Dinghies

Roll-up inflatables, RIBs and the rafts that are not tenders:

the bottom of the boat is what separates them. A roll-up inflatable has a soft floor, either slats, sectional boards or a high-pressure air deck, and packs into a bag small enough for a car boot or a sailboat’s locker. A RIB keeps the inflatable tubes but sets them on a rigid fibreglass or aluminium hull, so it tracks straight, handles a short chop better and gets onto the plane with a modest outboard, at the cost of needing deck space, davits or a boat trailer. AB, built in Colombia, and Caribe, from Venezuela, are common on yachts cruising the Caribbean, alongside Achilles and Zodiac. Vinyl leisure boats of the Intex kind look much the same in a photo, but they run at low pressure on thin material and take a small electric motor at most: fine for the beach, not for carrying an outboard and a week’s shopping across a river. Small fibreglass launches and pangas belong under power boats.

Floor, stowage and the outboard on a tender:

work out where the boat will live before choosing the type. On deck or in a locker, a roll-up with an air floor is the lightest to haul aboard; hanging from davits or towed astern, a small RIB is the better boat and rows with less of a fight. The plate on the transom gives the maximum power and load, and an outboard over that limit is a warning sign rather than a bonus. On a tender that gets lifted on and off a yacht, weight counts for more than speed, which is why light two-strokes stay popular: a four-stroke of the same power is quieter and uses less fuel, but it is noticeably heavier to pass over the rail. If the boat comes without a motor, look under outboard engines for one that suits the plate.

Tubes, seams and transom on a used inflatable:

pump the boat up hard and leave it overnight. A tube that has gone soft by morning has a leak, and soapy water brushed over the valves and seams will show where. PVC tubes, cheaper and often heat-welded, age badly in strong sun: fabric that feels sticky or chalky and cracks along the folds mean the boat is near the end. Hypalon tubes are glued, last far longer in the tropics and fail at the joins, so look for edges lifting along the glue lines. Check the underside of the tubes for wear from being dragged up beaches, the joint where the transom meets the tubes and, on a RIB, the hull for cracks and water trapped inside it. Patches are normal on an old tender, and glue, patches and valve parts for a repair of your own sit under boat maintenance.

Papers, patches and the outboard’s serial plate:

on the river, those three settle a sale. Dinghy and outboard theft is a known problem on the Río Dulce, and recovered boats tend to turn up with their tubes slashed and the motor gone, so a long, straight repair across the top of a tube makes buyers wary while a receipt or ownership papers for boat and motor put them at ease. Before money moves, a buyer should see the serial number on the outboard match those papers. If you are the one selling, give the maker, length, year and tube fabric, the floor type, and whether the boat lived on davits, on deck or in the water. Note every patch, the maximum power on the plate and the outboard’s make, power, stroke and hours, and say whether the oars, pump, fuel tank and locking cable go with it. On an older tender most of the value sits in the motor, so photograph its serial plate as well as the tubes. Someone coming upriver from Livingston to look will want the boat firm when they step into it, so inflate it the evening before and leave it alone.