Dinghies and Tenders

An inflatable is fabric tubes with an inflatable or slatted floor and no rigid hull. It rolls into a bag, weighs the least, and stows below for passage. It rows poorly, flexes under power so it will not take much horsepower, and its tubes are a consumable — salt crystals abrade the seams and UV degrades the fabric.

A RIB bonds those tubes to a rigid fiberglass or aluminium V-bottom. It planes properly, takes a bigger outboard, rides best in chop and tows most predictably. It is also the most expensive and heavy enough to need davits — and the tubes are still the wear item, on a more expensive boat.

A hard dinghy has a rigid hull and no tubes at all. It rows properly, often sails, lasts decades and needs no patch kit. The traditional objections — tippy, small payload, no stowage — are fair against a narrow fiberglass pram but much weaker against a modern rotomolded hull with a molded foam bumper.

Read the full comparison →

Rotational molding starts with polyethylene powder loaded into a hollow two-part metal mold. The mold goes into an oven and rotates on two axes at once; the powder melts and coats the inside evenly, driven by tumbling rather than pressure. It cools while still turning and comes out as a hull in one seamless piece — no seams to split, no gelcoat to chip, no fabric to puncture.

The trade-offs are real: polyethylene is heavier than fiberglass for equivalent stiffness, it scratches easily (cosmetically, not structurally), nothing bonds to it so hardware is mechanically fastened, and repairs are done by plastic welding rather than with a fiberglass kit.

UV is the thing worth understanding. Standard HDPE becomes brittle within one to three years in direct sunlight. The best UV package on the market is rated to 20,000 hours, achieved by compounding hindered amine light stabilizers into the resin, which translates to roughly 8–10+ years of real outdoor exposure depending on climate. We use the best UV package available.

Read the full guide, including who else builds rotomolded boats →

A 10.4-foot rotomolded HDPE tender built in Houston, Texas. The hull is a two-layer laminate — HDPE skin over a polyethylene foam core — which makes it unsinkable rather than merely buoyant, and it carries a wraparound foam bumper in place of inflatable tubes.

More on the dinghy overview, the full facts and figures, safety and flotation testing, and the video gallery.

Two configurations, both built to order with a 3–4 week lead time. Start on the configuration page to pick steering, delivery and accessories in one pass.

Commonly ordered alongside it: dinghy wheels, a bimini, the collapsible dinghy anchor, a swimming ladder, painter rope and a 20 HP Tohatsu. Delivery is free local pickup in Houston, $900 to a commercial address with a forklift, or $1,300 to any address with two movers.

How long does an inflatable dinghy actually last?

Three to five years before problems appear, and up to ten if it is patched and maintained. Climate drives this more than brand — heat and UV shorten it, and salt crystals working into the seams abrade them with every movement of the boat.

Can you tow a hard dinghy offshore?

For coastal passages, yes, with a proper bridle and enough painter to keep it on the back of a wave. For ocean passages nobody should tow any tender — the answer is davits or on deck. A rigid hull tows more predictably than a soft inflatable, which tends to fly at speed.

Is a hard dinghy less stable to step into?

It depends on the hull. A narrow fiberglass pram is genuinely tippy. A wide, flat-floored rotomolded hull with buoyancy carried out to a foam bumper behaves much more like a RIB, because what provides edge stability on a RIB is the tube’s buoyancy — and a foam-cored gunwale does the same job without air.

What size outboard does a tender need?

Enough to plane with the load you actually carry. For a 10-foot rigid tender with two to four aboard, that is usually 9.9 to 20 HP. Check the builder’s maximum rating rather than the biggest motor that will bolt on — ours is 20 HP.

Can a rotomolded boat be repaired?

Yes, by plastic welding — the damaged area is fused with polyethylene rod using a hot-air welder. It is a different skill from fiberglass repair and not every yard has it, but the repair is a true fusion of like material rather than a patch bonded to the surface.