Comes down to how one is expect to use the boat. Many boats are designed for sailing and marina queens. Not enough tankage, little stowage room and lots of "living room". Others are designed to be sailed with little real thought of the interior design. Who the designer is pleasing I don't know. Then there are those Living aboard but only dreamin and not going far and lastly two kinds of cruisers, those who do weekend and holiday trips and those that travel distances and live aboard. All have different needs.

We wanted to go back to Colombia and get a Jungle Gym last year but could get the details together in Colombia to make a go. Thus not yet any Jungle Gym. Designers would do well to show drawing of how a Jungle gym and or a dinghy relates to their boat; IMHO. They won't maybe because either the personally don't like them or the builder doesn't want them. Some look ok, others look god awful.

But for us, after living aboard and crusing for 5 years we see it now as a necessary convience. It's much, MUCH easier to haul a dinghy up on davits for a daysail. Reserving the right to haul it on deck for offshore passages. But then the temp will be there to just leave it on the davits! Not a good idea. And too the dinghy must then be able to still fit on deck and work around it.

We've been through 3 dinghies already. First was way to large. The second on; even though I could easily store it below on my 32 foot boat, I can't find a good place to store it on this boat. We had a Dyer that we hauled up and carried upside down on the aft cabin. She fit beautifully but for some of what we like to do did not work out. Very, very difficult to dive from it. Traveling any distance with most any water was wet, rowing any distance was an overnight job , and carrying more then 2 people made it necessary to hold our breath hoping that no boat would power by leaving us with a wake and water in the boat. It is not self bailing no matter how fast you row.

As distances to harbors and towns increase as one leaves the packed NE US the desire to move farther and faster; while the opposite of sailing, increases. And so if one gets any distance from the US the vast majority of dinghys you see are 8-10' ribs with 10-15 hp motors. There is a reason for that and it is not keeping up with the Jones! It's that life is much easier with that type of car then not.

Ciao