New Inflatable Dinghy

A troll through the internet confirmed what I had learned the hard way about inflatable dinghies: It is the glue and not the material that fails over time.  The material can be easily patched but once the glue degenerates the dinghy is a write off.  I've got a Bombard and a Zodiac stored below my verandah for disposal to prove it.  The Bombard was in great shape when I departed on the circumnavigation in 2008.  In the six years of storage in cool, dry, protected environment of the garage the glue degenerated spontaneously.

Dry Run

Last week I purchased an Aristocraft "Bayrunner" inflatable with seams that are hot welded rather than glued.  Like most things, the dinghy is made in China, but I am putting my hopes in the PVC material that is sourced from Germany. 

The vaunted Hypalon material for inflatable dinghies is not amenable to thermo welding because it is rubber based.  Dupont must have seen the writing on the wall because it ceased production of Hypalon in 2012.  The future seems to be thermo welded PVC.

Because the instructions were execrable even by Chinese standards it took Brenda, Stephen, and myself a full 3 hours to assemble the dinghy.  After 2.5 hours I gave up and declared that Youtube was our only hope.  Sure enough we found videos on the Web that showed us the way.

The dinghy is heavy at 52 kg (114 lb) but the weight is distributed over two bags, one for the dinghy itself and one for the aluminum floor.   Installing the aluminum floor is a bit of an effort, but the result is superb and I am looking forward to our first ride in it. 

I wanted the 2.7m version, but they were sold out in the Perth area with no hope of one until March, which is much too late for the upcoming Bunbury Cruise.  So I asked for the 2.4m version (the same length as the Zodiac) but it too was sold out.  I had to settle for the 2.9m (9' 6") version, and the salesman knocked off $100 to make me feel better,  making the total cost $1250.