A friend with a sailboat asked me about inflatable "kayaks" as an alternative to small, motorized dinghy-like craft. He wants the boat for short distances (100 yd - 200 yd) and does not intend to transport bulky or heavy items, but wants to include wife and small child. Additional concerns: ease of storage, ease of getting into and out of water. I told him to consider foldable kayaks. Any other recommendations? Tom Joyce ------------------------------------------ The information contained in this e-mail message may be privileged, confidential, and protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, any further disclosure or use, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you think that you have received this e-mail message in error, please delete it and notify the sender. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
"Joyce, Thomas F." wrote: > > A friend with a sailboat asked me about inflatable "kayaks" as an > alternative to small, motorized dinghy-like craft. He wants the boat for > short distances (100 yd - 200 yd) and does not intend to transport bulky or > heavy items, but wants to include wife and small child. Additional > concerns: ease of storage, ease of getting into and out of water. I told > him to consider foldable kayaks. Any other recommendations? Much as I like my folding kayak, I wouldn't recommend one for this application. The thought of having to assemble it on a cramped deck and then only paddling it 200 yards isn't pleasant. In addition to inflatables, he might want to check if he has room to store a Porta-Bote dinghy (http://www.porta-bote.com/). *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> From: "Joyce, Thomas F." <TJoyce_at_bellboyd.com> > A friend with a sailboat asked me about inflatable "kayaks" as an > alternative to small, motorized dinghy-like craft. He wants the boat for > short distances (100 yd - 200 yd) and does not intend to transport bulky or > heavy items, but wants to include wife and small child. Additional > concerns: ease of storage, ease of getting into and out of water. I told > him to consider foldable kayaks. Any other recommendations? Nautiraid makes a couple of folding dinghys, but I've never seen one in this country. They claim the boats can be assembled in 1 minute! Might be worth tracking down. See: http://www.nautiraid.com/barque/page10-en.htm Klepper made a lot of Masters, a 12' folding dinghy, in the 60s and 70s. They can sometimes be found at a good price, though generally they need a new hull. The Porta-Bote is nice if you contemplate mounting a motor. There are a ton of inflatable dinghys out there; check my inflatables page for some leads: http://foldingkayaks.org/inflatable.html -- mike ----------------------------------- Michael Edelman medelman_at_ameritech.net http://www.foldingkayaks.org http://www.findascope.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> A friend with a sailboat asked me about inflatable "kayaks" as an > alternative to small, motorized dinghy-like craft. He wants the boat for > short distances (100 yd - 200 yd) and does not intend to transport bulky or > heavy items, but wants to include wife and small child. Additional > concerns: ease of storage, ease of getting into and out of water. I told > him to consider foldable kayaks. Any other recommendations? Ehh - yes! Last autumn Iīve seen a kind of "foldable" boat, called "the banana boat". It is no foldable, in our small paddle world. But it exist since 1975 ! First I give you the dimensions of the short one. unfolded (for storage): length 3,25metre; wide: 0,58metre; high: 0,1metre out-folded - ready for use: length: 3,05 metre; wide: 1,35metre; high 0,43metre Itīs draught vary between 0,1 metre (unloaded) and 0,18metre (fully loadad with 270 kilo) Weight without seats 22 kilo Material is Polypropylene, which means it canīt sink! There is a bigger one available, too. Total dimensions 3,60m; 1,55m; 0,50m, 38kilo (empty) and 360 kilo (it carrys max.). Motor up to 5,52 kW = 7,5 PS, sail 5,9 qm. The boat is made from one piece PP (Polypropylene), foldable by special edge treatment. Canīt explain it exactly. When its unfolded, it take place like a normal surf-board, just hang or lay it where you like. To buld it up, you bend apart the sides out from the middle, and then the sides a secont time. You have to fix 3 wooden seats (front, middle, back), they hold the sides in the correct way. Then fix the skulls or the sail or the motor and "up īn away it goes". With some training, you fix the boat within 5 minutes. It looks like an hard edged kind of Dingi, you can row it, use a motor (up to 1,47 kW = 2 PS) or sail it with max. 4,7 quadaratmetre. I got only the last years price in DM (forgotten to take new prices on the "BOOT"). The small one about 1200 Euro or about 960 USD. The bigger one about 1600 Euro or 1280 USD. Their webside is www.banana-boot.de There is a similar made one on the market, the design is another, it looks more "doing sport", fun... Itīs construction differ in some details, but made from the same material and with same technique. 3 sizes available, Typ 8 (2,62 metre, 22kilo) for 1475 Euro, about 1180 USD, Typ 10 (3,29metre, 27kilo) for 1553 Euro, about 1240 USD and Typ 12 (3,84metre, 31kilo) for 1760 Euro, about 1400 USD. They are called "Porta-Bote" and their adress is www.kalkuhl-gmbh.de bye Jochen *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
We use two keowee tupperware kayaks as landing craft on our 30' sailboat. They do not deflate, but they are small enough to lash to the cabin top without interfering with the boom. They are light enough to make launching and retrieving an easy one person operation. Each one has a shotgun seat for a child up to about age ten or eleven in calm water. As my son has outgrown this, we added a Folbot Aleut to the fleet. I dont have any experience with inflatables. I considered getting an inflatable at the time we got the Aleut, but I decided that the Folbot would be more satisfactory to paddle. --Karl Coplan *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Peter Rathmann writes: "Much as I like my folding kayak, I wouldn't recommend one for this application. The thought of having to assemble it on a cramped deck and then only paddling it 200 yards isn't pleasant." Well, we routinely assemble our Aleut (12') on the foredeck of our 30 footer. If we are going to be in port for a a few days, it's worth the 20 minutes to assemble the boat then leave it tied up 'til we leave. Not much worse than inflating an inflatable, I suspect. I will admit that once last summer in the process of assembling the Aleut the bottom frame unsprung in a surprising sort of way and gave me a shiner that I had to explain for about a month . . . but that could have easily happened while assembling on the beach, too. --Karl Coplan *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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