The Dink

My project for the weekend was to get our RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat, aka Dinghy, or Tender) in the water and test the outboard motor on it. It is a very nice center-console Zodiac model with a 25 horsepower Yamaha 4-stroke motor. The boat is equipped with lots of little niceties, such as running lights, electric start, engine tilt-up, and electric bilge pump.

Yesterday, Susan and I used the davit crane to lower the boat from our flybridge to the water on the starboard side of the yacht. Once in the water, I learned that the RIB's starting battery was dead. The RIB has not been used for at least six to nine months. I thought perhaps I could charge the battery using the onboard chargers for the generator starting batteries, so I hooked it up to one of the chargers. This morning, I checked the status of the dinghy battery. Still dead. So, I took it over to West Marine Supply, and bought a new battery. The new battery was fine, and now the outboard was cranking, but not starting. Okay, back to West Marine for new spark plugs, and a spark plug wrench. While I was out, I also bought a 2-gallon gas container and fresh gas.

I installed the new spark plugs, added fresh gasoline to the tank, and tried again to start the outboard. No luck!

About this time, some of our friends from F Dock began wandering by, offering assistance, suggestions, and horror stories about their own dinks (yachtie slang for dinghys). In the end, two of their suggestions made the difference, and the motor started and ran beautifully. Let's just say these suggestions involved a rubber hammer and a can of aerosol starting fluid.

Susan and I were now ready for the maiden voyage in our own personal dink! We made a couple of idle-speed rounds of F-dock, just to make sure the engine wouldn't quit, then headed out through the breakwater into the Manatee River. We opened up the throttle, and were merrily bouncing over the waves, when we noticed that our feet were becoming progressively wetter, and water was rising in the bottom of the boat. We looked at each other, and said, "Is it normal for water to enter the boat between the fiberglass hull and the inflatable tubes?" Picture a bathtub half-full of water, floating between two large inflated sausages.

So we headed back to the marina, very slowly. We were not frightened at any point, as these things are almost impossible to sink unless you rupture the inflatable tubes.

Fortunately, once back at the dock, our handy-dandy bilge pump automatically emptied the boat. In addition, we learned from our buddies on F-dock that it is common for these types of boats to become de-laminated after 4 or 5 years of use. That means the seal between the inflatable tubes and the rigid part of the fiberglass bottom separate, and allow the boat to take on water while under power. We also learned that there is a repair readily available.

Pictures of Kingdom's dink are included here.