New SIBBER

[Jasperj]

Hi all,

For years I wanted to own a boat, as a young boy I always hoped to own a Zodiac one day and as I grew up, every year around spring I went online to browse boats. And this year I pulled the trigger in just a few days making it a sort of extended impulse buy.

So now I own a '05 Zodiac Futura MK II 4,5 meters with a 30 HP autolube Yamaha. Totally excited about owning a boat, but a bit less excited about the trailer and big heavy outboard the set came with.

So only 3 weeks into ownership I'm thinking about selling it on and switch to a new Quicksilver 420 / 470 HD with a little more lightweight 20HP outboard.

The end goal is to take it with us in a campervan for holidays and use it when good weather at home for leisure cruising and maybe even fishing.

[Fenlander]

Hi Jasper and welcome to the forum.

Nice outfit you started with but as you say weight can be an issue. So you are thinking of moving to a daily inflate situation carrying in the campervan?

You will still find a 4.2m or larger and a 20hp will take a bit of manhandling used in that way. Is your campervan a medium van type outfit or a big motorhome with storage "garage" with access from outside?

I wonder how many folks will be going in the inflatable?

[Jasperj]

Hi Fendlander,

Thanks for your reply.

It would be a daily inflate situation and carrying in / out the van indeed. We would like to camp off grid and wild. And at home it would be the same, when we like to go out on the water, I would inflate it next to the waterside and install motor when the boat is in the water. Now our full garage is filled with boat and trailer and that is not what we are looking for.

We only went out with the boat once, and trailering it, parking and securing the trailer took also roughly 20 - 30 minutes. I expect to spent the same time inflating / deflating. So the big win is the storage and the possibility to enter on more places then trailer slopes.

The camper is a future plan, I'm considering a self build and making this quite minimalist, creating a big garage place underneath the bed. For now it needs to all fit in the booth of a Passat station wagon with the rear seats not folded down.

We will use the boat with our 2 little girls (2 and 4 yrs.) but I got all excited about the YouTube clips I saw on a club of boats from this forum going on adventures to remote islands with tents for overnights, so I would like to bring some gear if I get the family as that excited to :-)