Well, the reason Chuck that you can go 39 miles in your Montauck is that it has seats, leaning post, helm, steering wheel, tank racks, dry storage, fuel tanks, coolers, sun protection etc. My inflatible Novurania is equivilent to the Zodiaac Grande Raid Professional MkII GR. It is 14 feet long actually and that boat runs almost 8,000 dollars--bare--today and has a DRY WEIGHT of about 200 lbs (that is right--200 lbs). I have a steering wheel and an inflatible seat which we never use--heck of an air mattress though. We pile the gear and coolers into the floor. We sit on the gear and on the tubes. I steer sitting on the right tube and the other divers and first mate sit about on the floor or on the tubes as well. Running hard in the Gulf with 50 horses propelling a soft hull inflatable boat is like being a basket ball abd being dribbled up and down the court. There is no reason you cannot make long runs except that you will get bounced, pounded, soaked and bounced some more. It is fun and wild for short trips, don't think I would want to run 40 miles to sea though. For all practical purposes these boats are flat botom--yeah--they say they have a V and they do a bit but it is not much and the light weight additionally make them bounce--bounce. Also, the fuel tanks are portable types, six gallons, usually no room for more than two such tanks. Twelve gallons of fuel is not enough to go 40 miles out.
The rigid hulls are a whole nuther ball game. Now, the soft hulls are fine boats, we have enjoyed ours and they are great dive/play boats for there intended purpose. After use you break them down and roll it up into your mini van!
For serious offshore work look at the Zodiac Pro Open rigids. The 18 footer Pro 550 is about 33,000 dollars with 115 Yamaha engine. Any run that could be done in a Montauck could be done in the 550. It has provisions for a bimini, T top, it has center console, leaning post, seats, coolers, dry storage, anchor locker and places to set a tank rack and gear.
Nad, I think your plan of getting the soft boat and using it NOW is a good one. I think you will enjoy it and find it useful and I think you understand it's limitations. Good luck.
Oh Catherine, we caught the shark, we were fishing for other stuff but he bit. I fought him and and got him to the boat and was trying to get the hook off of him and when I pulled, he wiggled, and came right into the boat. Remember that hypalon tube boats sit about one foot or so of gunwale above the water and slippery with sun screen oil he had no diffuculty getting in the boat. Once there he thought he might hangout and work on his tan. He was not an agreeable sort however so I eventually had to ask him to leave. N
The rigid hulls are a whole nuther ball game. Now, the soft hulls are fine boats, we have enjoyed ours and they are great dive/play boats for there intended purpose. After use you break them down and roll it up into your mini van!
For serious offshore work look at the Zodiac Pro Open rigids. The 18 footer Pro 550 is about 33,000 dollars with 115 Yamaha engine. Any run that could be done in a Montauck could be done in the 550. It has provisions for a bimini, T top, it has center console, leaning post, seats, coolers, dry storage, anchor locker and places to set a tank rack and gear.
Nad, I think your plan of getting the soft boat and using it NOW is a good one. I think you will enjoy it and find it useful and I think you understand it's limitations. Good luck.
Oh Catherine, we caught the shark, we were fishing for other stuff but he bit. I fought him and and got him to the boat and was trying to get the hook off of him and when I pulled, he wiggled, and came right into the boat. Remember that hypalon tube boats sit about one foot or so of gunwale above the water and slippery with sun screen oil he had no diffuculty getting in the boat. Once there he thought he might hangout and work on his tan. He was not an agreeable sort however so I eventually had to ask him to leave. N
