you my 4 stroke 5hp Mercury for your 4 stroke 9.9hp. Someday I'll get a 4 stroke 15hp...

Or I'll get a bigger dinghy which I can put a 4 stroke 25hp-30hp on!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,860
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top