Tips for Those Who Choose an Inflatable Rowing Boat
You decided to buy a boat. So now, you can organize your recreation of how you always wanted. Follow this article, and you will find something useful for your enterprise.
First of all, you should think about the conditions in which you will use an inflatable boat, capacity and payload properties. For fishing, hunting and water trips one person boat can be enough. Senior users will say that for comfort you need to choose from expected luggage + person estimate. That’s more comfortable.
Size and weight of the inflatable paddle boat primary influence on the convenience of storage and carry. Inflatable boats can be transported in the trunk of the car, dragged to the water by one person and stored in an apartment or in a garage.
While choosing the particular model of an inflatable boat, pay attention to the following:
Diameter of the balloon
The common diameter of the balloon is 13.5 inch. Taller side increases the sail and creates additional resistance to the rower in a headwind.
If the side is lower, there is a serious risk of getting hurt even if you are alone on the boat. Stability of boats will allow you to use the boat only on small ponds where no current waves.
Width of boat
Narrow boats are speedier, but they easily can be turned over. Therefore, the width of the boat should be sufficient to feel comfortable and safe in it. Let’s determine the minimum width of the boat.
The width of the hips of the average male is 13–15 inches. To keep the boat close, you must add at least one-third of this distance. It will be 23–25 inches. Add the width of each side of the boat. If we take a look at the inflatable boats history it turns out that the minimum comfortable boat width is 50 inches. If we apply the shipbuilding formula to calculate the safe load on board, provided the width of the boat, the length is 98 inch, and the diameter of the side is 13 inch, we will get the allowable load on the board 175–200 lb. It is enough for the boat.
Weight of oars
The importance of this characteristic for a rowing boat should not be underestimated. Paddles should weigh as little as possible. If you choose between two models before buying one of them take into consideration the weigh oars and choose a boat with lighter oars.
Shape of the oars
In fact, this seemingly small detail is very necessary. Paddle is the main working tool that helps your boat to sail along a given route and safely return back. Paddle with a blade in the shape of “palm” is bigger, more solid and heavier. A simple paddle with a narrow flat blade is smaller and lighter.
The easier the design of the paddle, the longer you can row without experiencing fatigue. Accordingly, we will leave big paddles with blades in the form of “hands” to trained professionals, and take classic oars with a straight blade.
Lifting the bow of the boat
As a rule, we sit with our backs forward, and we do not have the opportunity to constantly look in front of the boat. If there is a headwind, and, correspondingly, a counter wave, then the nose of the boat should be able to jump on over it. In inflatable boats, the nose should be raised correctly. The angle of ascent is 20 °.
