Inflatable Dinghy

LarryFatcat

Active member
Can anyone recommend a good inflatable dinghy to buy, suitable as back-up for the often stuck boat in Croesor?
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
Anything will do, as long as it can be packed down to a suitable size to carry by one, or more people for all the bits, boat, inflator, personal buoyancy. Don't bother with conventional paddles. Either use your hands, minimalist Gollum style, or a couple of table tennis bats for more comfort. Croesor-Rhosydd doesn't have any tight sections, so size of the packages doesn't matter, only ease of carrying.
 

Fjell

Well-known member
It’s quite hard to buy something small of decent quality that will last and is cheap. You want something without a transom obviously. This is robust, but not cheap. Has two chambers and rubbing strake. You get what you pay for. It’s rated at 1.5 people… I imagine you might find one second hand if you look.

Or spend £20 with Amazon for a plastic toy.





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Cantclimbtom

Well-known member
or a wet suit jacket and a pair of kids armbands.

Both provide some buoyancy although the armbands may only get as far as your elbows. The jacket is more likely to be useful on other trips +can be used as emergency clothing.

On my first CRTT I brought Frozen arm bands and Wonder-Woman arm bands for me and a buddy. Since I was providing the safety equipment I insisted I got first choice. I picked the Wonder Woman ones as they were marginally more "butch" than Anna and Elsa. It's essential to maintain that rough and tough demeanour when out exploring!
Just arm bands is probably inadequate, especially as they offer zero protection against cold. These days I'd take a wetsuit jacket as well. Obviously if you were a boat short of a lake crossing, an inflatable would be better, but they are heavy and it depends if you are likely to use it in future or not.
 

carpet

Member
Can anyone recommend a good inflatable dinghy to buy, suitable as back-up for the often stuck boat in Croesor?
I'd honestly just take a wetsuit and mebbe some armbands as Tom suggested - smaller and lighter than a boat, and you should be able to free the canoe fairly easily with one person in the water, I spent a good bit of time in the water there last summer, its cold but not unbearably so. On a somewhat unrelated note, if you do go down, any chance you could send a condition report for the canoe chamber? tried rerigging it in a slightly different way (details on a dedicated croesor canoe thread on this forum) and would be curious to see how its holding up
 
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