Last year I decided to purchase a boat so that I could put it in front of our condo at Seabridge in Oxnard, Ca. A brand new D.R. Horton award winning community. I ended up purchasing a Bayliner 275 cruiser with full warranty through 2011. I noticed when we moored that boat at Anacapa Island Marina that many boat owners also had rubber inflatable's which I learned later were called dinghies. I had no idea what a dinghie, or dinghy was. I thought it was an expletive word used by boaters, if you know what I mean. I heard people saying they had rubber dinghies, big dinghies, little dinghies. I scratched my balding head and spent some time researching what they all meant.

I found out that some people who owned Sea Rays, or Bayliners, or other power boats, or sail boats all owned dinghies. It's a rubber inflatable device used to take trips around the bay, harbor, or visiting secluded areas, or onshore, where you don't want to take your regular boat. I guess the origin of the word dinghy comes from the Bengali, or Hindu words dingi, or dengi. The word according to an Indian (Asiatic) means a boat used on Indian rivers.

Well I heard of some people having been stranded on the islands off the coast of California visiting the islands of Santa Cruz, Anacapa, San Miguel, or Catalina. Thank God they owned one of these inflattable dinghies. These dinghies can either be attached to the back of the boat on davits & connected to the swim platform, or they can be hoisted up on bigger boats, or they can be towed, without creating too much drag.

I went to one of our local stores to check out dinghies and learn more about them. I learned that their are many sizes. The salesperson told me not to get anything bigger than the width of my boat since it may not fit into my slip. My slip happens to be extra large, so a larger dinghy would not pose a problem in my home slip, but may cause a problem docking in a foreign slip in Ventura, or Santa Barbara harbor. The decision had to be made regarding a davit, or no davit. I decided to get an 8 foot, seats 4, rubber dinghy with an fiberglass bottom that would neatly be mounted on a Davit behind my boat. This dinghy can easily be deflated and stored when not in use and be inflated within 3 minutes with an electric air pump. Whenever I go on a trip that involves going offshore a bit, like visiting the islands, we mount the dinghy on the davit, and head out feeling comfortable that we have a secondary escape route in the event of an accident, or if the boat were to take on water, etc. It's also great to explore the surrounding shores around the Channel Islands. Those waters in the Channel Islands can get quite rough quickly, and it's always comforting to know you have the dinghy, and of course our emergency insurance which gives us the added protection of water rescue within 100 miles off shore.

Right outside of the Oxnard harbor their is a row of rocks which neutralizes the strong waves, and makes it easier for boats, dinghies, sailboats to navigate the entrance to the harbor. As soon as you exit the harbor, before the rock barrier, you go due North for about 30 feet and their the beach area is placid, no waves, thanks to the reef rock barrier. I can tow the dinghy to that area, release the anchor and jump on the dinghy to the inviting beach. You can spend the whole day there jumping in and out of the water in a safe environment and only 10 minutes from home. We've done most of our boating on lakes throughout California, and Nevada. Like lake Nacimiento, Lake Lopez, Lake Isabella, Mission Bay in San Diego, or in Big Bear lake, or Mohave & Mead in Nevada. Nothing like boating in the ocean. The ocean is much more consuming, and huge, and mysterious, so having a dinghy, behind you is very relaxing. We never owned a dinghy in our lake boating days. The only lake where a dinghy would be a smart addition is Lake Mead since it's so huge, and the weather changes rapidly. We saw many boats go down, as the weather changed with no warning.

So whether you say it in Hindu dingi, or Bengali dengi, or in Spanish balsa salvadidas, or in French bateau pneumatique, it all adds to one universal thing, they are a lot of fun. So whether you buy the dinghy by itself just to cruise around the bay, or launch it off your boat, or yacht, and whether the bottom of you dinghy is made of rubber, or wood, or fiberglass, or it sits 4, or 6, or 10, it's a wonderful floating water devise that will give you a lot of pleasure. You can exercise and use oars, or you can add a 2, 4, or 10 horsepower motor to move you faster and further. Use it for white water rafting, fishing, or scuba diving. Add seats to it, a bimini, extra seats, and all kinds of devices to enhance it's performance and increase it's life span.

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