I've spent an inordinate amount of time recently thinking about my dinghy situation.  A dinghy is a smaller boat that can be used for going ashore or other short trips where the mother ship is not practical.  If the boat is the house, then the dinghy is the family car.

The dinghy is important to us for a few reasons.  Firstly, our anticipated usage of Take Two does not include marinas.  So the situations when cruising where we would need to use the dinghy to get ashore are expected to vastly outweigh the times when we can simply step down to a dock.  Secondly, we have small explorers very interested in getting off the boat.  A thousand other practical uses come to mind.

The boat came with a Walker Bay 10 RID with a sailing kit and a 4hp Yamaha 2-stroke.  A nice little boat, but it doesn't satisfy all our needs.  For one, it can't realistically carry the whole family at the same time.  On the plus side, it does have bottom paint and we don't currently have davits so it can be in the water and available for immediate use.  If we want to go somewhere and take it along, then we just tow it behind.

I was thinking we needed something bigger and faster, but storage becomes an issue.  We wouldn't want to tow a dinghy long distance.  We will eventually get davits, but even so, we "only" have 14 feet between the transoms to haul it out which would limit us to about a 12-foot plus motor.  I wasn't feeling that 12 feet would be enough, especially for an inflatable where so much interior volume is taken up by the tubes.

I've been intrigued by the Porta-Bote since seeing one at a boat show several years ago.  They're indestructible, have lots of room, and fold up to 4" flat.  When I saw a 14-footer on Craigslist I jumped on it.  They look a little goofy, but it is growing on me.  One of my dockmates said it looked like a stealth bomber.  Take Two is very angular and aggressive-looking (to me) and I think the Porta-Bote is a good aesthetic fit.  And it gets me the same type of "Holy crap, you're crazy!" looks as Take Two does (which I've come to enjoy). 

It doesn't have bottom paint, so it can't be kept in the water long-term.  Our marina is pretty bad for growth and it started to get barnacles after only two weeks.  The current storage solution is to keep it folded and lashed to the port side lifelines.  The unfolding process is a little arduous (I understand that they loosen up over time), but we have plenty of foredeck space for doing that.  I'm thinking I can launch and retrieve over the port bow with a small roller and the clever use of a halyard.  It only weighs 100 pounds so it is pretty easy to move around.

It did not come with a motor, and figuring out what to get is my current dilemma.  It is rated to carry a 83 pound or 9.8hp motor.  I borrowed Jonathan's 15hp Yamaha 2-stroke (79 pounds).  I determined that 15hp was overkill since I couldn't open it all the way before the boat got squirrelly, but having extra power isn't a bad thing, especially since I could see pulling kids on water toys.  I didn't really care for the weight though, and the mounting bracket was a little too wide to fit between the transom supports.

My little 4hp is in the shop since it hasn't run in several years.  I'm sure it will push the Porta-Bote, but I'm not sure how well.  Is 4hp enough to get it up on a plane?  Probably not.  I don't have any plans to get rid of the Walker Bay or the 4hp, so I think it will make a nice backup motor.  Between the two I should be able to keep one running.  How about 8-10hp?  Super Dave has a Yamaha 8 and I'll ask him to borrow it this weekend.

Power is only one part of the equation.   Weight and serviceability are my next biggest concerns.  Weight is bad in general since Take Two is very sensitive to it, but a 20 pound heavier motor isn't likely to make much of a difference to 12-ton catamaran.  But that 20 pounds could make a big difference to the dinghy and to me as I put it on and take it off.  A 8hp 2-stroke is generally about 60 pounds while a 10 is 80.  10s and 15s usually use the same block and weigh the same, so why would I take a 10 over a 15?  I'm only aware of one manufacturer that made a 60 pound 10 horse (Nissan) and they don't anymore.  So unless I can find a 60 pound 10 horse, the decision is effectively between an 8 and a 15.  I'd like to stay with Yamaha since that is what I already have and would like to reuse spares if possible.

The motor(s) will probably live (eventually) on a bracket on the back of the cockpit and I'll probably rig a block and tackle from the boom to raise and lower it to the dinghy.  The weight wouldn't be a big deal if I did it that way.   But anything related to the back of the boat will get tied up in the hardtop decisions, so that isn't likely to happen soon.  In the meantime, the motor will probably lay on the sidedeck and and get carried down the transom steps to the dinghy.

You'll notice that I'm only considering 2-strokes.   In fact, they're being phased out for the more environmentally-friendly 4-stroke.  I won't go into the technical differences, but for my purposes the differences are: 4-strokes are quieter, use less fuel, and have cleaner emissions; they have oil in the crankcase instead of mixing it into the fuel which is simpler, but means they must remain upright or the oil will spill; and they are heavier.  But what is most important to me is that 4-strokes are more complicated to service.  A perfect analogy is how cars went from carburetors to electronic fuel injection and now nobody can work on their own cars anymore.  I want to be able to fix the motor myself and if I can't, find a mechanic who can.  I think I'll have much better chances of that happening in Pogo-Pingi, South Pacific with a 2-stroke.