Testers ran each of the seven boats with both a 5-hp two-stroke Mercury and an 8-hp four-stroke Tohatsu.

So, you need a blow-up boat to use as a tender for people and gear between shore and anchor, or for checking out the harbor, or for gunkholing up shallow creeks, or for increased safety when cruising—or for all of the above, and more.

You have several styles to choose from. At one extreme there's the old-fashioned flat-bottomed inflatable with slat floors of wood or aluminum. It's light, inexpensive, fairly easy to set up, but not made for speed or comfort. At the other extreme is the full rigid-bottom (RIB) inflatable with a fiberglass or sometimes metal hull and inflatable tubes above—stiff, and therefore fast; expensive, heavy to carry, not really…