We started cruising with an 8' Caribe roll up. It had fiberglass slats. We bought it used for $400 and loved it. It worked for us for the first 3 years we cruised the western caribbean and is still working fine for a friend that bought it from us for a hundred dollars. We "upgraded" to a 9' AB aluminum RIB. We had and still have a 2001 8 hp Tohatsu and were always able to get to all the good spearfishing/snorkeling sites, albeit a bit slower and maybe wetter than our friends with 11' & 15 horses. We didn't find it a problem. The biggest advantage to us for the rollup was that on passage or when we left the boat in a foreign country, we rolled it up and stowed the entire dinghy below on the quarterberth ... no dinghy on our foredeck made it easier to get to the bow with our slim side decks. And no problems with light fingers in third world countries ... they didn't like our dinghy -- there were too many RIBs to go steal! We loved it. Your results may vary.

Cheers! Jan