Glen-L.com

Hi everyone.
My name is Keith Hills from Sydney Australia and I am thinking about building a Zip as a tender for my cruiser.
This will replace a 12' rubber duck built in Italy (Arimar) with a 40hp. I don't know id any of you have looked by to find something with style in the duck world is near impossible.
My problem is that we use our tender in some pretty rough conditions when cruising around the islands of the Great Barrier Reef and I am concerned that this boat might be very "wet". Any thoughts?
Also we are used to being able to load shopping etc into the bow section and unload from the bow when going to the beach. Consequently I am thinking of leaving the forward deck off and making a bow rider out of it. Has anyone done this?
Have a great day. Its a balmy 20 deg C and sunny down under today.
Keith Hills

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Calm Spirit

having done both (inflatable,and an open Glen-L...in this case a TNT) as a tender for my sailboat,I have to say the inflatable will be much better in rough water for a tender than the Zip

The Zip in my opinion can be done open if done right,but I think I would look for a build with a deeper Vee bottom that will work better in rough water.

Here are pics of my boats....the open TNT, and my old RIB....The TNT was 11' and the rib was 10'


You might consider the Celerity in an open version ....it should work better for rough water

https://www.boatdesigns.com/14-6-Celeri ... ducts/312/

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Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

Thanks for your comment.
Here is the question, seeing you have both types of boat that you could use as a tender, which do you use today and why?
I do have some serious size restrictions caused by where I keep it on my cruiser, hence being restricted to the dimensions of the Zip in its shortest form, and I want to go quick so need something with some power behind it.
Sounds like I am convincing myself doesn't it.

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Calm Spirit

I like the inflatable as a tender,but I tended to keep the sailboat anchored and used the tender to explore,go diving,and run errands.I have had it 8 miles offshore to a reef with 4 people and snorkel gear,cooler etc....A Zip might have done that with the higher sides than the TNT,but the inflatable is more sea worthy in my opinion.

The plywood boat will do all those things also, but isn't as sea worthy in rough water for diving,snorkeling etc

An open Zip will have a little more capability in rougher water than the one I built, but you still have to watch it some.

How will you stow it? Davits? Towing?These are all things to look at.

I towed another 14'boat I had behind the sailboat once, and it put a heck of a drag on it.The inflatable towed the best,although the TNT wasn't too bad.I bought davits finally and oped up a new can of worms as well as solving some problems.

This is towing the TNT at a slow speed

If I ever get back into using my sailboat,I'll buy another 10'Caribe RIB and use my 18HP Tohatsu on it.

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

my zip/FS is a very wet boat even in the mildest of chop. If your concerned at this point, I would consider building a different model.
good luck

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RetroMan
Built A Zip/Flying Saucer. I do my boating on South Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY
Documenting my build on YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/SuperUnknownMC