AAportabote



	Portabote - the boat that's not so portable

		Being the former owner of a Portabote, I can tell you that this boat is definite fun, but beware: it ain't that portable once the fun starts! Sure, the Portabote site claims how easy it is to errect and take apart.... but the guy in their catalog carrying it leisurely under one of his arms... that guy must be a heavylifter or something. This boat weights over 80 pounds and in real life we usually needed two sets of arms and hands to help carrying it.



Where the fun REALLY started was when we looked at this boat and thought of all the improvements we could and should do to it. Add a screw here, modify a seat there... and we ended up with all these extra materials, that made the Portabote way less portable than it was. Sure it was easy transporting it in an SUV -- but only if we left the kid and the dog at home (because, where to stow all the extra improvements??). Then, once we got tired of rowing that thing, a motor was bought (a 2 hp Honda 4-cycle) and this was pretty much the end of "portability", since now we needed even MORE space to stow the motor somewhere.... and the fuel tank.... Otherwise, this boat was FUN FUN FUN. Ours was an older 12 foot canoe-style Portabote. In it we could fit two adults, a youth, a large dog, a fuel tank and even some provisions for a picnic.... and off we would go, exploring the river. Add a home-made bimini and we almost were sorry we weren't carnivores, who would sit in the shade and fish all day. The boat was VERY stable, even in rougher waters. Too bad it didn't fit across the davits of our Coronado 35 somehow (at 12 feet it's too wide)... then we wouldn't need to unfold it, but could just launch it from the davits. Unfolding it on the boat somewhere (the foredeck?) would not be an easy task, and launching it would be impossible from the deck down, I imagine. So... we parted with it. Let someone else with a larger SUV enjoy it's portability.



			BACK

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws