The New Teenager in the Family

We had a 'not to be missed' opportunity to update our WIB ("Wobbly Inflatable Boat") last week.  Our 'WIB' has served us extremely well for the last 10 years.  It has been used to row to and from our mooring every time we have been sailing and, even with that heavy use and the associated rolling and unrolling, it still has many years of use left in it even though, amazingly, it was made in the 1980s.  It's an Avon Redcrest and we have been incredibly impressed with both the durability of the hypalon material and the fact that it has decent rowlocks so that you can use proper oars not the pathetic toy-like paddles most inflatable manufactures seem to think are suitable.  From our perspective being able to row the dinghy properly is an important safety factor so that you can get out of potential trouble if the engine fails.  If you hadn't guessed, we like Avon dinghies!

Having said all that, now that my kids are grown up, we have found that the Redcrest  does struggle a bit with 4 adults onboard.  It carries them but wouldn't be great in anything more than relatively calm seas.  To make our adventure affordable we expect to have to anchor far more often than staying in marinas so our dinghy is not just going to have to be the equivalent of our car but also it has to be able to cope with making longer journeys and in rougher conditions.  It can't be too big or heavy though because we still have to be able to lift and stow it

Sadly Avon no longer make small dinghies so we have been keeping an eye on the second hand market for something a little more robust than the Redcrest.  Second hand also makes it affordable for us as the Avon dinghies were extremely expensive new.  Last week eBay came up trumps with what we were looking for.

So, as of Wednesday of last week, the new teenager in the family is this Avon Rollaway Boat.  It is 3.15 meters long, is designed with a wooden transom to work better with an outboard, has larger diameter tubes than the Redcrest so carries more (5 adults), it has a rigid floor and an inflatable keel which will make it steer much better.  It was made in 1996 but has only rarely been used so looks like it is just a year or two old.  Perfectly matches what we were after.

The chap selling the dinghy is super fastidious and really looked after his kit.  We have therefore also bought his immaculate Honda 5 HP outboard as the Avon 3.15 is quite a bit heavier than the Redcrest and our current Honda 2 HP lacks the oomph needed.  Not sure how the new dinghy and outboard will perform but I will let you know when we have done some speed trials - I suspect we won't be breaking any world records but at least we'll be able to get to and from BV more safely.