posted 07-06-2014 10:16 AM ET (US)            

I *am* a yacht owner, if you consider a 42 foot Grand Banks trawlert to be a yacht, and live aboard one for 6 months a year, cruising from Rhode Island to the Tortugas and further.

The 9' Tender is absolutely useless as a tender. It's far too small for it's weight, and has virtually zero practical value for any mission that I can imagine other than as a tiny little kids lake boat or as a planter for the front yard. This is from practical experience owning one. They may be "unsinkable" but I can tell you that they are very happy floating upside down rather than right side up. Nearly zero freeboard, and marginal stability. They don't even tow well. Just a bad boat all around. Cute as a pin, which is why I bought one. Hated the thing and sold it almost immediately.

Trusting my life to inflatables... well... yes. Two years running them in Antarctica, twenty years slearfishing out of them (sharp points and all), and now towing one about 2000 miles a year. I'd use one for a practical yacht tender before I would use any 9' Whaler. In fact, I do. My high pressure air floor inflatable been the most practical tender I've ever had. Go to any dingy dock where cruising boater are coming ashore from the anchorage and you will see hundreds of them. There's a reason for that.

11 Footers are quite a bit better boat than the 9'. I consider them to be the smallest Whaler worth buying for any use. The 13 becomes a real boat.

13's and 17's are the size Whalers I see being placed aboard much larger yachts (60+ foot class) with cranes for deck carriage. In fact I see more 17's used this way than any other size. I see a very few 13's craned aboard, have never seen a 11 used this way, and to think that anyone would use a 9 this way is laughable. Any yacht needing a sub 12-foot class tender is going to use an inflatable.

Dave

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