mate you cant go wrong with a zodiac. very strong and robust. ive had lots of inflatables and never had any leaks or damage.

ive got a 2.3m dhuwest with a 5hp suzuki we use at mandurah in the canals and for crabbing i leave it on the in laws jetty in the elements and it still looks new and has no leaks now 3 years old.

cheers.

Hey there mate. I did a fair bit of research on inflatables before I bought mine about a year and a half ago. I've since sold it and bought a 4.1m tinny, but maybe I can offer some advice.

There are two main materials that roll-up type inflatables are made from - Hypalon and PVC (sometimes the manufacturers give their PVC material a fancy name). The Hypalon ones are a lot more expensive and more complex to repair but are generally tougher and longer lasting. However, the cheaper PVC ones are still amazingly tough and have a few advantages, including being relatively simple to repair (just a patch and some PVC glue - like an blow up mattress). The main thing that will kill the PVC material is sunlight, but as long as you are storing it out of the sun, it shouldn't be a problem and they will generally last 5-10 years depending on how often you use it and how you store it. They really are nothing like the blow up toy boats (sevylor, coleman etc), which I assume is what you have at the moment? 

Most (all?) of the cheap imported (from China) inflatables are made from PVC. There are quite a few local outfits importing these boats under various trade names. The quality does seem to vary - some of the guys just seem to import whatever the factory in China puts out and then sell it on, whilst others seem to have their own designs and specifications and work with the supplier in China to produce them. I'd advise you to go and see a few of them as it is quite obvious which ones are better when you look at them. Look at the seams, attachements (i.e. grab ropes and tow points etc) and ask about warranties as these also vary.

Probably the next most important thing to look at would be the deck. There are 3 main types of decks in roll up inflatables - slats, aluminium/wooden solid decks and airdecks. The slat type ones are no good in my opinion as you can't really stand up on them very well. The solid decks are very good for standing up and give good protection to the floor of the boat from sharp things (dropped knives, crabs etc) but add a lot of weight and bulk to the rolled up boat and can be really fiddly to put together (you really need to try before you buy), the airdecks provide a decent stable floor (a lot harder than you might think) and are fairly tough, but the main advantage is that they make setting the boat up a lot easier and faster.

Anyway, in the end I bought a 3.8m DhuWest inflatable with a solid aluminium deck. I got mine at the boat show, but I think one of the site sponsors (WaterWorld WA) is a dealer for them if you want to look at them. I found it to be a good quality boat for the short time that I owned it, and only sold it as it didn't really suit the type of fishing I wanted to do (trying to clip together the deck sections in the stinking heat up at Exmouth was too much for me). 

From memory, these are some of the main cheaper brands that I looked at:-

DhuWest

WestRibs

Dragon Marine

Aakron (on east cost but will ship)

Quicksilver

Aristocraft

Anyway, went on a bit there but feel free to ask if you need any more advice.

Just a note on the zodiac brand ones - their cheap range (forget the name) are also chinese made and PVC unlike the rest of their range which is made from Hypalon (I think)