Everyone needs a dinghy…
Right?
A couple of days ago I read a post about the cost of cruising. The problem was that it really wasn’t about the cost of cruising but a list of stuff they wanted to buy, most of which were really not needed.
Of course, they felt they needed a bigger, more expensive dinghy as well.
Have you looked at the cost of dinghies of late? Looking at the inflatables from Defender, the cheapest dinghy they have is $699 but it’s PVC and you’ll have to buy a motor (at least $1000 for a 2HP) because inflatables don’t row. When all is said and done you’ll have spent at least $2k for a dinghy that is going to be problematic at best.
I won’t even get into the whole “But you really need a RIB and at least a 15HP because, you know, speed…” to join the cool kids clique rant because you have a rollup inflatable and a 2HP you’ll have to suffer through as a result.
My next dinghy, a nesting TwoPaws design will cost me the price of three sheets of 1/4″ plywood, twenty bucks in lumber, a roll of glass tape, five yards, of glass cloth, and 1 1/2 gallons of epoxy. That and three full days of work and I have a cool dinghy for less than $500.
Since it rows way better than an inflatable I won’t bother with an outboard but will keep my eye out for a cheap used 2HP two-stroke because, you know, some days you need to be a bit lazy. I’ll also throw up a sailing rig for another hundred bucks… All told, I can’t see it costing more than $800 which is still $99 cheaper than that funky PVC inflatable from Defender.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that building your own shit can save you a shitload of money.
Built two dinghies, a kayakish sort of boat and a twenty footer in the past eight years, more fun than a barrel full of monkeys