Overall Assessment: Typical false-economy of a Chinese-made product. This 7-foot, six-inch inflatable dinghy is a Chinese copy of what I believe is a Mercury 230 inflatable. Bahia Boat’s web special sold them for $260 and sales representative Matthew Lewis said five Chinese plastics manufactures built test dinghies and Bahia Boat chose the best one for production. Sounded good. The dinghy arrived without any assembly instructions. Another boater I know had the same problem. From the factory, it arrived with a patch over a skin defect. One air chamber has a slow leak. After using it for a month, one oarlock broke suddenly and almost left me stranded. Now both oars are tied on with rope instead of oarlocks. It works, but is not the quality expected for a product that is warranted for five years. Will Bahia Boat stand behind their warranty? Probably not. They did not return my phone calls when I was trying to order the boat brand new. By the time this dinghy dies, I will gladly pay three times as much for a brand-name, trustworthy one with a real warranty.
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