We're looking for about a 14' inflatable to get to pretty shallow (1 - 1.5 ft) seagrass areas in West Bay. We have an older Zodiac soft bottom that came unglued so I'm thinking a rigid bottom would be better. Any thoughts on fiberglass vs aluminum bottom? So far, it looks like AB or Achilles may be best brand choices. Thanks

Curious why an inflatable over fiberglass or aluminum?

Seems like the rigid ones usually take more hp. Planning on using the same motor?

We tried our 21' Baymaster last year bur ended up poling and pushing alot. I'm assuming we can get in much more shallow water with an inflatable. We would also use it on other projects where a bigger boat would not work. We have a whole golf bag of outboards from 2.5-18hp that we could use depending on the need.

What you need is a tunnel hull boat to get skinny. A RIB is more of a tender for a yacht.. not very shallow running.

The inflatables with the rigid bottoms are usually for meeting a certain operation criteria in a certain sea state and not for getting skinny. Full inflatable with a drop-stitch floor is going to be the best combo of weight and stiffness. Even then, you are going to teeter-totter over the center keel tube. The roll-up floors are junk.

ETA: there was a thing called a "thunderduck" from South Africa that was like an inflatable powered catamaran. Getting one that will actually plane and not push water in displacement is a matter of load and position I would imagine.

Carolina skiff j14
13 whaler
14 ft john
Gheenoe classic

I'd rather fish the bay out of any of the above instead of an inflatable. The one place where the inflatable would win out is if you also planned to use it in the surf, or were determined to cross West Galveston bay on any weather to get to the north shoreline.

Thanks for replies. It isn't for fishing. It would be used for seagrass monitoring along the bay side of Galveston (east and west of Jamaica Beach), bay side of ICWW spoil islands (launching from Harborwalk by causeway), and in Christmas Bay. So we wouldn't necessarily be hauling ass much. We currently have some cooperators with an airboat but may not always have their help.