Well, we were finally able to arrange delivery of our new dinghy, four months later. We rented a trailer and hauled the huge box back from West. It is inflatable, but the hull and transom is a solid piece of fiberglass. It's a lighter color than the traditional gray, which should keep it cooler in the summer. Some nice folks from the next dock down helped us unload it, and we pumped it up on the grassy strip along the marina and waited for high tide. We dragged it to the water, sliding it on the cardboard from the huge box. We only got a couple little scrapes in it, and we managed to get it floating and me in it without mishap. I rowed it over to our boat, which worked better than I thought it would, tied it up, and we called it a day after cleaning up all the cardboard and packaging.
The next day we loaded the outboard on it and I zoomed around the marina, and even went down the inlet a ways. Despite every effort, there is just no way that boat is going to plane with a 5 horse outboard. That's OK, we really didn't think it would, and I don't really think we need it to this year. We'll spend this time getting familiar with what we want to put on it for next year.
The day after that we used the spinnaker halyard to start loading the dinghy onto the foredeck. Even with the block and tackle setup I had bought we just couldn't do it. This is what we were afraid of, even before I messed up my hand, since this boat is a little more than twice as heavy as the old one.
Finally I decided to pull the drain plug. I hadn't yet because I didn't think there was anything to drain. Well, I must not have screwed it in tight enough, because there was quite a bit of water between the hull and the floor (it's double-hulled). While it was cool that our feet didn't get wet, this is something new to watch out for.
Well after draining quite a bit of water, it seemed pretty easy to pull up. Go figure. The picture below is it loaded on the foredeck. It just fits without keeping me from getting forward for anchoring or docking. The goal was to get the biggest dinghy we could lift, that just fit on the foredeck, and I think we got it. Next I need to rerun the line in the engine hoist so we can load a heavier outboard on the back of the dinghy when we get around to buying one.
Note - in the picture below, on the boat next to us, above the hull of our dinghy, but below theirs, is a black smudge above their windows. That's a wasp nest that is getting out of hand.
We complain some about Brunswick, and between the paper plant and the waste treatment center the smell is not pleasant with a north wind, but it can be beautiful at times. Below is Big Bird watching over us from the next dock over.
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