You've seen the image in galleries and in fancy maritime calendars. It's an idyllic photo or painting depicting a dinghy dock somewhere in New England, boasting so many pretty, sharpprowed little boats that the water is all but obscured.

These classic wooden skiffs and their fiberglass descendants are still with us, particularly in New England waters, but despite their durability and nostalgic appeal, they are the least perfect of tenders available for cruisers today.

Hard dinghies, as they are now called, continue to serve boaters in areas where big boats lie on moorings and their masters row out from shore, leaving the 10-foot dinghy attached to the mooring while the big boat is out tooling around. When it's time for a fair-weather Down East cruise, the dinghy gets towed behind.

ZODIAC was one of the pioneer of inflatable designs. The Cadet FR 340, shown here, was a NMMA Innovation Award winner. Zodiac, www.zodiacmarineusa.com.

AVON Bigger tenders seem to be a new trend. Avon's 19- footer Seasport 580 Deluxe is the largest in the company's range. Avon, www.avoninflatables.co.uk.

AB The most recent model from AB is the Nautilus 17. It features a one-piece deck, and fiberglass deep-V hull with a raised bow. AB, www.abinflatables.com.

WALKER BAY The Genesis hull design uses the company's High Impact Marine Composite construction. Models range from 8 to 10 feet. Walker Bay, www.walkerbaygenesis.com

And that's fine because it's only on temporary duty as a tender. It's a perfect little skiff for rowing with perhaps a single passenger on the aft bench, but multiple trips are required to transport two couples or mom and the kids. Boats with pointed bows showed their instability when anyone tried to board forward of the beam, and it was always challenging for one person to operate an outboard without a second body as counter-balance to keep from swamping.

The pram design with transoms at both ends was an improvement in stability but, of course, does not row as well. Some modern versions of the pram in fiberglass and molded plastic have a "W" shaped cross-section that further enhances stability by distributing volume outboard and makes for better tracking when towing at speed. The plastic variety has the added benefit of being very light in weight. None of these refinements, however, outweigh the disadvantages as tender to a normal cruising complement of two to four people.

(Alas, speaking of weight, part of the demise of the hard dinghy surely must be due to the fact that we are getting softer. Since the 1950s, the average American has gained a couple dozen extra pounds, effectively diminishing precious freeboard in the hard dinghies.)

The ideal cruising tender is tough, stable, portable, has the capacity to carry everyone on board and goes fast enough. In the category of toughness, the hard boats win, and that's why there will always be some lean and mean cruisers who continue to keep them in service and even row them.

For the most part, however, the best tenders are the inflatables, a military innovation spawned during World War II. Their flotation chambers are encapsulated by rugged modern materials such as Hypalon or PVC, but no one would claim these are proof against a coral outcropping or a rusty hunk of rebar on a Third- World wharf.

Their inherent vulnerability aside, inflatables are prized by cruisers for their other attributes���stability, load capacity, portability and speed.

Anyone who���s been to George Town or other Bahamas cruising destinations has witnessed cruising couples moving about the harbor standing upright in their inflatables, bouncing along at speed. He has the outboard tiller in his hand; she stands in front with the painter taut in hers. Many cruisers prefer ���George Town sex��� because in choppy water, inflatables tend to ship more spray than a hard boat, and they���d rather get their bare knees wet than their clothed parts.

The point is: They can. The inherent stability of a blow-up boat means that it takes a big breaking wave or willful effort by the crew to overturn one. Boarding and loading is easier, and the rubberized, inflated tubes are easy on the gelcoat and silent against the hull. Even a small, 10-foot inflatable can carry four adults��� yes, even today���s supersized models.

Ten- to 12-foot inflatables are the coin of the cruising realm because they are wonderfully portable. Deflated, folded and bagged with all gear inside, a ten-footer can be stowed in a space barely 3-by 3- by 1 foot in size. Inflated, they suspend easily from stern davits or can be hauled onto a foredeck. One of the simplest ways to haul an inflatable is to hoist it aboard the swim platform and lash it against the transom.

Credit the folks at Pearson Yachts for cruising savvy. When they developed the True North series of power cruisers, they designed the boat's ample transom to hinge fully open, allowing an inflatable to be hauled into the cockpit, fully inflated and ready for launch at the slightest whim.

If rowing is important, choose your inflatable carefully. Most include oars that are too short and flimsy plastic oar locks. Avon boats still feature beefy rubber oar locks, which you can use with conventional oars of your choice. Most bigger inflatables abandon entirely the notion of rowing and include a couple of emergency paddles, which strap to the inside of the tubes.

Early inflatables tended to buckle in a chop, but manufacturers developed a variety of solid floor inserts that stiffen the boats and mitigate this tendency, including an inflatable keel section that gives the bow an "M" shape, for better tracking under tow. Other innovations include solid transom mounts for the outboards and tubes that extend well aft of the transoms, resulting in boats suited for an enormous outboard horsepower in relation to their size. Which brings us to speed. The ideal tender is one that goes fast enough.

Obviously, this is a relative term. Some folks are happy with an economical puttputt for their twice daily run to the beach with the family dog; others need to zip around the harbor like Mad Max. In general, however, the slower the mother vessel the better it is to have a fast tender; this specifically refers to trawlers. A fast tender allows the boater to choose his anchorage, based not on proximity to the marina or shoreside amenities, but on its aesthetic merits, privacy, best holding ground, and such, while maintaining fast access to land.

The greatest inflatable innovation regarding speed, of course, is the rigid bottom. By attaching a V-shaped fiberglass bottom to the inflatable tubes, manufacturers eliminated entirely any tendency to buckle. The sharp "V" forward moderating as it sweeps aftward should be a joy to tow. Combine that shape with a small center console and 25 or more horses, and the result is huge performance in a boat as small as 12 feet.

RIBs, as they are called, sacrificed portability (though smaller models still pack up into something shaped like a fat surfboard). Despite their towing design, RIBs are more likely to be found suspended from stern davits or chalked on the foredeck or atop the house, from which it is deployed from a beefy electric davit. Stern lifts from companies such as Freedom Lift and TNT tackle this obstacle, and make this a non-issue. (Check "How 'Bout A Lift," in our archives on www.boatdigest.com)

A big RIB is the tender of choice among the owners of trawlers, convertibles, express cruisers, on up to megayachts, with the latter looking like something from a Navy SEAL wish list. Megayachts often stow their tenders inside, hauled in through openings in the stern and sealed away until needed–a process that invites a host of crass dockside commentary.

Meanwhile, the sportfish crowd has its own way of thinking, and it's retro thinking at that. These guys never forgot the art of towing and they're not afraid to. It's not unusual to see a 60-footer towing a hardbottom center console of 18 to 20 feet on bridle and long tow. This arrangement gives them terrific flexibility to fish and move about the islands in general.

You get the picture: Your choice of tender involves multiple compromises. No tender is perfect. Evaluate your cruising style and foresee how you will really be using your ship's little boat; how you will stow or carry it; how you get aboard it; how fast or far it will need to go.Weigh the compromises carefully. Ultimately, it may be the most important equipment decision you make.