Annie Hill wrote:
Both I and my 5'3" wife can move a 57lb outboard on and off the boat using cleverness rather than brute strength, so I don't see that as an obstacle.
Yes, but can you carry it and the dinghy up the beach? There are lots of places without dinghy docks and with decent tides in this world!
I'd actually prefer a hard tender, and would be eager to hear suggestions of what would work to carry four adults, row well and fit comfortably on the deck of a 39' sailboat. Most of the "ideal" candidates so far only work if you have a crew of one or two.
Joel White "Shellback". At 10'6" is a wonderful dinghy and surprisingly light. You need to take out the bench seat and fit one fore and aft, and then supply it with four rowing stations, so that you can trim her perfectly depending on the number of people on board. You can fit two in the stern and then have two rowing (shorter oars required forward). She sails (but not with 4!), she rows beautifully, she tows (although we all know you shouldn't) really well and she's good looking. It's worth taking out the centreboard and fitting a single leeboard on the inside of the gunwale (I have no decent photo showing that I'm afraid.) I had one on a 35ft boat, so you should easily fit one on a 39ft one. Centreboards in tenders are a damn nuisance in my opinion.
If I could have only one dinghy, then something like the Shellback might be workable, although at 100lbs I think it is heavy enough to put it into the category where it is no longer easy to move around (for comparison, our RIB with engine is 152lbs). I'd also want to try the Shellback with four aboard rowing through waves. Many of the dinghies that are described as a joy to row are only that way when you have one or two aboard. By the time you add four, and the bottom of the transom has sunk below the waterline, and you start to take the occasional wave over the bow, then joy doesn't really fit the bill any more.
I'm on the BC coast, and I work here as an aquatic ecologist, so I understand what you are saying about getting boats on and off the shore in difficult locations and conditions. We have fold-down, large-diameter wheels that cover surprisingly rough terrain to move our light RIB ashore quickly. For steep barnacle laden rocks, I'd prefer to land with my paddle-board, tuck it under an arm, and run up the rocks. If we really needed the RIB on such a shore we'd use an anchor and a very long piece of webbing with a bungee inside. The bungee pulls the dinghy back out to the anchor where it happily rises and falls with the tides. When you return, you pull the boat back in with the second line you have tied to the shore. This also saves you carrying the boat through the muck when you come back at low tide.
I agree with the simplicity and durability of a hard tender that is rowed, but my experience with similar boats makes me suspect that for a family of four it would have larger than the Shellback. Having one person row such a big boat isn't tenable and coordinating rowing with two folks side by side in rough conditions isn't always enjoyable. Vancouver and his men did it on this coast, but they were tougher, and I doubt even they would have attempted it as a unit of father, mother and children! However, individual kayaks are brilliant for paddling as a family.