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Showing posts with label Reid Harbor dock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reid Harbor dock. Show all posts

Thursday

What is the Best Dinghy for Cruisers in the San Juan Islands? The Dinghy Dilemma!

       We all know asking "What's the best dinghy" is a loaded question; boaters can be passionate when it comes to  equipment choices.  Based on my own frugal, sailing/boating should be affordable philosophy "The best dinghy is the one you already own."  Whoa now, lets start listing exceptions.  I don't mean too small, too big, leaky, unsafe, etc. etc.   I mean a basic dinghy, that only has to float you and your stuff to shore.

    In keeping with this blogs purpose to help first timers get to the San Juans, lets talk reality.

     Here are ten or more irrefutable truths about dinghies.
  • You must have a dinghy to go ashore at most parks, because you can't count on there being room at the dock. Many docks have room for only four boats. Many parks have no dock.
  • You don't need a dinghy if you only go to resorts and marinas.
  • You will probably tow your dinghy everywhere you go.
  • You may not use it at all (makes you wish you left it home).
  • If you need it you will be thankful you brought it with you.
  • There is no place you will go that you can't drag your dinghy along.
  • Dinghies may be major status symbols among some groups.
  • Towing a dinghy slows you down and uses fuel
  • You may run over your tow line and foul your prop or rudder (use a floating tow line).
  • Certain people have a hard time climbing into or out of a dinghy alongside their boat.
  • Children need a dinghy.
     Okay, that list is far from complete but highlights some points. Yes you need a dinghy, even if you can beach your boat, there are simply too many limitations and problems with beaching your water borne camper.  Lets say for example you rush to shore to use the bathroom at one of the great State Parks.  In the ten minutes you're ashore, a falling tide could leave you high and dry.  With a dinghy you simply pick it up and carry it back to the water. You need a two or three person dinghy, a one person craft can't ferry others to shore. When using dinghies, a multi hull catamaran style such as a Livingston is very stable, rows  well, beaches easy, and can carry big cargoes, however when towed they track to one side, hunt back and forth, forcing you to keep them on a very short leash. A conventional V hull dinghy is  tipsy crawling over the bow on the beach, carry's less cargo, but rows very nice and will tow directly behind you on a long or short leash.  Inflatables can carry enormous loads, some (not all) row poorly and some create so much drag they are impossible to tow. Just about all dinghies can be outfitted with an outboard motor, but you really don't need one for simple cruising in the San Juan Islands unless you plan on doing miles of shoreline exploring.

        In the summer season you probably wont see any big dinghy capsizing waves, but storms and adverse winds can churn up anywhere anytime, my dinghy floats when swamped, but not with the outboard, with the outboard bolted to the transom it's straight to the bottom or at least as far down as my tow line is long. Inflatables may be swamped without damage or sinking, which is something to think about if  your main boat is not up to the challenge, and could itself be sunk somehow.
Livingston Dinghy, one of five best shore boats
Our Livingston dinghy is nine feet long and a tad bit overloaded
Two man inflatable kayak for cheap shore boat in the San Juan Islands
This inflatable was $69 and holds two people
This inflatable stows on deck, or deflated stows below and carries three people. 
      How about two dinghy's?
If you have children that take off with the dinghy, they are effectively leaving you stranded on the boat or ashore.  Well that's not going to happen you may say.  I say, "what if they get hurt ashore and call you on the phone or radio for help? What do you do? What if they take off in the dinghy and it gets dark, what do you do? (swim)"
Several years past I sent my bored and restless son (in the dinghy) to shore at dusk, telling him to invite himself to one of the many campfires we could see from the boat.  He met some other boaters with kids and before you know it it was after 10:00 pm and very dark.  His mother and I started to wonder what to do as we were stranded, and had no way to communicate with him. After a few minutes I took a strong flash light and blinked it into the darkness in the direction we thought he was last seen.  A short while later he appeared at our transom asking if we wanted him or something.  This little non event made me realize how handy a second dinghy would be, so we bought an inflatable kayak to stow below, just in case.



10/13/13 update worth noting
I'm selling the new sailing dinghy

4/17/17 update on converting the 9'  Livingston dinghy to sailing
 >> go to the do-it-yourself page and scroll way way way down to see the finished conversion << The dinghy conversion section is before the Bimini top on the cheap instructions and after the Boat acronyms if that helps you find it.
Livingston dinghy sailing conversion

9/13/20 another dinghy update. Last winter I plunked down about a grand in boat bucks and bought a new inflatable. My criteria was as follows. First, it must be light enough for me to muscle it around onto and off of the cabin roof by myself. It must have two seats. I must be able to inflate and deflate it on the boat. I bought a 9.5 foot boat with aluminum seats, plywood transom and high pressure inflatable floor.  Without seats, oars or pump, the rolled up package is about 4 feet long, 1.5 feet in diameter and weighs in at 73 pounds.

Standing on the cabin roof, I was able to fully inflate the new boat and slide it into the water.  Dragging it back up was much more work, even with two of us.  Then we drove around for three days with the inflated boat on the roof. All in all I like the new boat and am happy with my choice.

Testing complete, we deflated our new dinghy, rolled it up and headed for the San Juans.  At the last minute before heading up the freeway, I put the Livingston back on it's  swim step snap davits.  I know my plan was to replace the Livingston with something more seaworthy but I decided to bring the new and the old anyway.

In the San Juans we never inflated the new dinghy, and used the Livingston as usual.  Now the new inflatable is sitting collecting dust in my boat shed. I used it once for one hour. I still have high hopes to somehow justify my purchase. I hope mice and squirrels don't chew on it in the meantime.

Tuesday

What is Proper Dock and Float Etiquette at our State Marine Parks in the San Juan Islands

     We were having a lively discussion about whether a boater should pay .60 cents a foot for their entire boats length, or just the portion in front of the float. All we managed to do was come up with more unanswered scenarios.

  • If you have a sixty footer parked at a forty foot float, do you pay for forty or sixty?
  • If your twenty footer is forced to hang out ten feet because some lunkhead is hogging the dock do you have to pay for ten or twenty feet? (half the boat is probably too much in some places)
  • If a clown doesn't pull down to the end of the float and leaves seven feet of unusable space forcing you to anchor, should he have to pay for that seven feet he has wasted
  • What if same bozo parks his thirty five footer in the middle of a fifty foot float and wastes seven and half feet of space at each end, should he pay for the fifty feet he is really hogging?
  • Should the park ranger get involved in policing float etiquette?
  • Is it ok to move someones pride and joy seven feet without their permission?
  • How about the dinghy taking space floating at the back end, should it be counted too?
  • When two comedians are rafting at the dock and the sign says "no rafting" do they pay 60 cents per foot per boat or just the dock side boat, or the bigger
Seriously though, please be considerate and try to maximize dock space, some of our San Juan floats only hold two boats on each side, and our bigger or littler friends may easily wipe out more than they need to. There is not a boat out there that can't hang out a little at the pointed end, and that may make the difference getting another boat squeezed in at the other end.  You can be thanked or cursed, you're the skipper.


  • What if a boats sprit overhangs a another's dinghy, do they split the 60 cents a foot that they are sharing?
  • If the anchor buoy your tied to and already paid for breaks loose and floats away, can you get your fee back?
  • If a sailboat rafts with a power boat, what is their offspring named? is it sterile?

Reid Harbor dock on Stuart Island