Pump Up test

[Bigplumbs]

Me and her indoors just did a test on how fast we could pump up our 2.6 m Waveco tender, I bought a second bellows foot pump (£6.99 plus delivery of ebay) so we were both pumping together. From taking the boat out of its bag and connecting the hoses would you believe we had it pumped up in 3.5 minutes. To then put on the oars and outboard I would estimate that 10 mins total would be possible. I think that has made my mind up that I will just operate by pumping up and deflating each time. The bag you get with the Waveco is also more of a wrap and is very good. This is far quicker than I thought it was going to be.

Dennis

[annageek]

I'll be interested to know how you get on doing the same aboard your boat. The one thing I found is that you really take balance for granted when pumping things up. Just a slight amount of movement in the boat is enough to throw your balance to make it seemingly 10 times as hard to use a foot pump, or worse, a stirrup pump.

We had a bellow type foot pump for the ringo and even holding onto the helm seat or windscreen, it was surprisingly difficult. Worse was the stirrup pump for the SUP boards - I once went head first into the side of the boat when it rolled in some swell on a down stroke of the pump!

None of this is a problem though, of course. Afterall, it is boating, and nobody is in a rush anyway - and the odd comedy falling over gaff just adds to the fun! I also suspect that having a rolled up inflatable neatly stowed away will be worth the effort of pumping it up / deflating it when not needed will far outweigh the faff involved with storing / towing / lugging then thing around inflated when not needed

[Bigplumbs]

Thanks for the reply Anna. The Waveco is the tender from the shore to the swinging mooring. It will be pumped up on the land, motor to the mooring and left on the mooring while we are out in the boat. after the trip out we will motor back to the shore and deflate on the land. We do noe however have the thinner Intex tender on the boat that we will of course once in a blue moon have to pump up on the boat and I note your points. Knowing me I will be the one to fall over.

Dennis