What do you want to use it for, and how big?

I've got an inflatable dinghy (now on its last legs) that lasted 20 years, but made by Zodiac out of top quality fabric.  You can buy cheap chinese made inflatables that will fall apart/rot in the sun quickly, roto-moulded plastic dinghies, inflatables with flat floors, with rigid inflatable floors, with solid floors with inflatable keels, or with rigid aluminium or fibreglass floors.  You could DIY a dinghy out of ply, or make something as a work of art out of kauri.  Or then there's the fairly standard aluminium "tinny".

Everything with boating is a bucket full of compromises, so to find the best compromise you first need to define your needs and ask the right question.

Most inflatable dinghies are horrible to row due to hull shape, the rowlocks are attached to the tubes and wobble and the tubes get in the way, and the seats never seem to be in the right position.  They are great (usually) to get on and off, more stable so clumsy people far less likely to tip everyone in the drink when getting on or off.

A tinny should do the trick, they're light-weight/easy to carry but they're ugly and noisy.  Rotomoulded plastic (ie Macboats) are basically zero maintenance, but a 4 seater is heavy (138kg) http://macboats.co.nz/mac-370-clinker-cutter/ (I quite like that one - except for the weight - you'd really need to get or make a wheeled dolly to get it to/from the lakefront).  Ply is probably the lightest option apart from aluminium or inflatable, but they need maintenance / tlc.

I also like small outboards - 4 stroke - but not with air-cooling (some small hondas - very noisy) and not without a gear lever to put them in neutral.  I've got a small Suzuki 2.5, pretty cheaply made, but pushes an inflatable with 4 people on it fine without being very loud / revving hard, on a decently shaped dinghy on flat water it'd be even better, and on fresh water you don't need to bother with flushing it after use, it uses very little fuel and any left over can be used in a car, probably weighs about 12kg so easy to lug around.  I just noticed the page for the macboat has a photo with the same outboard fitted.

If you want a simple dingy to row on a calm lake, I would get a set of plans and build one out of plywood.

Lots of free plans on the internet.

For 5 people you need about 3.5m. Something that size you need a trailer to move it. If you want a top quality row boat then a Putney made by Laver Marine would do. You can often find one or two on Trade Me. They're GRP which is maintenance-free but a bit heavy. While that makes it harder to move on land it probably improves the rowing qualities.

i negotiated an 80s fibreglass hull 8.5ft that has been recently repainted. unable to view in person though that can be arranged with a small bit of hassle but doable.

says can be rowed, sailed or powered, though i don't see any rings to put oars through in the pics.

any gotchas from something like this?

Probably a Seabird 2.6 - nice little boats although that is too small to be very useful.  The 3.2 is a good compromise, the 3.8 more capable but quite a lot heavier for launching etc

shk292:

 

Probably a Seabird 2.6 - nice little boats although that is too small to be very useful.  The 3.2 is a good compromise, the 3.8 more capable but quite a lot heavier for launching etc

 

thanks. i understand your concern. i don't plan to take it to the middle of the lake, just around the lagoon.