Couple thought they'd gotten deal of a lifetime after buying two boats for $6,000 each from Alibaba, but then they saw what arrived
Published on Oct 16, 2025 at 12:17 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Oct 16, 2025 at 2:17 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Mason Jones
Blaine and Janis, who live aboard their yacht Tangaroa, bought two 15-foot boats from Alibaba.
They needed these two watercraft because ‘when you live on a boat, a dinghy is your car’, as Janice put it.
These two dinghies were cheap, so they looked like a good deal.
But the couple found out the hard way they were actually not that good.
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Why they needed the Alibaba boats
Blaine and Janis have been living on their yacht Tangaroa for over a year, documenting their life at sea on their YouTube channel, Onboard Tangaroa – The Never-Ending Sea Trial.
They found the abandoned yacht a while back, restored it, and now they’re using it to travel the globe.
They actually said they never want to live on land again.
The problem is that living on a boat comes with challenges.
As Janis explained in the video, they needed two buy two dinghies to overcome some of those challenges.
“When you live on a boat, your dinghy is your car. You need it to go get groceries,” Janis said in the video.
So they bought two small dinghies from AliBaba.
It didn’t go well.
There’s a reason why they were cheap
Enticed by the low price tag – $12,000 in total – the Tangaroa couple bought two 15-foot inflatable dinghies.
They looked simple, but useful.
But they weren’t.
The couple said the dinghies were poorly built, worse than advertised, and they started breaking down pretty much immediately.
They had engine problems of various nature, they were even slower than expected, and they were actually not economical.
Mostly because there’s no point saving money when you buy them if you then need to fork out a fortune to maintain them and repair them.
In the end, they learned the lesson, got rid of the bad dinghies and bought two good ones.
“You learn, but it cost time, stress, and money on a never-ending sea trial,” Janis concluded.
