Inflatable dinghy storage

Consider you may not ever need a dinghy. It takes up too much room, even inflatables. You can beach in 4 or 5 inches of water. A dinghy can beach in 4 or 5 inches of water. Beach and wade ashore as needed. That's what we do over 45 years. It's a very small boat, and perhaps you don't need to haul around yet another small boat on it. Just consider it. Space on a small boat is very very valuable, and you do not want to waste it on something you may not even need. Try six months without it before you buy. PS we gave away our Saturn 12 ft to the Boy Scouts after never using it for 10 years. YMMV.
Safe Travels!
John
 
I have an inflatable dinghy for my boat. I only take with me when I plan on using it. That's about once every 4-5 years. You might consider a inflatable SUP/kayak instead of a dinghy. They are lighter and will take up less space inflated or deflated. Depends on what you intend to use the dinghy for, how often you need to use it, and how much load it needs to carry.
 
We carry the inflatable all the time. Sits on a home made stainless steel rack on the roof. easy to get on and off. We use it all the time. You cant anchor to close to shore with a 10 ft tide change. dinghy is the way to go. In my profile pic you can see the rack. Picture taken for the dinghy
 
As Tom notes In different parts of the World you have different anchoring and beaching situations. We Carry a dinghy if going on a cruise--but usually not for Day trips. If I was in Alaska, I would carry it all of the time. First it is your life boat! If you have dogs it is a good way to get them ashore. When anchored, often it allows you to access other areas. For example on Lake Powell, you cannot hit the phone, Marine VHF, 2 meter ham repeater unless you can see it. So it is much easier to take the dinghy out to the center of the lake and get the connection you might need--including in an emergency--which we have had to do to get life flight into. the place where the person was severely ill or injured.

We carry it inflated on top of the cabin, delfated in the same place. We leave our inflatable in its container. That protects it from the sun and UV radiation, which breaks down the PVC plastic on the dinghy. We have a tutorial in my photos (or did have) on using the Garhauer Davit to hoist a 9 1/2" air floor, about 70# inflatable onto the C Dory roof. The dinghy can also be brought aboard over the bow. Ranger tugs have a great system to pull the dinghy up and over the outboards where it rides upside down.
 
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