One of our winter boat projects this year was to give our dink some love. This little AB rib has served us well for 15 years, and honestly I’d like to get another 15 out of it. It has an aluminum floor, so it’s tough as nails and can be dragged up onto a rocky beach without worrying about damaging fiberglass. We had her home a couple of years ago and did some work, but now was the time to finish up the refit.
The cover was nearly done, but needed some rework in the bow where the curves go every direction possible. And it needed to be secured inside with snaps added to the cover and the dink.
It also needed the paint refreshed. The tubes got a fresh coat of hypalon paint, and the aluminum floor was painted with a two part epoxy paint.
While it was here I decided to do more sewing. The gas can that lives under the seat needed a cover because when it’s not in the dink it’s up on deck getting UV damaged (when we’re offshore the dink rides upside down on the bow and the fuel can is lashed to the side rail).
I added a cover the seat, and some zip on/zip off flaps fore and aft that have pockets to contain all that stuff that’s always rolling around the bottom of the floor. There are pockets for cell phones, drinks, VHF, flashlights, etc.
And in the back flap I added an inside pocket for the “boat bag”. This is the holder of all important paperwork we need to take ashore when we check in with customs. Needless to say, this is a very important little bag and deserved its own place in the boat.
Then, just because I hate clutter, I added a little bag for the cable and lock. When we’re somewhere that dinghies will go walkabout when you’re not watching, we lock it up. But I hate the cable and lock always moving about so I contained them in a little bag.
And just for one last little item of annoyance, there is now a piece of velcro that will secure the stern line so it’s not always laying at your feet getting tangled up.
So there we are, Dink Love is complete and hopefully she’ll keep us going for another 15 years.
