Dinghy & storage setup for 310da

[fsudelt]

Hey all, my wife and I have a new addition to our family, a new chocolate lab puppy, and are looking at possibly getting a dinghy for the boat because we anchor out a lot at a sand bar neearby but now need a way to reach it "the island" to let him explore every few hours.

1) Any suggestions on what type of dinghy to get (heard a lot of people suggest looking on craigslist)?

2) And also the big thing is looking at what type of setup to get on back of boat to store it (we have the built in swim platform which is actually quite large- think because of the transom seat that folds out).

Thanks for any input

Brian

 

[drob]

We usually keep the dinghy in the water at the dock. To transport it, we pull the bow of the dinghy up out of the water, to just about where the transom seat folds in and tie it off on each side. It rides pretty good so far. We haven't gone that far with it like this. About 1/2 hour trips, but across the entrance to the canal, which is pretty choppy.

 

[mmcguire2002]

Run a search. There are a lot of threads on this. Baltic makes good dinghies that can be found for very reasonable prices. They have an eBay store. Internetoutboards.com has good deals on Tohatsu and Nissan's at low prices, including shipping. I just set installed a Nautley set up, which looks great. I have not had a chance to sea trial it yet. Good luck.

 

[ditto]

i have the hurly system www.hurleymarine.com west marine 9ft dink, 6 hp merc fits/works great

 

[LifeisGood]

We have a 99 310 and use the Weaver Davit system. If I were to do it again, I would probably get something that connects directly to the fiberglass in the dinghy so that I wouldn't have to deal with the glue. I have had to re-glue the pads once but other than that great luck.

We have a 310 YL Zodiac that works great flipped up. Easy to load the 4hp motor while attached to the davits (stability against the boat).

We also have a yellow lab that loves the dinghy. I use indoor/outdoor carpet remnants to keep him from sliding inside of it and to give me peace of mind that his claws won't destroy it loading/ unloading.

 

[fsudelt]

Thanks for all the input. Gives me a starting point to start to get this in action.

 

[fsudelt]

Just was looking on craigslist and ran across a 8ft Mercury tender with a 8HP yamaha engine for 1500, guy had it for his sailboat he sold and is looking to sell quick. Thinking about calling and looking at it and see if he'll budge any, he's just down the road from me. Here's the link for the ad http://orlando.craigslist.org/boa/1241229120.html , if anyone knows anything about that make and model for tender and engine let me know any thoughts, never looked at these before. Thanks!

 

[fsudelt]

well the dinghy I had mentioned before slipped past me, couldn't reach him in time. Looking at some others. Got a question regarding size of dinghy. I'm looking at 2 on ebay from the same company (Baltik Boats, anyone heard of them??), one is 8 1/2 ft and other is 9 1/2 feet. Does an extra foot make a big difference, and do most have 9.5 or bigger or is 8.5 enough? Each of them brand new are 699 & 849 buy it now or best offer, & free shipping. Thanks for any input as always.

Brian

 

[skolbe]

I have a 310 Merc Sport - which is 10'-2" - I would lean to a 9' dinghy for your boat. Heck West Marine has a 9' for $899 which includes a cover.

 

[mmcguire2002]

I had the 8.5 on my last boat and I have the 9.5 now. Both from Baltic and both purchased on eBay. The 8.5 will fit 2 adults and a dog. Much like in the rest of boating, bigger is usually better if you can fit it on the stern of your boat without overhang.

Make sure you negotiate on the boats. The buy it now price is too high. I live in SoCal, so I could pick it up (no shipping charges). I bought my 9.5 for under $700 about a month or two ago. Good luck.

 

[gerryb]

I also have purchased 2 of the 9.5 from Baltic (cousin sank one of them last year) and would recommend them. You can do better than the buy it now price. Emali or call them and negotiate. Also, I have both the air floor and wood floor. Very different from each other. Wood is definately more stable but significantly heavier. The second one I ordered was with the Air floor; just need to be a bit more careful when boarding but the lighter weight is nice.

 

[fsudelt]

I ended up negotiating and got them to come down quite a bit, to 699 for 9.5 including shipping and 2nd seat (which they threw in dont know if i'll even need it). Question is my beam is 10' 5 and my swim platform is built in (isn't seperate piece extended like 320's). I plan on using davit system and wondering if I keep motor on dinghy, with 9.5 am I going to have enough room to store on back (across swim platform) or am I better off getting 8.5 to be safe? Thanks for the help, just don't want to buy something too big and be stuck.