Yacht Forum UK

I've been thinking... my tender and outboard are an awful lot of faff every time I want to visit my boat. And as I posted on here a bit ago, I need to hoist my outboard onto the pushpit each time also because my tender tends to flip in higher winds.

Couple that with the cost of servicing the outboard, having to carry petrol onboard and 2-stroke oil etc, having to stash the outboard in the shed when back on land.

It's a whole lot of faff!

So I'm thinking about something like this as an alternative:



I bet a bit of paddle power could get one of those moving quickly enough to paddle against a fair bit of tide don't you think?

And they're unsinkable, don't require maintenance really.

Only possible drawback I can think of is stowing onboard is going to be awkward - but it's unsinkable, so could I tow it, or will I have problems of it catching up with me and bumping into my transom?

What do you reckon?

I think you said it yourself Bob, the big problem is stowage, and it aint going to be easy with one of those I think, sorry mate

Spoke to a UK supplier and they said also that this particular model isn't particularly stable unless you're sat down.

Back to the drawing board I think.

A larger more traditional one would probably be fine - but wouldn't have the built in buoyancy.

Some ppl on another forum said that a hard tender (rowing boat) is a fine solution. But I've had a good look and it seems the ones that would row easily, are also rather heavy looking and so hard to transfer from the tender rack to the water single-handed (as I often am) - especially with a little lumbago (which I get from time to time because of lugging outboards).

But with a hard tender you have to trail a drogue when towing in any kind of a sea.

No simple solution I think. Might have to carry on lugging the outboard after all.

I must admit, my hard tender is very easy to row, but I would be very reluctant to even try and get it onboard, though I have seen a nifty setup with a set of davits where the tender is lifted and made secure to the transom. Pity I haven't got a big enough boat for davits, so it'll be the faithful old rubber duck for me, lashed off on the aft deck most likely