Our main commuter dinghy, nicknamed Groovy Baby (and
sometimes Wavy Gravy), is a 10' plastic folding Porta-bote
driven by a 6-hp 4-stroke Suzuki outboard.
The Porta-bote's overall design concept is terrific, and it has
worked very well for us as a dinghy. However, it is not built
for constant use in tropical salt water. We have upgraded
our Porta-bote in several areas to make it work well as a
cruising dink.
For anyone considering using a Porta-bote as a cruising
dinghy, I've compiled some notes and photos of our setup
on this page. The official Porta-bote website is
SPECIFICATIONS:
Length:
10'
Beam:
5'
Weight:
~80 lbs
(w/ seats but w/o outboard)
Weight:
~135 lbs
(w/ seats & w/ outboard)
Component Parts:
1 Hull
3 Seats
1 Transom
3 pairs eyebolts/washers for seats
2 pairs wingnuts/washers for transom
1 pair aluminum collapsible oars
Following is a summary of what we have found to be Porta-bote's best and worst qualities when used as a cruising dinghy:
Porta-bote Strengths:
・ Lightweight enough to hoist in davits effortlessly, even with the outboard mounted
・ Lightweight enough to drag high onto the beach without requiring dinghy wheels
・ Tows easily, with or without the outboard mounted (best without)
・ Rows beautifully -- truly a pleasure to row
・ Planes quickly when driven by a 55 lb. 6 hp outboard and carrying two adults
・ Huge interior volume for hauling stuff
・ No worries about running it up on rocks
・ No need for a sunbrella cover to protect the hull from UV rays
・ Half the price of a comparable RIB dinghy
Porta-bote Weaknesses:
・ Some of the construction materials are not appropriate for tropical, salt water use
・ Seats and transom are awkward to carry and take up a lot of storage space
・ Black plastic seams along the length of the hull leave scuff marks on Groovy's white gelcoat
・ Black plastic seats get untouchably hot in the tropical sun
・ No built-in system to attach a bridle for lifting the boat in davits
・ No "drain hole" in the hull to drain water when boat is out of the water
・ The flotation foam disintegrates in the sun and leaves black flecks on the floor.
Our overall assessment after a year of using the Porta-bote in anchorages from San Diego to Zihuatanejo, Mexico is that it is a
great little cruising dinghy, especially once a few modifications have been made. Here are some details about its strengths and
weaknesses along with descriptions of the upgrades we did to make it work better.
PORTA-BOTE STOWAGE LOCATIONS on a CRUISING SAILBOAT
The Porta-bote is not as compact a boat as you might think because it is not just a folding hull. It is a hull, three large seats and
a big transom. The 8' version is a hull, two seats and a transom, and is reportedly "just as difficult to set up" according to a
singlehanding friend of ours who has cruised 10,000 miles, first with a 10' Porta-bote and then, after he lost it, with an 8 footer.
"I liked my 10 footer better," he claimed. "Smaller doesn't mean easier, and you lose all that interior space with the 8' model."
All the pieces of the Porta-bote are big and awkward to carry. For longer passages we
disassemble the Porta-bote and store the hull in kayak-style racks outboard of Groovy's
starboard deck, so it is tucked out of the way without having to hang in davits off the back
or lie upside down on the foredeck as most cruising dinghies do. Because of their length,
we store the longest seat and the transom in the master stateroom (ugh!). We store the
other two seats in our big cockpit locker, standing on end for easy retrieval.
For overnights at anchor we lift the dinghy in retractable davits that are built into our solar
panel support arch. The Porta-bote fits perfectly into our sugar-scoop transom, resting
neatly on the swim platform and held in place by the shape of Groovy's hull. We leave the
outboard mounted on the Porta-bote. The boat and outboard are light enough that each of
us can hoist the dinghy unassisted (our davit system has a simple 4-to-1 purchase and no
winches). Splashing the boat in the morning is just a matter of lowering it a foot or so back
into the water, which each of us can also do unassisted.
PORTA-BOTE SEATS and SEAT STOWAGE
The three seats and transom are all large, heavy components made of plastic and metal. Each one has some swinging pieces
that hang off of it, making each piece quite a challenge to carry on a pitching boat. Each of the three seats has two (or three)
metal U-shaped rods attached underneath that flip out and become the seat legs once the seat is installed in the Porta-bote.
These metal loops are only loosely attached to the seats, relying on spring tension to keep them in place. The first time I
carried a seat forward on Groovy's deck, one of the metal pieces detached itself from the seat and vanished over the side,
never to be seen again. Fortunately Porta-bote replaced the piece free of charge. We now use duct tape to keep tension on
the open part of the U-shaped rods so these crazy loops don't fall off when we carry the seats to and from the foredeck.
The metal loops fold back against the bottom of the seats.
Actually, they swing freely and independently of each other,
flopping all over the place. However, with some coordiation
they can be held against the seat while carrying it, still leaving a
hand free "for the boat." Unfortunately the loops don't fold flat
to the seat and there are no clips to hold them in place, so they
flop around until you get a grip on them as you carry the seat.
Also, when folded, at least one of the loops on each seat sticks
out an inch or two beyond the end of the seat. So in the stored
position the seat becomes even longer due to this metal bracket
sticking out the end.
The design of the seats and legs could be infinitely improved.
The seats could be designed to fold in half, shortening them
considerably for stowage. The legs could fold into the seats
and clip into place so they don't flop around. There is a myriad
of possibilities for designing solid functional seats that are easy
to carry and store. However, the current seats are very awkward, and the black plastic will singe your hand when you touch it
after the boat has been sitting in the tropical sun for a few minutes. Simply making the seats of white plastic would be an
immeasurable improvement. We use towels to cover the seats, or in very hot places rely on flotation cushions (which slide
around under you). We have heard of cruisers making sunbrella seat covers for the seats too. In the hottest places a towel is
not sufficient and you will still burn your backside while sitting on the seats.
The biggest problem with the seats, besides being so difficult to lug around on a rolling boat, is that they are too big to stow
easily. Some cruisers lash them on deck, but we have neither found a good place on deck for them nor come up with a quick
way to tie them down securely. Many cruisers simply tow their Porta-bote instead of hassling with assembly and disassembly.
We met a couple that towed theirs thousands of miles up and down the Mexican coast. I consider this risky if the seas get out of
hand, and it also seems to defeat the purpose of the folding "portable" nature of the boat.
On our boat the transom and middle seat are too long to fit in a cockpit locker in a way that is easily accessible, so we store
them alongside our bed. The other two seats fit in our large aft cockpit locker standing on end. In order to get a grip on these
big floppy seats, we use several large Navy-issue canvas bags, storing two seats to a bag and putting a second bag over the
other end so the whole seat is covered (they are salty and dirty when removed from the boat, and who wants that next to their
bed?).. A tidier solution would be to have custom canvas bags made to fit the seats with a large rugged handle on the side. It
would be awesome if these bags came with the Porta-bote right from the factory!
PORTA-BOTE TRANSOM and TRANSOM
STOWAGE
The transom is not only long, wide and heavy, it has a big flopping plastic piece that
folds over the hull when the transom is installed in the Porta-bote to provide a support
for the outboard to clamp onto. This heavy piece is held to the transom by a thin
piece of plastic that acts as a hinge and looks very prone to tearing. When we tow
the Porta-bote we remove the outboard, and then the plastic outboard support piece
flaps as the Porta-bote goes over the waves, threatening to rip the hinge piece. To
stop the flapping and wear and tear on that thin hinge, we use a large clamp to clamp
the outboard support piece to the Porta-bote's hull.
The transom also has two long metal L-brackets along each side. These are the
supports that hold the transom in place: two pairs of wing nuts and washers secure
the metal L-bracket to the side of the hull. These L-brackets are major ankle-biters
and interior cabin wood-gougers when carrying the transom around. Therefore, we
load the transom and the longest seat into a canvas bag before lugging them
anywhere -- the flopping legs on the seat are held in place, the flopping outboard
engine mounting piece is held in place, and the sharp metal edges of the L-brackets
are somewhat protected by the heavy canvas.
Some clever engineers at Porta-bote could surely devise a way to secure the transom
without requiring large metal L-brackets (or tiny wing nuts and washers, for that
matter), and the outboard engine mount could definitely be designed to fold into the
transom so it lies flush and is held in place with a clip system that keeps it from
flopping around.
PORTA-BOTE ASSEMBLY
We have tried several methods of assembling the Porta-bote on Groovy's deck, and the best system we have found is
described below. It takes us about 15 minutes, including retrieving the many parts from the cabin and the cockpit locker.
When the hull is in its stowed position, it is folded lengthwise twice: first the sides fold into the middle, then the (new) sides are
folded in towards each other. The end result looks like a small surfboard, 10' long and about 4" wide. Our first task is to
remove the hull from its stowed position outboard of Groovy's starboard side deck. Then:
1.
Carry the hull to the foredeck and open it up. The plastic is rigid and you have to
use a lot of force to get the sides to open. Porta-bote provides a specially cut board to
assist with this: you stand on one side of the hull and push against the other, wedging
the board between the two. Eventually the board is positioned to hold the hull open.
2.
Insert the middle seat. The ends of the seats are inserted into metal supports that
are riveted on either side of the interior of the hull. The seats don't fit in the supports
all that well. There is some wiggle room up and down and the angle of the supports is
perpendicular to the hull, which is not ultimately in line with the seat's horizontal
orientation, because the hulls' sides flair outward.
3.
Secure the middle seat with wing nuts and washers. The Porta-bote ships with
long thin cotter pins that are tied to the seats with thin string so they don't get lost. The
cotter pins are intended to hold the seats in place against the metal hull supports,
however they fly all over the place when you are carrying the seats, and they don't hold
the seats securely. Therefore, we replaced the cotter pins with long stainless steel
eyebolts held in place with large stainless steel washers, both above and below the
seat, and with a stainless steel lock washer underneath to keep everything tight despite
the jiggling and jostling of the hull when the Porta-bote is driven over the waves. The
eyebolt is slid through a hole in the upper part of the metal support, then through a
hole in the seat and then through a hole in the lower part of the metal support, and a
wingnut is screwed from underneath. The eyebolts also come in very handy for
holding the dink in place behind Groovy's swim platform. We have two lines rigged on
either side of the swim platform with clips that clip into the Porta-bote's eyebolts. This
keeps the Porta-bote perpendicular to Groovy's transom for easy boarding.
4.
Install the transom. The outboard mounting flap goes over the hull,
and the metal L-brackets are attached to holes in the hull using bolts, wing
nuts and washers. The Porta-bote ships with non-stainless bolts, nuts and
washers, which are probably fine for the once-in-a-while lake fishing that
the Porta-bote is built for. We replaced all these little pieces with stainless
steel bolts, nuts and washers and added a lock washer to the set. The
sizes of these pieces that Porta-bote ships are non-standard (I searched
high and low for stainless components that would match the originals).
Instead, we simply used replacement bolts, washers and nuts that would fit
the holes rather than trying to match the thread pitch, bolt length and width of the ones from the factory.
The lower wing nut / washer set on each side of the transom includes a
rubber washer to keep that part of the boat watertight since that part
sits below the waterline. The rubber washers last about 6 months in the
salt water environment. We keep several spare rubber washers to use
as replacements each time they wear out. In addition, we have a
complete duplicate set of all the eyebolts, straight bolts, wing nuts and
washers that we use for the Porta-bote, as it is all too easy to drop one
of these tiny pieces overboard while assembling or disassembling the
Porta-bote on deck.
The worst aspect of the Porta-bote design
for use as a cruising dinghy, in my mind, is
that you are fumbling with the very large
pieces of a 10' long hull, several wide seats
that don't fit into their supports very well,
and a big heavy transom, all while screwing the whole thing together with tiny wing nuts. The
bottom of the boat is a black plastic "hinge" that acts as something of a keel, so the boat doesn't sit
flat on deck but pivots about on this round tube of plastic. So when Groovy rolls in the swell, the
porta-bote pivots on its keel, and you are hanging onto the boat in one hand with a fist full of wing
nuts and washers in the other, all while trying to mate the threads of the wing nuts to the bolts.
Surely some skilled engineers could come up with a better way to hold a folding boat together, one
that uses only large, rugged plastic parts that don't have sharp edges when stored and don't have
any fine threads to match and are less likely to fall overboard during assembly and dis-assembly.
5.
Raise the Porta-bote up and over the lifelines and lower it into the
water using the spare halyard. We have an electric winch that works
really well but also works quite hard during this process (of course it
would be a great upper body workout to winch it by hand). When the
boat rises up in the air the outboard mounting bracket flops down
unless we clip it in place with a large clip before raising the boat. This
part of the process can be tricky in a large swell or in high winds, as
the boat is difficult to control for the guy on deck (Mark!).
6.
Move the boat to the swim platform, clip middle and
rear seats' eyebolts to two lines on Groovy's transom to
keep the Porta-bote perpendicular to Groovy for easy
access, and install the other two seats.
7.
Lower the outboard engine onto the
mountain bracket on the transom and
secure it in place.
TOWING the PORTA-BOTE
The Porta-bote tows beautifully, and we have towed it (without the engine
mounted), for hundreds of miles, a few times in some rather large and lumpy seas.
We have towed it with the outboard mounted too, and that works just fine, but we
wouldn't want to go more than a few very sheltered miles towing it that way.
We tie the Porta-bote's painter to two points on Groovy's transom, making a bridle.
We usually tie a second line to Groovy as well, just in case. There's nothing like
trying to find and retrieve a lost dinghy in big seas (been there, done that!).
We have tried towing the Porta-bote far behind Groovy, but have found it behaves
much better when it is snugged up close behind. We keep it about a foot or so off
of Groovy's transom. Sometimes when we are sailing slowly in lumpy, following
seas it has a tendency to run into the back of Groovy.
HOISTING the PORTA-BOTE in DAVITS
We drilled two holes on the stern end of the Porta-bote just forward of the transom,
one on each side of the hull. We had four stainless steel plates made to reinforce
these holes, and those are bolted in place (with stainless bolts), one plate on the
inside and one on the outside of each hole, sandwiching the plastic hull in between.
To create a davit bridle, we simply run a line between those two holes in the hull's
stern and run another line between the two factory-installed holes in the bow of the
boat to make a two-point hoisting system for our davits.
Because the lifting points are at the top of the hull, it is not possible to snug the
Porta-bote tightly into the davits. Instead, it always swings a little, no matter how
high you hoist it. If the lifting points were in the bottom of the boat, the top edges of
the hull could be pulled flush to the davit arms. However, I am not sure how to install lifting points in the boat's floor. So we
don't travel with the Porta-bote in the davit system. However, the davits are ideal for getting the boat out of the water at night
when we are at anchor, as the Porta-bote sits snugly on the swim platform and we secure it with lines tied to the seats' eyebolts
to keep it perfectly still.
Also, if it rains (which it doesn't do in Mexico's winter cruising season) or if there is a lot of dew, the boat doesn't have a drain
hole to release the water. Water also collects in the bottom of the boat when we drive it hard, as waves splash in and water
jumps over the transom. So there is occasional light bailing to be done, but not more than a sponge or towel can handle.
One thing we discovered is that the Porta-bote's black plastic seam tubes that run along the length of the hull are made of a
plastic that leaves scuff marks on Groovy's white fiberglass gelcoat. When we hoist the dinghy in the davits, it invariably bumps
along Groovy's transom a bit, and over time it leaves a lot of marks. They come off with a little elbow grease and polish, but
there are plastics out there that are non-marking, and if Porta-bote used that kind of plastic it would be a huge improvement.
FLOTATION
Just beneath the black plastic lip at the top of the Porta-bote hull there is a strip of foam rivited to the hull. This provides enough
flotation to keep the boat afloat if it fills with water -- as long as there is no outboard engine mounted on the boat. The foam
material deteriorates in the sun and flakes off, constantly leaaving little black flecks all over the Porta-bote's floor. I have heard
of cruisers covering this foam with Sunbrella to keep it intact and prevent its total disintegration. I haven't gotten to that project
yet... This foam provides a little flotation, but the Porta-bote will definitely sink if it is swamped while an outboard engine is
mounted on its transom.
USING the PORTA-BOTE
A lot of this description so far includes many negatives and short-comings of the Porta-bote, simply because it is not designed to
be a cruising dinghy and is rather carelessly engineered and cheaply manufactured. However, the great qualities of this dinghy
show up once it has been assembled and is out on the water. We have found ways to work around its portability limitations, and
feel that because of its good traits on the water it is an excellent choice as a cruising dinghy. We would buy it again, and here's
why:
The interior volume is enormous. We have packed it with a month's worth of groceries (at the supermarket the provisions were
mounded way above the top of the shopping cart) along with three weeks worth of laundry (in two huge laundry bags), plus
ourselves, and we still had space leftover. We have also loaded it with five adults and putted along at a good clip. I think six
adults would be pushing it. There is plenty of space on the seats for six adults, but the boat would sink too low in the water.
It is a fast boat that planes easily with both of us aboard using just a lightweight 6 hp 4-stroke outboard. We raced a traditional
RIB dinghy driven by a 15 hp outboard and carrying two adults. They barely pulled away from us as we reached about the
quarter mile mark.
I love rowing, and the Porta-bote is a lot of fun to row. It tracks well and moves
nicely through the water. For the passionate rower the oars are totally
inadequate and should be replaced. The oarlocks in the hull also seem a little
flimsy to me and I wonder how long they will hold up, as they flex ominously with
every pull on the oars.
The oars themselves are made for very light, occasional use. They are
aluminum and they split into two halves for stowage, the handle half and the
paddle half. The two halves are joined with a plastic pin-through-a-hole system,
but the pin doesn't actually go through the hole very well because the plastic
spring mechanism is flimsy and weak. So the oars are prone to coming apart if
you don't keep an eye on them.
Each oar has an aluminum pin that fits into the hole in the Porta-bote's oarlock. The pin is held in place on the oar with a sleeve
around the oar that is fastened with an aluminum bolt and wing nut. On our fifth time out rowing, the bolt on one of our oars
crumbled mid-stroke. We replaced the bolts and wing nuts on both oars with stainless steel, and they have been fine ever
since.
Whether rowing or motoring, it takes a while to get used to the Porta-bote's flexible floor. You can feel every wave and bump
under your feet, and it is a very moveable platform, nothing like a hard dinghy or a RIB. However, the movement is just part of
the package, and once you are accustomed to it, it's kinda neat.
All-in-all we are very happy with the Porta-bote. No cruising dinghy is ideal, each type being a pain in the neck in at least a few
ways. We like the lightweight nature of the Porta-bote and being able to get most of it off the deck and out of the davits and out
of the way while on a long passage. We like its good manners while towing, its speed under power and its voluminous interior
space for provisioning runs. The compromises and required upgrades are okay with us in return for its many good qualities. If
Porta-bote ever went back to the drawing board and studied its plans and re-engineered the boat for use as a cruising dinghy,
they could create a truly superior dink that surpassed everything else on the market.