Actual weight of West Marine's RU-3 Hypalon dinghy?

[bajadave]

I'm looking for a very small dinghy for my Precision 23. I live in Baja, where the sun is harsh, and prefer hypalon. My last PVC boat was christened "Pigpen" after the PVC melted and it became permanently coated in dirt.

West Marine sells a reasonably priced RU-3 Hypalon boat at 8'5" long. But it's listed at 97 pounds on the website. I will be lifting it over the lifelines and carrying it around myself - so weight is important. The very similar PRU-3 PVC version is only 53 pounds. A similar Hypalon boat LS4-RU from Achilles is 66 pounds.

I'm having trouble believing that the actual weight is 97 pounds on the RU-3 Hypalon. Does anyone have one and know the actual weight?

I did call West Marine online, and they said "That's what Zodiac tells us." Then I called one of the stores, he looked up the shipping weight for each one - the PRU-3 comes in at 87 pounds, and the RU-3 comes in at 97 pounds. That includes box, pump, manual, repair kit. They have nearly identical "Packaged size" dimensions.

He decided on the phone that the published weight for the PRU-3 is wrong (by 34 pounds!), and the published weight for the RU-3 Hypalon is right.

[donradcliffe]

If WMP can't get their act together, buy the LS4-RU.