The most appropriate choice of an inflatable boat or dinghy will depend on many factors on which you will, in any case, have the last word.
Your options will have to do, for example, with the time you want to dedicate to the maintenance of the boat, if you value a good portability and a limited weight or if you prefer the assembly or not of the structures of the inflatable Marinemax boats.
And, still it will have to do with other external variables as the salinity of the water, the environmental temperature and up to the effect of the solar radiation as circumstances relating to the wear of the equipment.
In these lines, we will be crossing each one of your options, in order that, with all the information in the hand, the decision to choose your pleasure craft is an intelligent bet and only yours.
Fast or slow inflatable?
The most evident difference between fast and slow inflatable boats is the result of the design of its bottom. Those with a flat bottom or simply inflatable, are less stable, less fast, but they fit anywhere, deflate and that’s it.
The ‘uve’ bottom RIB’s with a light keel, are fast depending on the motorization, but they also need a spacious place to store and trailers to take them to the water. Among Marinemax boats, there are distinguishable differences.
The roll ups have a rigid flat bottom, a detachable floor and deflated sides and are stored in specially adapted bags. They have no keel and are the simplest of all options, but also the most limited.
The ‘sportboats’ (SB) have a ‘uve’ bottom, configured with a wooden and aluminum frame arranged with a system of sleepers and stringers. From bow to stern, they have an inflatable tube that provides greater buoyancy.
This scheme makes their bottoms a little heavier, but the navigation, instead, is more alive with outboard engines between 6 and 25 horsepower. A structure that gives you the option of making closed turns that are forbidden in the ‘roll up’.
Airfloor boats, as their name suggests, have bottoms that are filled with pressurized air (up to 11 psi). The inflatable floor replaces the wooden floor of the previous versions and makes the Marinemax boats lighter. The performance in the water is excellent, even with small engines, for that same lightness. They are very good at avoiding the waves due to their limited relative weight and are an option with an advantage for storing in little space.
RIB’s are rigid fiberglass boats that have a lot of the seafaring conditions of a boat. They are structures built on ‘uve’ hulls with inflatable boards that can be deflated independently, kept outdoors on decks and davits and disassembled in parts to be stored between seasons. They need towing, they are stable and fast at sea with a good mackerel. Their inflatable boards give them an important buoyancy rate under adverse conditions.
The CR compact boat has an injection molded fiberglass or polyester hull, a barely noticeable ‘vee’ hull and a very outstanding feature, its stern, its sleepers and its floor are removable or have a hinge that allows the boat to be disassembled in about ten minutes. The final image of the dismantled Marinemax boats are vaguely reminiscent of a large surfboard.