Sea STAT
New Member
- Mar 29, 2010
- 5
- Boat Info
- 280 Sundancer
Raymarine E80
- Engines
- Twin Bravo III 5.0's
Fresh water cooled
hey all,
I have read just about every dinghy thread on sea ray club i can find.. and still wanted some opinions..
I have a few questions..
we have a 2007 Sundancer 280. We just bought a 8'8" Air Deck Dinghy for the boat.. we have two questions.. one about engine size, the other about storage... as you will see, they are intertwined
Here is my ultimate goal.. I would love to be able to use the dinghy as not just a boat to get back and forth from places, but also as a little water craft that can plane with 2-3 light adults on board, and be able to use it to have some fun with.. The dinghy i bought is actually rated for up to a 10HP engine, so comparatively, thats a pretty good sized engine compared to most 8'8" inflatables.. the boat is 90lbs total..
The second goal would be to keep the Dinghy stored on the swim platform in the horizontal position.. This would allow me to easily launch and recover the dinghy, and if it is stored in the horizontal position, we would be able to keep the engine on it all the time.. Therefor, that could impact our decision of engine size.. if we can keep it on the swim platform horizontally all the time, i am not worried about going with a heavier larger 8-10hp (88lbs).. if we need to remove it to swing the dinghy up each time (vertically like with the weaver davits) we will prob go with a smaller 6hp (55lbs) engine which is lighter and easier to store somewhere on our boat..
so you can see my question is twofold.. what do you think the best engine size would be to get it up on plane and use it to have fun.. and two, do you think we could secure the dinghy safely on the swim platform in the horizontal position? I think the swim platform on the 280 is a little over 3ft wide.. the beam on the dinghy is about 5ft wide.. so it would hang over by about 2ft..
any advice would be greatly appreciated..
thanks
safe boating all..
j
I have read just about every dinghy thread on sea ray club i can find.. and still wanted some opinions..
I have a few questions..
we have a 2007 Sundancer 280. We just bought a 8'8" Air Deck Dinghy for the boat.. we have two questions.. one about engine size, the other about storage... as you will see, they are intertwined
Here is my ultimate goal.. I would love to be able to use the dinghy as not just a boat to get back and forth from places, but also as a little water craft that can plane with 2-3 light adults on board, and be able to use it to have some fun with.. The dinghy i bought is actually rated for up to a 10HP engine, so comparatively, thats a pretty good sized engine compared to most 8'8" inflatables.. the boat is 90lbs total..
The second goal would be to keep the Dinghy stored on the swim platform in the horizontal position.. This would allow me to easily launch and recover the dinghy, and if it is stored in the horizontal position, we would be able to keep the engine on it all the time.. Therefor, that could impact our decision of engine size.. if we can keep it on the swim platform horizontally all the time, i am not worried about going with a heavier larger 8-10hp (88lbs).. if we need to remove it to swing the dinghy up each time (vertically like with the weaver davits) we will prob go with a smaller 6hp (55lbs) engine which is lighter and easier to store somewhere on our boat..
so you can see my question is twofold.. what do you think the best engine size would be to get it up on plane and use it to have fun.. and two, do you think we could secure the dinghy safely on the swim platform in the horizontal position? I think the swim platform on the 280 is a little over 3ft wide.. the beam on the dinghy is about 5ft wide.. so it would hang over by about 2ft..
any advice would be greatly appreciated..
thanks
safe boating all..
j