We bought a boat! Ok, not THE boat but we did make a big purchase. We decided on the brand new Highfield 340 CL! But, how, why, and when?

In December we decided we would like to enjoy time on the water. We knew we were still several months away from our actual cruising boat purchase. We know we want to start the process of looking likely in the spring/summer but we know it can take a long time to find the right fit. We also did not want to purchase a boat for now, meaning a boat that would have no future with us and that we would have to turn around and sell. We hate selling things. It is not our strong suit.

So that leads us to our new purchase. We decided to buy our dinghy or tender or whatever you like to call it. We call it our little boat. We knew what we wanted in a tender. We knew what size and had a preference to certain brands with good warranties and design. We also knew from looking at many large sailing boats online in our price range and size range that most do not come with any dinghy we would want to use long term for our family. So the hunt began.

Why not a used Dinghy?

We started looking online at used boats. Mostly we were finding cheaper smaller dinghys made of PVC. Our goal was a 6 person boat made of Hypalon with a bow locker and a ridged double hull.

Hypalon is a similar material to PVC but it is known to hold up much better to UV exposure and other harsh sea elements!

The larger used dinghys listed for sale locally had consoles (you know, the kind with a steering wheel) which we did not want. We were looking for simple. We also noticed that the used dinghys were priced about the same as a new dinghy, and that better brands of boats were often not available. That lead us to calling around to some different places to discuss pricing and new boats.

We landed on Inland Waterway Provision Company in Oriental, North Carolina. They just happened to be getting in a shipment from Highfield boats within the coming month and they had the exact make and model that we were most interested in, coming on the shipment. We had really liked the size and specs and warranties on Highfield boats. No we are not sponsored by them. We just looked at a lot of different boats and we were leaning toward the Highfield brand. We had considered Zar, Achilles, AB, Zodiac and Avon among others. Corey jokingly added Intex to our possible boat maker list. Intex makes pools and cheap inflatables. We just kept coming back to the Highfield boats.

We found it interesting that a lot of places who sold RIBs (Rigid - Inflatable - Boat) did not have many in stock and they had to be ordered. After much discussion with Pat at Inland Waterway Provision, we decided to purchase a new boat from them. Pat is very informative and no pressure. The boat we wanted was the Highfield 340 CL. It had all the features we were looking for and a few cosmetic upgrades that we didn’t really want but were now standard with the 2020 models. The boat was on a shipment and we had a tentative date of arrival. Now we had to choose the outboard.

How about the Engine?

We looked at several engines. Max HP rating for our boat was 25hp. The recommended HP was 15. We split the difference and started looking at 20hp engines. We looked at Mercury, Honda, Tohatsu and others. We decided on Tohatsu pull start 20hp EFI outboard. We priced these out at multiple places and the best deal still came from Pat as we got a little discount for purchasing both the boat and the outboard together.

Due to the fact that we did not have a sailboat yet and planned to have many water adventures in the mean time, we had to purchase a trailer. We bought this used on Craigslist. We had to do some work to it as the lights were bad and it needed the bunks replaced. That was all minor and easy adjustments.

We picked up the boat the weekend before Christmas. Our kids were so excited and have proclaimed this little boat our best Christmas present ever. We proclaim it our most expensive Christmas present ever but after using it feel it was worth every penny.

Our maiden voyage took place on Christmas morning. We headed out after eating breakfast and enjoying our stockings and a few small Santa gifts. We went in a local river with a swift current. The sun was shinning. It was in the 50s. Not a soul on the water. It was perfect. We took a joy ride. Carter and Ella laughed and so did we. They took turns driving and had fun practicing making tight turns. I would call this our best Christmas morning ever.

In the month of January we had other adventures, including an epic trip to Rainbow River in Florida.

If you missed the YouTube Videos where we purchased the Dinghy and then took it to Florida for the Rainbow River adventure…

Here are the links:

We look forward to the day when we hoist it on the davits on our sailboat and take off for a new destination. In the mean time we will launch at the boat ramp and explore as much as we can always looking for something new around the bend.

Becky

We are not affiliated or sponsored by any product or company mentioned above.

all links (above and below) are provided for your convenience.

Links:

Inland Waterway Provision Company: https://inlandwaterwayprovisioncompany.com/

Highfield Boats 340 CL: https://www.highfieldboats.com/classic-340/

Tohatsu Outboard: https://www.tohatsu.com/outboards/20_4st.html