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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Porta-Bote?

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Rich G
Navigator

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226 Posts

Initially Posted - 11/13/2006 : 10:27:59

I moor my boat at Pier 40 on the Hudson River (Houston Street) in NYC. The mooring field is quite protected from wind, but not from the awful chop created by the excessivly high traffic of commercial and pleasure craft. My WM inflatable dinghy was the casualty of the season. My best guess is that it caught under the dock or a hard dinghy tied up next to me and the port-side pontoon punctured. Getting the water out was a BITCH, let me tell you!

Looking into hard dinghies this off-season. So far the most likely candidates are a Walker Bay 8 (don't really want to cruise with that, however) and a Porta-Bote.

I love the idea of the Porta-Bote and it certainly fits the bill for stowability during an extended cruise, but something has me skeptical. Does anyone have any experience with or knowlege of them?

Thanks in advance.

Rich

Cerberus
Hull #4695
1984 SR/FK No Pop-Top

Edited by - on

Rich G
Navigator

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226 Posts

Response Posted - 11/16/2006 : 00:07:09

wow.

I think this is a first since I've been posting on this forum: a topic that NOBODY has an opinion on.

No opinion on Porta-Bote? Is it possible?

http://www.portabote.com/

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3467 Posts

Response Posted - 11/16/2006 : 05:32:39

Just so you do not have a shutout with no replies vs 2 of your own postings:
There is one sailboat in my marina that i pass as I motor out that has a portaboat that sits folded up on his deck. I have never seen him use it or for that matter, never saw him out sailing...but it certainly takes up minimal space when stored on the boat.

A guy in my office as a portaboat and I asked him about them. he indicated his is at least 12 years old and it does not leak, works fine. But I suspect he hardly ever uses it. he is really not a boated....more into storing all kinds of things at home - mostly antique radios and guns.

I have a Sevylor Classic Tahiti inflatable that must be at least 8 years old or more. It also does not leak. It was not very usable in the early days because it was very hard to paddle a straight line or manage any control over where it was going. Then on the web, i came across someone thatalso had same inflatable and he found out that Sevylor later designed a skeg that can be fitted onto one of the ends and that solves the problem. The skeg would fit my inflatable even though mine is not of a new vintage. I bought it for $15 mailorder. very few stores that carry the inflatable locally also have the skeg and so probably most are not even aware that it exists. it basically turns the inflatable from a toy into a very usable canoe for one or two. I have yet to use it off the boat. I have used it mostly on camping trips.

Edited by - on

aeckhart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1709 Posts

Response Posted - 11/16/2006 : 07:10:56

Rich,

I considered buying one last year. They have an 8' model that has a sail kit option. It looked very appealing for our 25 footers. Unfortunately for the Port-a-Boat people, the price of replacing my 7 1/2 foot Zodic was far too high. There have been many discussions here regarding the viability of towing an inflatable, rib, or hard shell dinghy. From a cruising standpoint, the loss of a 1/4 knot or less, doesn't put a scratch in my time table, even if I had a one. Besides, I'd rather tow my imflateable and spend the extra dollars on something more practicle, like a dodger or a furler for my asymetric spinnaker.

Edited by - aeckhart on 11/16/2006 07:12:38

wmeinert@kconline.com
Past Commodore

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USA
353 Posts

Response Posted - 11/16/2006 : 10:34:15

Rich, as an owner of a Walker bay 8' let me first say that I have a tremendous respect for the boat and it tows behind my boat with out a problem. I can even invert it on the fore deck with out interferring much with my rig under way, But I sure wish they had the 10ft model when I bought mine for the room and floatation. But as a possible solution to having only an 8 ft boat instead of buying the sail kit, think about getting the add on flotation package that turns the walker into a hard bottom zodiac like boat with improve flotation and load capacity, not to mention the increadable stability and you won't capsize eigther. That kit makes the walker bay a tremendously handy boat to have and you can even sail with it.

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Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3321 Posts

Response Posted - 11/16/2006 : 11:38:59

One of our Club members has a porta-boat which he uses every weekend. It's fitted with a small outboard (2hp??) and I've seen him out on the lake in light winds.

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Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 11/16/2006 : 14:28:52

I want one of these: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product/10001/-1/10001/33644/10001/854/613/10

They get great reviews. I would keep it on the trailer and just use it on cruises when I would tow it behind our C250.

Edited by - on

stampeder
Master Marine Consultant

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1608 Posts

Response Posted - 11/16/2006 : 21:55:22

I've never owned a porta-bote but know two guys who do.
One guy hauls his around on the side of his big ol Ford Travel Van. He likes it and uses it a lot, and is quite proud of it. He uses the van for camping and does a lot of remote area fishing.
Other guy is on a neighbouring mooring ball. He has a small OB on it. It is in the water quite a bit. I've never discussed it with him but he seems to get a lot of use out of it.
Hope this helps.

I'm firmly in the inflatable camp. I did a lot of head scratching and testing and of course I bugged a lot of people for their opinions. I'm very happy with my 10' Zodiac.

Edited by - on

Rich G
Navigator

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226 Posts

Response Posted - 11/17/2006 : 09:31:22

I was a big inflatable fan, too. The problem is that the dinghy dock at my marina is so unprotected from chop, they get beaten to hell. Mine was not the only one to be puntured and deflated this season. They get caught under the docks and/or someone else's hard dinghy and PPPFFFTT!

Not to mention all of the floating debris that washes by in the lower Hudson. It's kind of gross. That's part of the price we pay in Manhattan if we want a convenient mooring . . .

I'm going to look into the rowing tender that Nautiduck mentioned, as well as trying to find a used 8' Porta-Bote somewhere.

Edited by - on

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