Inflatables

have borrowed a sevylor tahiti from a mate approx 10 feet long easy to carry easy to inflate but horrible to paddle and get in and out of offered it to me for $50 giving it back asap,

Hi Duncan,

The cheap plastic inflatables are fine if you want to have some fun on a small lake or so. Just don't take it onto any large water body, as they can be difficult to row if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

I would not reccommend fishing with one, as a hook in the wrong place can be disasterous. Also, do not leave one inflated in the sun, as they tend to pop.

If you want an inflatable, you can get a small roll up type for about $800. This can take up to a 6hp outboard, and you can take it onto calm seas even. They weigh about 40kg, and they can easily fit in a car boot.

Hope you have a good trip.

Anthony Taylor

We've got a cheapie. Cost a little over $100. We just use it to muck around on, but the reply above was right about the wind, can make it hard work but you could always go to the side of the river and carry it back if it was THAT bad.

I bought mine because I remebered our family having one when we were kids and we had HEAPS of fun with it. We use ours on the murray down in dwellingup, on the blackwood, even the beach when it's calm'ish. I bought some cheap plastic ores for it but don't tend to use them much as they were just cheap crap, we just paddle it around with our hands. I can fit two adults and a 7 year old in it comfertably. (I'm 6'3'). There are bigger ones that ours too.

Buy a DECENT air pump. Don't try and use the pump for your tyres as there is not enough voume of air being moved around and you'll be there for days pumping the bastard up. I have a Coleman Quick Pump and apart from it's ear renching noise it's marvalous. The boat has about 6 chambers to pump up and from start to finish probally takes about 10 minutes to with the Coleman.

You could fish from it if you REALLY wanted to if you did hook the boat you would only let one chamber down and would not sink to the bottom, however you would get wet! ;-)

So basically a good toy and a great way to drink a few beers on the river why your kids paddle you around to check out the sights, but nothing hard core would be recomended and I doubt you'd have much luck putting any kind of motor on the cheapie ones like ours, by the end of the day it's always full of water from people getting in and out and I would'nt much like to have a battery in there!

Duncan,

I have a fish hunter made by zodiac, sounds similiar to the one you looked at, 2 rod holders,a 2hp mercury and a 12 volt trolling motor that hooks onto the front. A great little setup for fishing the inland dams. Over the years it has proved very durable with only one small hole which was easily repaired and no time was this a danger to the boat sinking. Still takes up a fair bit of room if you include all the accessories, small anchor, battery, oars, lifejacket(for my daughter), the 2 motors,fishing gear,beer etc. Having used rods in this type of boat, I prefer handreels for fishing as the rods tend to get in the way especially if you have 2 adults in a such a small inflatable.

Cheers,
Mark