Thought I'd post my thoughts about a new dinghy we purchased.We'd been looking for a small sailing dinghy to teach our young kids how to sail and over the past week I'd done a fair amount of reading on the Walker Bay. Ended up finding a very lightly used model locally and picked it up.
[img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/687487=27911-slightly-used-walker-bay-breeze-8ft_5519814.jpg[/img]Ended up grabbing a Walker Bay Breeze 8' via Craigslist locally for a good price. Dinghy had been used 2x and was then stored in a garage and looked brand new. We took it away this past weekend on a cruise we did to Pender Island and it was a ton of fun. The dinghy itself is fairly light-weight at about 85lbs. Our inflatable is about 20lbs lighter, however I actually found the Walker Bay easier to manhandle as it doesn't flex like the inflatable does.The sail kit assembles in about 5 minutes. The mast consists of 2 poles that fit together and the sail slides on via a sleeve. The boom then clips onto the mast. Couple of lines to quickly cinch and the hard part is done. A center-board slides through the middle with a rudder and extension handle that clips onto the stern. This unit comes with inflatable stabilizers on the sides that prevent the dinghy from tipping over (or at least make tipping extremely difficult). The stabilizers stay out of the water until the dinghy heels over.We had a perfect day with a breeze about 5kts that got the dinghy bombing around the bay. I took it out with a couple of kids, got them confident and it was a huge hit. My wife and I even sailed it across the bay in a light breeze and it did fine -- but was notably faster with just a single adult. I'm a big guy at 6'2" and 220lbs. It was a little cramped for my long legs, but I found a seating position either on the floor or on the center seat worked well and I didn't tangle in the lines too much.It comes with 2 long wooden oars with oarlocks and is a great rowing dinghy -- tracks straight and true. Can be equipped with up to a 2.5hp motor -- the dinghy doesn't plane so any bigger than that isn't going to do much.It was such good fun, we're considering ditching our 9' inflatable for the Walker Bay. Highly recommended if you're looking for a fun way to both entertain the kids (and yourself) but still get around.
[img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/687487=27911-slightly-used-walker-bay-breeze-8ft_5519814.jpg[/img]Ended up grabbing a Walker Bay Breeze 8' via Craigslist locally for a good price. Dinghy had been used 2x and was then stored in a garage and looked brand new. We took it away this past weekend on a cruise we did to Pender Island and it was a ton of fun. The dinghy itself is fairly light-weight at about 85lbs. Our inflatable is about 20lbs lighter, however I actually found the Walker Bay easier to manhandle as it doesn't flex like the inflatable does.The sail kit assembles in about 5 minutes. The mast consists of 2 poles that fit together and the sail slides on via a sleeve. The boom then clips onto the mast. Couple of lines to quickly cinch and the hard part is done. A center-board slides through the middle with a rudder and extension handle that clips onto the stern. This unit comes with inflatable stabilizers on the sides that prevent the dinghy from tipping over (or at least make tipping extremely difficult). The stabilizers stay out of the water until the dinghy heels over.We had a perfect day with a breeze about 5kts that got the dinghy bombing around the bay. I took it out with a couple of kids, got them confident and it was a huge hit. My wife and I even sailed it across the bay in a light breeze and it did fine -- but was notably faster with just a single adult. I'm a big guy at 6'2" and 220lbs. It was a little cramped for my long legs, but I found a seating position either on the floor or on the center seat worked well and I didn't tangle in the lines too much.It comes with 2 long wooden oars with oarlocks and is a great rowing dinghy -- tracks straight and true. Can be equipped with up to a 2.5hp motor -- the dinghy doesn't plane so any bigger than that isn't going to do much.It was such good fun, we're considering ditching our 9' inflatable for the Walker Bay. Highly recommended if you're looking for a fun way to both entertain the kids (and yourself) but still get around.
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