dingy weight

J

jkswor

New member
I found this Saturn dingy on boatstogo.com. for $625.
It is 8 ft 6 in and weight is 75lb.
Looks like a good one with alum floor and thick fabric floor
Is this too heavy for the top of a 22 ft c dory?

Have found one on defender for about the same price but is 53lb with a lighter floor and wood slats.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Just bought an 05 c dory and need a dingy for the dogs to go ashore in Alaska, Valdez area.
Jim
 
Congrats on the C-Dory! The following is opinion, and free. :lol: Weight aloft is definitely something to consider on these boats... your boat can handle 75 pounds up there, though. We have a slat floor dinghy that weighs just over 50 pounds, and I can wrestle it up on top by myself... but, I wouldn't want to go any heavier, just from an ease of use perspective.

If the alum floor model has an advantage (like being able to plane), it might be worth the extra hefting... assuming you are going to carry a motor that will get it up on plane.

From my perspective, lighter (and easier) will get more use in a dinghy.

Good luck with you search.

Jim B.
 
Its not to heavy for the roof of a cdory. I stand on mine all the time at 220lbs. I have had 5 kids use the top of the 22 as a dive platform. The boat can take it. I think that the real question you should be asking is can you handle the weight. 75lbs sounds light until its 8 ft long 3 ft wide and wiggles. Or is a sail in the breeze when you go to lift it. My dinghy has a blow up keel and floor that works better for me then the wood or alum slant floors and they weight less, not much less but less. My dinghy is around 75lbs I think and can get it on top of the 27 fairly easy but not by just picking it up. I stand on the roof, pull the bow up with the painter until the dinghy is standing on its end. Then I take a step back as I pull down on the bow and pull the dinghy to me. This gets the dinghy on the roof with out me having to really lift it. I then just rotate the dinghy to face forward and center on the roof and then tie it down.
 
Tom, you are approaching the dingy weight problem wrong. Draw on your experience. Keep inviting those 5 kids along and you'll never have to lift another dingy. :thup .

Just don't keep inviting them along until they are old enough to drink the :beer before they do they heavy lifting! :mrgreen:

Oh, and quit bragging about the size of your dingy. Everyone knows... Oh never mind, it's Christmas, us squids should be kind to grunts... :wink:

Charlie
 
I say lighter is better.
Any more than 50 lbs and it becomes awkward and you will not want to use the dinghy as much therefore impeding your FUN.
I have the little west marine wood slat model, its adequate.
RU460 or something like that.
 
This is an aluminum slatted floor. It is rated to 5 hp. It would not be a good planing boat. The solid aluminum floor is hard to fit, but with an inflatable keel would plane. Better is an inflatable floor.

The rocks and barnacles et in AK can cut up a boat. Also good to have a boat you can either anchor out on an "endless line" and pull off shore, or be able to easily pick it up and take it above the high tide line. (remember those high tides).

We spent 4 summers cruising AK with a RIB--even with the 12 1/2 foot RIB we had to put another layer of fiberglass on the bottom of the keel at the end of each summer. This was finished off with epoxy, high density filler and aluminum powder. This prevented holing the RIB on the rocks etc.

I would go for a lighter slatted floor, or an inflatable floor which can handle 10 to 15 hp. We have a 9 1/2 foot inflatable floor, handle 10 to 15 hp and will plane, which weighs less than the 75 lbs, we use on the C Dory 22. (Also used a slatted Plywood floor in AK--ery light about 35 lbs and picked it up each time and carried it up the beach--we took the dog/ dogs ashore at least 3 times a day.
 
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