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Part 3 - Outfitting
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| Dinghies Some kind of tender is a necessity for long-term cruising. I suppose that in some areas a yacht could move from marina to marina and avoid needing one, but that would mean foregoing the joy and independence of time spent at anchor! We have an inflatable dinghy with floorboards and a transom. The transom allows use of larger motors (such as our 8HP), not just the little 2-3HP engines that the "inner tube" style inflatable dinghies can handle. I should mention that we are so happy with our Avon R3.10 and Yamaha 8HP motor that it might be hard to make objective comparisons to other choices. But if you should choose the unstable, slow and difficult-to-store option of a hard dinghy, what can you expect? Well, for one thing, there are many less thefts of hard dinghies than of inflatables. And realistically, a hard dinghy with a good set of oars is the cheapest and most durable option. There, I tried to be objective! Most long-term cruisers have chosen an inflatable dinghy. Over 80% of North American cruisers have an inflatable with an outboard motor. Of these, nearly half are the rigid-inflatable type (or RIB), with a solid fiberglass floor and transom. The RIB offers the best perform ance of any small tender and addresses one of the "hard dinghy" peoples' concerns as well -- they fare better in the being-dragged-up-a-rocky-beach test. Their shortcomings are weight and storage. We think it is essential that the tender can be carried on board, not only towed, and if there isn't room for a RIB to be stored on deck, consider another option. Our rules for towing the dink are as follows:  never tow the dinghy at night. never tow the dinghy if there is a chance of rough seas. never tow the dinghy if the passage is more than 15 miles. always tow with a bridle through the dinghy's bow towing eye and back to the transom. We put a "U"-bolt in the transom for this purpose after tearing off one of the towing rings that was bonded to the bow. I don't believe any of these bonded rings are really up to the task of towing a dinghy. The transom can easily handle the strain.This may be difficult to believe, but we met a yacht in the Azores who complained that they had been towing their dinghy and had lost it -- on their way across the Atlantic!! 
Most cruisers choose inflatable dinghies for convenience and speed. The main reason we are so happy with our dinghy and motor combination, is that it provides such a great way to explore. With the two of us aboard, the dinghy will easily reach a plane (maybe 15 knots), so we can, and often have travelled more than 3-4 miles from Two-Step. We've explored up rivers and creeks, over shallow areas where we couldn't take the "mother ship". And for our major passion, skin diving, an inflatable is the best choice. We carry a small anchor and some line, and can easily climb in and out of the inflatable when we anchor near a reef. Our Avon R3.10 is the type with three large pieces of plywood that assemble into a floor, then the dinghy is inflated around it. This is a 20 minute operation, but most of the time we store the dinghy inflated, secured upside-down on the foredeck. It can be launched in minutes and stands ready as a life-platform in case of emergencies. No dinghy is maintenance-free. We have never had a puncture, but when the dinghy was four years old some of the seams were showing wear, so we had some new seam-tape bonded over the trouble spots. Repairs can be made on board but numerous conditions must be met to achieve a good bond. For Hypalon dinghies (Avon, Achilles etc.), the material must be sanded to roughen it first. It should be cleaned, and then wiped with toluene to soften the rubber. Temperature and humidity should also be within the normal indoor range (Apparently PVC dinghies are even trickier to glue.) We found it was easier to take it to a repair shop where all this could be more easily controlled. The outboard motor must also be maintained and this is an area where it is easy to do the normal tasks oneself. Every few months I remove the cover and apply grease to all the grease-points as specified in the manual. Then I spray Boeing T 9TM on other likely looking places and close it up again. Once a year I change the oil in the lower unit. Probably the biggest problem with outboard motors is corrosion and a good rinse with fresh water is the best therapy. If the motor is going to be out of use for a couple of weeks or more, I flush the cooling passages out with fresh water using a motor flusher (This is a simple device that allows a hose to feed water directly into the intake vents in the motor's lower unit) We store the outboard on deck as well as the dinghy itself. The motor lives on a bracket on the stern rail, locked with a non-corrosive lock. Table 3 - Dinghy Maintenance
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loaded with supplies.