We're in the Pacific Northwest, and I've never seen the need for the tender to have a Bimini. We like to do "extreme beachcombing", accessing beaches no one can walk to, and circumnavigating some of the small islands we visit, out exploring for hours. Sun hats or rain hats, depending.
Our first dinghy was a used older 10' Zodiac with an inflatable keel and wood floor. I loved the stability, capacity, and light weight, but the PVC material was at end of life and I was chasing the water leaking in and the air leaking out for the last year or two we had it. One of the last trips we took with it, I remember we were bailing with a little plastic pail and at the same time pumping up a leaking tube.
We kept it on the swim step on weaver davits, and pulled it up onto the swim step with a line. We powered it with a 1967 6 HP Johnson. Using the weaver davits required us to remove and replace the outboard each time. Pros - light weight. Cons - bad material with short life, no rigid hull in the Pacific Northwest get razor cuts in fabric from sharp rocks and barnacles.
Our second was a Livingston hard shell that we really liked. It was good and stable, and no chance of leak. A little heavy, we tipped it up onto the swim step on weaver davits, pulling it up by hand via a line. We used the same outboard and removed and replaced it each time we deployed the dink.
Pros - hard shell = no leaks, Livingston = stable; Cons - heavy, slow - mechanical assisted davits would have helped.
Our current dink came with our trawler - its a 10.5 ft Avon 310 Hypalon RIB. I absolutely love it. Its fast if we need it, good stability and capacity, and Hypalon has good longevity and repairability.
We have a 15 HP Yahama 2 cycle on it. Both the dinghy and outboard are too heavy to pull up by hand; the boat came with a hand cranked davit system from Seawise, which I love. It's quick, very easy, and we are able to leave the outboard and fuel tank mounted in the dinghy. The Seawise system brings the outboard up off the swim step, and we can then do a fresh water flush on it when we are done with it each trip. Pros - Hypalon is great material, rigid hull more durable on beaches with sharp stuff, rigid hull fast; Cons - very heavy - mechanical or power assisted davit required.
Note - the Avon is very dirty in this pic, it was the second day we owned it. We've since cleaned it up. The smudging on the port side of the tubes is exhaust residue. We are exploring adding a crane davit and storing on the aft cabin top.
Hope this helps,
David