So what you are saying is …. You don’t like the Portland Pudgy .. lol Great informative review of likes and dislikes .. Glad to see you are putting vlogs out … keep them coming and I will keep watching ..

Why would you try to sail to safety during a storm condition? I believe you are supposed to use it as a normal life raft during storm weather, and put the sail on once the sea is calm. I do agree with your other points though.

Your English is fine, everyone understands your ideas, whereas most of us wouldn't be able to ask for directions to a toilet when our bladder is about to explode. You are doing fine.

I just watched a few videos of sharks (and a walrus) testing the consistency of various boats. Inflatables are wonderful on paper, and when all is well. They obviously make great tenders. I would rather not rely on one staying inflated. Sure vast numbers of inflatable life rafts turned out fine. Some haven't, I'm sure. I enjoyed my Zodiac. But I don't think my best backup option is a balloon. Personal taste, of course. Swiss army knives are easily criticized, too. But it turns out that despite being small and light, they are really handy.

Finally an honest review of the Portland pudgy! Thank you 🙏

is there any other you recommend ? i have a sea eagle 380x with quicksail kit which works well but its inflatable and not hard bottom. i was looking at the 12 foot scamp from gig harbor boat works but i dunno if its worth it (ghboats).

what marina are you in ? did watch vid on boat when you talked about it few weeks ago, never herd about them how much is ?

Clearly the Portland pudgie comes with compromises. But it delivers on that it doesn't sink, it can sail, It can row, it can have a canopy, you can attach a small motor, and it does have watertight compartments. What's the alternative? You can get a lifeboat and for fully offshore you probably would want one although you can't really test it easily. There are lifeboat failures. Certainly putting up the exposure canopy would be a problem if you're in the ocean and there's a lot of waves. I don't know why you would try to put the sail rig up if it was storm conditions you would probably want to wait them out. If you talk capacity you probably wouldn't want to squeeze four people in there although you probably could depending on how big they are. When the Coast Guard tested it they put 1800 lb in it before the water got up to the gunwales and even then it was still floating. It doesn't plane like an RIB but it also doesn't flip. We towed it through a lot of the big wakes around New York harbor and 4 ft seas in the Atlantic and it didn't take on any water. That was both with nothing in it except the oars and also later when we added torquito which we kept strapped to the front seat. It towed like a champ. We don't have davits nor deck space to store it out of the water so towing was our only option and it definitely works great for that. You can even tow it without the plug-in if there's not much weight. It will also never deflate. However you can't plane it or attach a big motor so that's a downside if you're looking to go in a hurry. Would you want to depend on an RIB as an escape boat? And you can't sail the RIB. So really it depends on what you want to do with the boat. It sounds like an RIB is better for you. All these things come with compromises, whether it's your mothership or your dinghy. Perhaps there are some things they could have done better design wise that might improve things but in that category is there any better alternative? We went with the used Pudgy and with a load at about the published limit it does work pretty well in terms of being stable although it is kind of slow. Going four knots is about it with the 1103 Torqueedo. If you keep it down to about 3 and 1/2 knots and maybe 4 to 500 watts of power consumption you can go for a couple hours. I can then plug it into my 12 volt and charge it with my solar panels.

Great to see an Actually honest review.. did change my mind about getting one.. hope the english get better in the future ;)

There was another hybrid dingy I found years back Now I can't find it again. I believe it was a plastic material it can have like a zodiac tube around the outer perimeter kit, motor, oars and sail options. Anyone know what that may have been?

Yikes! I’m curious how stable it is using the ladder??? Have you looked at the OC350 tender?

Not recommending a Torqueedo motor for the "Portland Pudgy"? or not recommending Torqueedo at all?

Looks to me the perfect vessel to have on dry land next to a bar set in concrete or the perfect gift to the mother inlaw :-)

Ok, fair enough, I can see it,. But I hate the idea of relying on a life raft I can't test on the regular. I want something me and my crew can practice with, at least 3-4 times a year.

Good video and review! will keep us from getting one as once you see it looks really cumbersome for sure! could the sail be pre rigged on the pole and you just keep the pole/sail folder up for better deployment? No daggerboard/leeboards either?

Fight Back! With David Horowitz.. lol

Thanks for putting this together. Just watched a 100% positive review on the Pudgy, but it was by someone that sold them ... so there's that.

Now THAT is a review! Thank you very much

I think you’re totally missing the point. The sailing kit is for a bit of fun to sail around in an anchorage it isn’t to try and turn a life raft into a sailboat. I agree with the life raft stuff but I I’d buy a real life raft and not try and use a tender for one.

Thanks for that honest review James. I hope you’ll be able to get your money back. What a disappointing product.

Thanks for this. Been trying to figure out what to get for a pocket cruiser and this has now been removed from my list of potential purchases. No idea how even two people could sleep in that thing in a survival situation

That's a shame. I thought I had found what I was looking for... I have a couple of questions though if you don't mind. When did you buy yours/when was it made? There's a few things that it looks like they might have made improvements on based on their website (like better storing of the oars), but it's hard to tell. Also, I feel like my potential uses of the boat are different than yours, so maybe you could give me your opinion on how it might/might not work for me? I'm looking for a dinghy that I can motor when I just need to get errands done, but that I can sail around just for fun. I probably would just go without a lifeboat otherwise and just cross my fingers, so having that as an option is just a bonus. My thought was to leave the lifeboat stuff off when I'm cruising locally, then for longer trips away from land, move the dinghy off the davits, put all the lifeboat stuff on ready to go, and strap it to the fore deck. Being able to sail the lifeboat is definitely not a priority for me. I know a rigid boat like the Pudgy is never going to be as stable or as much of a workhorse as a RIB, but I haven't seen any sailable RIBs and can't imagine that would work well. I hope you don't mind all the questions! Either way, thanks for the great details on the boat! You might have saved me a bunch of buyer's remorse! Haha

Any machine that’s built to do a lot of things can’t do anything well, just look at an amphibious car, it’s a useless boat and a useless car, same with flying cars and many, many tools.

Oh boy that thing is a piece of sh.te. If you want a really nice light weight sailing dinghy to mess around in look up Fatty Knees. They are fabulous.