Ideal boat design for a solo diver

[Ana]

I started off with a 15' inflatable and 40HP motor. Soilid boat. Relatively cheap to buy, incredibly stable, tough, easy to manage solo, economical, etc. Downsides are that it is not very comfortable, very hard on the lower back especially with wind chop and there's no shelter from the elements. If you are young and hardy it's not such a big deal but as you get older these drawbacks take a toll.

Currently have an Arima -- built by the company that makes Defiance boats out of Bremerton. They have a great reputation with a loyal following. Tons of deck space and storage for its size, very seaworthy, economical with a 4 stroke, and an open bow makes it easy to pull anchor solo. Mine has a hard top for wind/sun protection, so it gets used 12 months of the year.

There's no such thing as an ideal boat -- all boats are a floating compromise LOL -- but so far it's working well for me.

View attachment 749212

Beautiful! Having a top for weather protection makes it perfect

 

[Belzelbub]

For me it’s a kayak.
No motor, no gas, no battery, self powered, no trailering or boat ramps, gives me range, easy to get on and off.

That's what I was thinking as well. Mainly for the reason listed below.

When you say a boat for a solo diver, this implies no other people on board, correct?

If that is the case, you need to worry about the body of water where you will be leaving that vessel while you are at depth, also consider the distance away from the vessel you think you'd be.

Yep. I don't dive off of a boat unless there's at least 1 capable operator on board. Lots of things can happen during the dive. Current can pick up, anchor can drag, etc.

At least with a Kayak, the distance from shore is probably small. At least then, if the anchor dragged or broke, then a swim to shore might be possible. When diving 10 or more miles offshore, swimming to shore is not likely.

 

[sprockjohnson]

It would depend on what the wind/ current/ wave conditions are where you dive. All of my saltwater diving is in the Gulf of Mexico off the southwest coast of Florida where we have minimal current and waves are usually fairly tame during the summer months when we go out there. I have a 21' Yamaha jet boat which does the job just fine up to about 30 miles offshore and is easy to launch/ operate/ dock by myself. If I was diving somewhere where the dives did not require me to go numerous miles offshore I would probably be looking at a small RHIB or that jetski/ rescue tow-behind combo. I'm not sure I would be confident trying to get back into a kayak after the dive.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The problem with diving off a boat solo is a boat can get you into trouble with the range capability to get to remote spots. Once you’re out there you’re on your own. I had an 18’ Oregon Dory skiff that I built with a center console and a Yamaha 70 enduro. I only solo dived off it a few times close in. I never felt comfortable going way out to some offshore reef miles out and solo diving with possible currents, swells, wind could come up, slip an anchor, or anything else that could go wrong. I always took a few other guys or ideally four of us went out and dived in teams so there was always someone on the boat.
It was kind of a waste too to tow it all the way to the coast and launch it, a lot of gas, boat ramp fee, having get it off the trailer and retrieve it by my self, then only me diving off it. It was lonely too.
I’ve settled on a kayak as the best personal watercraft for me. It’s pretty hard to paddle somewhere so remote that distance could become an issue. It also gives me way more options of where to launch since I don’t need a boat ramp. I have a wheel dolly for it and can even roll it along a small path and across a sandy beach if I want.
My buddy has a kayak too, so many times we’ll anchor up in close proximity then go do a dive together, but we both have out own personal dive platform.

 

[ROUS]

I've been toying with the idea of an 11' - 13' RIB like the one below. With motor, you're still way under 1,000 lbs so towing and storing shouldn't be much of an issue. With the right trailer (and tires), I could see me taking some fun dive road trips with it and maybe even visit some of those lakes/sites that aren't conducive to shore diving.

I might want to get a little inventive on reboarding options. There might be some existing devices out there for that (that would hopefully work better than rope ladders).

As for boat security while down, that's certainly an issue with no easy answers. But, I'm betting that the wife would go along pretty often to sunbathe and babysit the boat. If she became concerned over something topside, a noisemaker should get me back there promptly. She might like it better if the bimini was up.

 

[SlugLife]

I don't know OP's intended use-case, but it's definitely worth keeping in mind "what happens if the anchor comes loose, someone steals the boat, or the boat flips over while you're gone?"

• My own use-case would be accessing spots on local-lakes where party boats hang out, for treasure-diving (sunglasses, iphones, etc). The shore is never that far away, and if the boat is gone when I surface, that would be lost money, but not a catastrophic loss.
• Solo-diving 10-miles from shore with no surface support sounds like a VERY bad idea for a very large number of reasons. I suppose you could also dive with a PLB or other safety devices and redundancies, but I'd be a little surprised if that was OP's intent.

My biggest concern would be someone trying to steal the boat, or items from the boat while I'm underwater. There are ways to lock stuff up of course, and I don't expect random drunk boaters to have bolt-cutters ready and available. If it was a Jon boat or RIB, you could always dual-anchor, or even tie it to the shore, which means it shouldn't float away, or flip over because some idiot caused a giant wake. Plus I always find tons of anchors while diving, so getting multiple anchors for the boat would be easy (and free).

I absolutely love the RIB idea, although I don't see any on the used-market locally.

 

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

More often than not one very trustworthy anchor (such as Spade or Rocna, either of which being oversized for peace of mind) is preferable to multiple anchors.
Danforth/Fortress anchors are exceptional holding in soft sand/mud BUT not trustworthy at all if direction of pull changes, and Bruce/Delta anchors of adequate size are reasonably good under certain applications. Also having adequate scope (ie length of chain/line between anchor and boat relative to depth, and taking into account tide changes...) is as important as having the correct anchor.

Personally I would trust my life to a properly sized Spade anchor with adequate scope without any hesitation, but everyone should make their own decisions based upon knowledge of "why" and Practical Sailor did some pretty good scientific anchor testing worth looking at.

Granted above doesn't solve very legitimate concerns of change in current making it difficult to return to boat or theft, especially somewhere remote, although current is very local specific and in my experience theft is more likely where there are more people..). Good practice is to write a note on boat of time/direction/ETA of dive in addition to dive flag, and let someone know where you'll be or at least have the inreach satellite messanger).

 

[Belzelbub]

More often than not one very trustworthy anchor (such as Spade or Rocna, either of which being oversized for peace of mind) is preferable to multiple anchors.
Danforth/Fortress anchors are exceptional holding in soft sand/mud BUT not trustworthy at all if direction of pull changes, and Bruce/Delta anchors of adequate size are reasonably good under certain applications. Also having adequate scope (ie length of chain/line between anchor and boat relative to depth, and taking into account tide changes...) is as important as having the correct anchor.

Very good advice. That's been my experience as well. My boat originally came with a Danforth anchor. I went up in size compared to minimum recommendations for my boat. Somehow, I ended up with several of them.

On a dive a few years back, I found a galvanized plow/spade. Actually two of them. One was way too big, and was sold. The other I used. I definitely noticed better holding power with the plow than with the Danforth. Held a little too well, and I lost it earlier this year. Found a replacement in stainless, so all is good.

Granted above doesn't solve very legitimate concerns of change in current making it difficult to return to boat or theft, especially somewhere remote, although current is very local specific and in my experience theft is more likely where there are more people..). Good practice is to write a note on boat of time/direction/ETA of dive in addition to dive flag, and let someone know where you'll be or at least have the inreach satellite messanger).

Yeah, and this is my main concern. After anchoring, I usually descend down the anchor line to make sure the anchor is set properly, and not likely to hang up. I've come up from dives with significantly different sea conditions than when I went in. Things can change quickly, so being prepared is a good idea. Even though I don't usually dive in remote areas, I always leave a competent person on the boat. I try not to dive a site where there are a bunch of other boats, so not likely that I'll be able to flag down another boater.

My wife has had to come get me once. Surface current kicked up and we surfaced downstream. Not really in any danger, but it was going to take a minute to get back, so the best thing was to move the boat.

 

[Still Kicking]

My biggest concern would be someone trying to steal the boat, or items from the boat while I'm underwater.

I fly this flag and put my faith in professional courtesy.

 

[Russjstewart]

At the risk of stating the obvious, and this really applies to all boats. make sure all the shackles used for the anchor, chain and line (rode for you purists) are tightened and wired so they cannot vibrate loose. Inspect all component regularly. I was once on a charter that suddenly started drifting before all the divers were in the water, the pin had come out of the shackle between the chain and the anchor.

For those of you using an inflatable do not tie off to anything that is glued onto the boat. For RIB's I have had a line attached to the winch u-bolt on the bow and then tied the anchor off to that. For my soft bottom inflatable, I used two eye bolts in the transom then ran a line from the bow to the eyebolts for anchoring, so all the load was on the transom