Mercury 3.5 hp outboard and our North Atlantic Inflatables dinghy, a test review.

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Come along as we take a review test ride in out North Atlantic Inflatables 8' 2" dinghy and our Mercury 3.5Hp motor on Sippican Harbor Marion. What do you use as your dinghy?
Overall we like the combination of a Mercury 3.5hp motor and a North Atlantic inflatables, 8' 2" high-pressure floor dinghy. The combination is lightweight, strong, and highly functional for how we use it. The boat serves as our primary transportation from our Sea Ray 400 Sedan Bridge Calypso II to the beach or to shore and a dinghy dock.

We usually carry 3-4 people and a limited amount of gear. With that load, the boat moves at about 5 mph or so. While that is a full load for the boat it is not overloaded.

The two downsides of this combination which are no fault of the equipment, are as follows.
The Mercury 3.5 Hp outboard carries 1 quart of fuel and cannot accept an external tank. At full throttle that provides about 45min of run time necessitating frequent refills during the day or limiting how far we can go without carrying a jerry can of fuel. The motor also has only forward and neutral and no reverse gear. To back up the motor must be rotated 180 degrees, and put in gear. This works but is less than ideal.

We would also like a larger boat. A dingy that was 9'8" would allow us to carry out a typical load more easily and with a larger motor, 8hp, perhaps plane. A larger engine would provide a remote 3.5 gal fuel tank, reverse gear and greater speed. We have our eye on a Tohatsu 8 Hp. Additionally, for the next boat, we may opt for an aluminum floor rather than a high-pressure floor. An aluminum floor provides greater stiffness to the overall boat. One thing we like a lot about the North Atlantic Inflatables dinghy's, both the 8'2" one we have and their larger 9'8", is that both boats are only 6 foot wide which fits easily on our transom. Some manufacturers larger boats are 6"7" which is nice for space but would be challenging to store on our transom davits.