Inflatable Boat Center

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(503)235-2628

The Four Fs of Outboards

You’ve heard of the four “C”s for buying diamonds, but have you heard of the four “F”s for buying an outboard?
No?
It’s because I just made it up for this piece.
The four “C”s are cut, clarity, color, and carat while the four “F”s are fit, finish, function, and fuel economy.

I’m not here to play brand favorites, I’m just pointing out that there are differences besides just price. Every day we get phone calls with people asking prices while they conduct their “research” online at the same time.

The “research” as it’s stated by the caller is far different than what I considered research as an R&D scientist. When I hear research on the other end of the phone, or see it written in an email, all I see or hear is price shopping. Research in it’s contemporary sense has become using a search engine to shop prices and not much else. I’ll get pumped for information just to have the caller buy it online for a few bucks less from an online outboard clearing house. I get that the economy is crap and that leadership lines their pockets with tax payer dollars, so saving a buck is generally a high priority in most households. I get all of that trust me, but calling price shopping research is just wrong.

Those online outboard deals come at hidden costs not always visible to the researcher/shopper. Just like buying that diamond with the four “C”s the outboard has it’s attributes as the driving factor in it’s price. Free shipping is often the decider when online researching/price shopping a product to buy. Let’s be clear there is no such thing as “FREE SHIPPING”, the shipping companies wouldn’t exist if that were true. In fact the world economy would collapse if it were true as there’d be no incentive to produce a product if it’d cost money to sell.

It absolutely depresses me when a customer brings in a Yamaha outboard they bought online from dubiousoutboarddeals.com only for me to tell them it’s not a Yamaha and we don’t have parts for it. Sometimes it’s the obvious Yanamaha (or similar misspelling) sticker on the cowling, other times it’s the made in CH1N4 tomfoolery design and components. A bit of real research could save you from getting dupped once you see a too good to be true deal with free shipping. So much of our time is wasted supporting people who know better but pull that buy trigger online anyway.

I get it everyday on the phone, “They have it for $2000 less than that at insert dubious online outboard website!”. My usual response while on the phone with the pricing book open is, “I can’t make that deal, it’s less than our dealer cost at that number.”

Look for the four “F”s while you do your research, that Yamaha outboard should be the best in fit, finish, function and fuel economy. If it doesn’t present as such or if Yamaha is spelled wrong, run away!

Buy your outboard from an authorized dealer who will do the appropriate pre-delivery inspection and warranty registration and also has real OEM parts. Playing around with questionable knock offs on the water is never a good idea. An authorized Yamaha Outboard Dealer will have no problems sending you to another dealer that has the flavor you are looking for or even special ordering one in for you. The real pricing difference shouldn’t be too great from dealer to dealer.

This applies to all brands not just Yamaha, I’m just using Yamaha here because that’s what we sell and service, might as well have the best right? If you’re shopping for a Honda or Suzuki make sure it’s not a Hodonda or Suszuki. Times are hard, money is tight, don’t make a costly mistake because you got lured in by “FREE SHIPPING” or similar online conversion techniques. Call and speak to your local outboard dealer first, that way if there are any issues that come up you won’t be left out alone in the dark on the water.

Here at the Inflatable Boat Center we stock outboard configurations that are suitable for the types of boats we sell, but that being said we sell outboards to duck hunters, offshore fishermen, sailors and professional users alike. We just order in what we don’t have, and as a dealer we support what we sell brand wise if we can fit it into our boatyard. As a dealer we have no problem referring you to another dealer who specializes in the thing you are trying to do if we don’t, or don’t do it as well them. Part of being an authorized dealer is knowing there is a dealer network of professionals to draw upon to meet the customer’s goals, needs and wants.

This whole rant is the result of me talking to a boater who got a “real good deal” this morning on an inflatable boat. I didn’t ask them to swing it by, they just showed up and asked me to bring it into service for the once over. Let’s just say it wasn’t a Zodiac, and it wasn’t a Yamaha rigged on it either, but it was embarrassing, and it was disappointing. I won’t put much more here on it to save the customer from feeling worse than they already do. Hopefully they can get their money back but it’s doubtful with these online predators.

Talk to your local dealers and consider the four “F”s when the deal seems to be too good to pass up.

Whilst kicking some air into my boat this clear chilly morning my stomach reminded me I forgot to fill it up with breakfast. My primative brain remembered to get feed for the outboard and I was feeding my Zodiac it’s breakfast of clean cool morning air at the time. It’s like muscle memory, check the fuel, kick some air, conduct the day’s mission, pull the boat and clean everything off before stowing it in it’s proper place for the evening. Pretty simple right? You’d think that these things are all obvious and not worth mentioning yet again, but….. for some reason we keep getting inflatable boats, pontoons and kayaks in for under inflation failure modalities in need of repair.

I know not everyone is an engineer or deep sea crusty salt covered salvor but simple understanding can prevent many preventable problems with your inflatable boat which we will just call a Zodiac or “Z Boat” moving forward.

Bouyancy as it was explained to me during my indoctrination into submarine repair is simply achieved by displacing water. The more water you displace the greater the bouyancy or lift, it’s the reason why stuff floats on water. The “stuff” weighs less than the water it displaces therefore it floats. Understanding a submarine or a ship weighs many tons more than a Zodiac you’d think there is more to it than this, but you’d be wrong. Classical construction of boats from wood, steel, fiberglass or even cement all use the same principal of displacment of water to achieve bouyancy. The Z Boat is filled with air and therefore much lighter, but the volume of water that it displaces is much more than it weighs so therefore again, it floats. It floats very well indeed! Because of this huge difference in weight VS displacement of the inflatable boat, Z Boat, Zodiac, what have you, will in fact carry a far greater load than classic boat materials and construction techniques. If you don’t have enough air in your Z Boat it will not carry the same load as a properly inflated one, nor will it offer the same rigidity and strength it should.

Remember getting that helium ballon at the circus when you were 5 and taking it home? (yeah I’m dating myself). When you woke up the next morning excited to take it to school and show it off for “Show & Tell” it was markedly less full and mabey even sat a little below the ceiling. The gas inside your floating wonder ballon was escaping it’s confines from the moment it was filled and continued to free it’s self from its rubber prison the whole night while you slept peacefully. It was a bit of a disappointment and attempts to loft it higher were met with the crushing reality that gas doesn’t want to be confined. In heliums’ defense it’s a pretty small molecule and it will fit thrugh everything it’s contained in eventually, albeit slower than hydrogen. We’ll save that discussion for the nuclear engineers at a later time.

Your Zodiac instead of helium uses the same air we breathe, it’s a mix of mostly nitrogen, oxygen, and some other rare and noble gasses. These molecules are very big in comparison to helium, they don’t fit into and thru atomic lattices and seals like helium and hydrogen do, plus it surrounds us and costs nothing to use. While the molecules are bigger they still leak out eventually no matter what you make your container out of including PVC, Hypalon, CSM, Polyurethane etc. By not feeding the beast it’s share of delicious air regularly you’ll end up killing it in the worst way or damaging it enough to come to our repair shop for some emergency medical treatment. A trip to medical is never fun, and it’s never cheap, not like air, air is free to use all of the time. If you’re a space commando or or a saturation diver it might be a different story.

As a boy on the water I was taught that a boat and all things associated with it need constant care and upkeep to keep it safe and seaworthy. Going to my first command at the ripe old age of 17 I knew better than to walk by a “problem” without addressing it, and it is something that I still maintain today. If your Zodiac will take air, feed the beast, and kick in some air before going out. If you’re one of the people who have a winter season and the Z Boat isn’t used as often, you still need to top it off regularly. Your new boat can loose more air than you think in the span of 24 hours, especially if it’s a glued boat like a hypalon boat or cheaper Chinese knockoff brand. Don’t just walk by a problem with your boat, problems are always more complicated when you’re on the water so minimize your risks, kick some air and feed your beast.

If you have questions about your inflatable boat give us a call, or if you’re looking to minimize your impact on the environment while maximizing your fun stop by and see what a new Zodiac Inflatable Boat can do for you.

Our winter hours are the same as our summer hours.
9-5 Tuesday thru Friday
9-3 Saturdays
Closed on Sunday and Monday.
Our Phone number is (503)235-2628
We even have web chat from our website inflatableboats.com during those same hours.
We also stock, service and sell Yamaha Outboards.