We went to the boat show in Annapolis and bought a new boat!
Okay, that’s a little misleading. We actually did go to the sailboat show in Annapolis a year ago, and we bought a new dinghy! A Portland Pudgy dinghy is the new tender for our beloved Catalina 400.
Choosing Our New Dinghy
Our old dinghy, a 15 year old West Marine RU3 PVC flat bottom inflatable, has served us well. While PVC dinghies are not known for their longevity, I’ve only had ours inflated and out in the elements for about two months per year while cruising the Great Lakes. Still, some of the seams are starting to look a little scary. Maneuvering under power with our Torqeedo outboard motor is fine, but rowing it is miserable. It is very lightweight, which makes storing it on the foredeck of Priorities relatively easy, but also means it easily capsizes when towing in strong wind. We were hoping to improve on many of these issues.
When Kristin and I cruise, most of the time it’s just the two of us with additional guests only rarely. We do occasional dinghy trips to a grocery store, but never have the need to haul large jerry cans of water or fuel. A small 4 person dinghy is okay for our current use, at least for the next few years.
And finally, our biggest request of a new dinghy: we wanted a tender that could sail, too, for a little more fun. Sailing might also be used as a backup if the motor quits, too. Equipping a tender for sailing these days is a tough ask that can result in big compromises elsewhere. There are also few sailing tenders on the market right now. Almost all are rigid dinghies, not inflatables.
We considered the Offshore Cruising Tenders OC330S. It looks awesome, and I still want one, but they are incredibly expensive… $15k USD or more. Chesapeake Light Craft has a few options, but they are in kit form and I don’t have the time for that yet.
After checking it out in person at the Annapolis boat show, we placed an order for the Portland Pudgy. It’s a rigid dinghy, so no part of its hull is inflatable. Its hull is made of a durable rotomolded plastic, similar to what plastic kayaks are made from. The Pudgy is marketed as a tender that doubles as a life raft. With a relatively short “time to rescue” on the Great Lakes, the life raft feature wasn’t a big selling point for us, though it does speak to its durability and stability.
It arrived on a pallet via LTL freight to our garage at home where I was able to unpack and prep it for transport, storage, and use. The transom can be changed to accommodate short or long shaft motors… I installed the short shaft version to fit our short shaft Torqeedo. I also installed a few minor things including Navisafe LED nav lights and their mounts.
Stability and Capsizing
One of the first things we did when cruising season began was test the Pudgy’s stability. I actually wanted to intentionally capsize it so we could practice righting it, especially since we planned to sail it. We sailed Priorities across Lake Michigan and anchored in White Lake, where the water was plenty warm for swimming. We also have friends who live nearby that could provide assistance if things went wrong.
The hull is lined with foam inside, so it shouldn’t sink, even when swamped. There are storage areas inside the hull that should be watertight, but we found it still gets wet in there. Throughout our practice, despite multiple consecutive intentional capsizes, we never felt that the boat was about to sink.
When first getting in it seems quite a bit tippier than our old flat bottom inflatable. This initial stability was sorta expected considering the hull shape. It definitely takes getting used to, though, especially after years of using a flat bottom inflatable. However, once tipping beyond about 10 degrees or so, it becomes very difficult to tip further (secondary stability). Kristin and I could actually sit on the gunwhale, legs overboard, and lean while holding the handles, but getting the Pudgy to capsize was challenging. We actually fell off a few times when attempting intentional capsizes! This practice significantly improved our confidence in the overall stability of the dinghy.
An important note: when intentionally capsizing the Pudgy with the sail kit up for practice, we nearly lost the sailing rig. Apparently the mast slipped out of the shoe or maybe the cunningham untied, leaving only the mainsheet keeping the entire rig from ending up on the bottom of the lake. I’m working on a few ways to improve upon this. So when practicing capsizing, we recommend doing it without the sail kit installed.
Righting it when swimming alongside involved practice, too. There is no centerboard to grab onto, however handles on the keel make grabbing the turtled dinghy easy for either Kristin or me, and we aren’t particularly tall or strong. We learned we have to climb completely onto the dinghy to right it… this isn’t nearly as hard as it sounds. At first we tried just leaning on the handles while still in the water, and that didn’t work! Also, either Kristin or I can right it alone without strenuous exertion. We never tried righting our old inflatable since it didn’t sail, but because of the keel handles I’m willing to bet the Pudgy is about the same or easier to right than a big RIB.
Climbing into any dinghy when swimming is somewhat challenging, as we have experienced several times when snorkeling from a dinghy in the Caribbean. We found the Pudgy to be a little easier than with an inflatable or RIB. There is an optional boarding ladder available, but we didn’t buy that option. The first person to get in has it easy… the dinghy tips as you put your weight on the gunwhale, requiring less lift to get aboard. Any additional boarders need to coordinate weight distribution with the first aboard.
Our Experience with the Pudgy as a Tender
Maneuvering under power with our 3HP Torqeedo 1003 is good, though the Pudgy is not a planing hull. Using about 400W of power results in about 3.7 knots of speed, a little more efficient than our old flat bottom roll up. We could push the speed up to at least 4.5 knots, but like with many electric motors doing so incurs a significant range penalty. Higher horsepower motors are not recommended or approved. For our use, the slow speed is fine, as most dinghy destinations are close to the anchorages we cruise to. I did end up buying a longer tiller for the motor, however, for better weight distribution underway.
This past summer we found mostly flat water during our dinghy explorations. On the few choppy days we got wetter than expected, though we may need to experiment more with shifting our weight. I may make a canvas dodger, but I need to fuss around more first.
While exploring very shallow, rocky water in some parts of the North Channel, we row to avoid damaging our prop. Rowing the Pudgy is nice, as the center bench seat is solid, the height is right, and the Pudgy tracks pretty straight. The oarlocks have some issues, but I still find it to be better than rowing an inflatable. I also don’t worry about sharp rocks “popping” an innertube during our adventures.
The overall size is smaller than a four person inflatable, so this is NOT a large dinghy. Interior volume, however, is quite a bit bigger than comparable inflatables since there aren’t huge tubes. Gear can be stored inside the hull, too, in compartments that close. These compartments can’t really be locked, but it still keeps gear out of sight of potential thieves. This year we want to try motoring around with four adults aboard… it’s supposed to be doable but we may be pushing the limit of what’s practical.
Storing on the Mothership
I initially hoped to store our new dinghy inverted on the foredeck of Priorities during most passages. The Pudgy is a little heavy compared to some small aluminum RIBs on the market… about 130 pounds with some gear aboard. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a practical way to safely flip it over routinely, so I installed davits (I’d probably have done this with a RIB, too). Since the Portland Pudgy is plastic that can deform when stored incorrectly, a lifting harness has to be used to support it from underneath after lifting it to the davits. This adds about 3 minutes to the davit securing process versus most other dinghies, and it’s kinda annoying. However, it results in a very secure method of transport. After a six week trip to the North Channel, we tested the davit setup with the Pudgy in many different sea states, and it worked quite well. It barely moved at all when beating into six foot waves all day in the Straits of Mackinac.
The weight has some benefits, too. Our old inflatable only weighed 70 pounds, but it would flip over in strong wind when in the water even if merely tied to the big boat when anchored. I’m not worried about that with the Pudgy. Also, we feel it’s still light enough to slide up a beach out of the water.
Sailing the Portland Pudgy
Yes, we did actually get to sail our Pudgy a few times! The sail kit was originally designed for use with the lifeboat system to allow self rescue, so the entire kit can be stored inside the hull, including the telescoping mast. It takes some time to set up at first, which is a little disappointing, but with practice I can do it in about ten minutes (and may improve from that). We even have gotten good at configuring it when tied to the stern of our boat and avoiding the davits above. The nonskid on the floor is abusive to your knees, so we used a yoga mat to soften things (might need a better closed cell foam mat, though).
Once we found pads for the floor, the Pudgy was fun to sail. Sailing alone is easy, as you can easily shift weight to where it needs to be. We sailed it a few times together (two adults), but it does not perform very well that heavily loaded. It CAN make progress to windward, though it does not point as well as a Sunfish… tacking angles are probably 130 degrees or more. Also, due to the lack of a real boom vang, sailing deep angles downwind are impractical in heavier air.
The Pudgy is very stable when sailing, though this means it does not perform well in light air. With two of us aboard we sailed in winds gusting to about 20 knots with full sail. Obviously we needed to pay attention to our weight distribution, but I was more worried about breaking the telescoping mast than actually capsizing. It does not have a centerboard since a trunk would get in the way when not sailing, but instead uses leeboards that fit in the sides of the hull. Even with the leeboards retracted in shallow water, it still tracks relatively well, better than a Sunfish with a retracted centerboard.
Transporting and Offseason Storage
To avoid paying marina storage fees and avoid UV exposure, I store the Pudgy at home in our garage on a Harken Hoister. It hangs from the ceiling in a harness above the hood of my car.
Figuring out how to transport our new dinghy from home to the marina was a challenge, though any RIB could have similar challenges depending on size. Some people have hauled their Pudgy on top of a larger car, though it’s a little heavy for me to do this routinely. Instead, I built a cradle that fits on a Harbor Freight folding trailer. This solution was very affordable and has worked very, very well. (My next blog post is about the Harbor Freight trailer)
Future Plans
Overall, we enjoy our new dinghy! All boats are compromises, and we like where the Portland Pudgy fits into our mission for at least the next few years.
This winter I’m working on a few improvements to our Pudgy. A few new seat cushions, fender improvements, a few modifications to the sailing rig, and some better organization of our gear will keep me busy. That’s a whole other blog post, though.
Soon we will install her new name. Since the Portland Pudgy is a combination of many different functions, it’s kinda like a platypus. It’s tiny, so more like a baby platypus… a “Puggle.”
