A lot of my friends are getting into paddling with inflatable boards. I've been thinking about grabbing one for a while but reckon I might as well get something that'd take a sail and that I could launch off my sailboat. Anybody have experience here? Isthmus seems to carry a couple Starboard models and an 11' Fanatic, but not finding a whole lot of other discussion on them.

Except for the Starboard models where they add an actual sharp rail to the back part of the board, these are essentially the same inflatable stand up boards you can get from anybody and they add another shallow fin box where the daggerboard would go and a mast base inset for a screw-in base. I bought one from Chinook (they sold them for a short period of time) and it was very cheap (I think 699), and it was built like any other inflatable SUP with those added features. Its strictly a beginner board or toy where you can putter around with a sail attached, maybe teach a beginner. Strictly low performance. Inflatables are very sturdy, they bounce off hard surfaces. Without the rail they will never plane. If you want such a toy (they are great as my kids mostly paddle around on them) I'd search around for the cheapest one you can find, no-name is fine unless you want special performance features like railed edges. Simmer made an inexpensive model called Makana that I was going to get until I saw Chinook had them. Just looked up one on Amazon for 419, seems just like mine from Chinook.