Experience Inflable Boats

[ShakaZulu]

You will have to strap down all your gear (tanks in the front helps to keep the nose down), things can get rough out there.......It's fast and fun way to get to a dive site.

http://www.makoinflatablesusa.com/

Checkout the video........

 

[ShakaZulu]

Just for kicks, attached a pic of a shore entry...........

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

The SeaEagle catalogue has a sequence of pics of their 14SR jumping what they call 6' waves(looked more like 4-5' to me). The prop was completely out of the water, pretty cool pictures

 

[sitka diver]

Anyone out there who has experience diving from an inflatable boat? Specficially I am looking at a SeaEagle 9 rated to carry 1200 lbs. and a 4HP motor or a SeaEagle 10.6 Sport Runabout which is rated for 12 lbs/ and a 15 HP motor. Any experience with such boats for lake diving? Stability?

Dont roll it over bro...

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I had a 12-4" Achilles with a 25hp outboard. I made more than two dozen trips to Catalina(50 miles round trip) as well as around 100 local trips. It worked great for two divers, but the one time I took three the boat was so slow we could only make it about two miles before we gave up.

 

[O2Addict]

I have a 4m Avon RIB with a 40HP on it, and it is perfect for 2 people and gear. I would not go any smaller though.

 

[cool_hardware52]

In no particular order:




Think about a trailer, breaking down the boat, packing it home and reassembly so you can wash it and purge the motor gets old.

Inflatables are a great way to "dinghy dive" as they are very hard to tip over when climbing in after the dive.

Think about putting the fuel tank or bladder in the bow, (another long hose

Think about 2 motors if budget allows. Big motors = big fun, but heavy if you have to hand launch. A 9.9hp is a neat thing if your short handed, or have to assemble and launch from a bigger boat. Handing a 35 hp over the transom and fitting it to an inflatable is best done in the shallows with a tag line attached.

Check out http://piranha.com. Spare props are a good thing, the piranha prop stows flat (removable blades), a heavy sharp spare prop is not a nice thing to have bouncing about.

Be very careful of sharp gear snags, worm drive hose clamps, etc.

Inflatables are big fun!


regards,


ch

 

[soggybottom]

I have been using my 20 ft RIB for diving the last year and i am hooked. Fantastic way to get out there and back again fast.

Try a 175 Evenrude on a bombard 20 feet rib boat

http://community.webshots.com/user/eiostbo

Its a dream to dive from

try a 25 hp on a seawolf 4 people can really move
www.seawolf.biz
unbreakable floor and will take up to a 70 hp.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I have the the floorboard slats that fit into place with the rails. Even with the 9.8hp I've gotten the boat to buckle on some 4' seas I don't think I'll go any bigger or thrown an extra motor on, afterall, its just a 10'2 boat