The family “car”

When you live on a boat your dinghy becomes your “car”. Need a gallon of milk? Hop into the dinghy and head into the store. Going to another boat? Yup, into the dinghy and start up the engine. Setting out a spare anchor… into the dinghy, anchor and all, and take off.  We started out with an old, leaky dinghy and an old engine that sounded like a chainsaw when ever it decide to run. After a year or so we bought a new motor and a better used dinghy that also tended to leak. After that we found an off brand dinghy at the boat show, Big Dog Boats. 

The boat at the boat show

This dinghy looked good, it was the right size and the price was right… the only trouble was... it was not put together very well. This Chinese manufactured dinghy was sold in the USA by a company called Big Dog Boats and just as the saying goes, “you get what you pay for”.  After 2 partial years of use, here’s a pictorial of everything that has gone wrong with this brand of dinghy. 

outside hand holds coming off

every line that ties something to the boat rotted from the sun

"D" rings that are made of steel that was chrome plated instead of stainless steel

transom that is delaminating after 2 years (dinghy used only 6 months each year)

notice "Bubbles"? Air floor has two leaks at the seals

plastic connector on seat broke

The last straw happened when I was returning to the Snow Goose and I noticed that the entire back of the boat had come loose! The wooden transom that the engine sits on had un-glued from the rubber boat! This is a bad thing. I calked the transom back into place then put screws into the rubber flange to hold it tight. 

entire transom came loose... the glue failed

I glued and screwed the transom back into place

This boat represents typical Chinese manufacturing, looks great but made to a sub-standard quality.  So, if you ever see a Big Dog Boat for sale… beware!