Cart before the horse

Kermit · Jul 22, 2015

Brian D said:
But I wonder if I could actually tow my boat with my dinghy and its 2.5hp motor. What say you?

Confucius say, "Try it and let us know!"

whatfiero · Jul 22, 2015

Brian D said:
Ah... I think a few heads just turned with the ole... "what?"

Yep, I am sure a lot of us have pulled our dinghy behind our boats when we were out cruising. looks cool and to some, it might even be a badge of courage. However...

Have you ever towed your boat with your dinghy? Wonder who has and what the reason was. I know I have been towed by SeaTow to get into my slip after my outboard died. But I wonder if I could actually tow my boat with my dinghy and its 2.5hp motor.

What say you?

O yea your dink will pull your sailboat just make sure someone on board to steer dink won't be able direct sailboat once you get it going foward

justsomeguy · Jul 22, 2015

What Kermit said. Just don't foul your prop, m'kay?

woodster · Jul 22, 2015

why not just put the 2.5 outboard on the swim ladder and push the boat while you steer from the cockpit

Kermit · Jul 22, 2015

woodster said:
why not just put the 2.5 outboard on the swim ladder and push the boat while you steer from the cockpit

Foul, foul, foul. You committed a foul. He doesn't want to know if it'll push it. He wants to know if it'll pull it! 30 seconds in the penalty box for you!

woodster · Jul 22, 2015

Kermit said:
Foul, foul, foul. You committed a foul. He doesn't want to know if it'll push it. He wants to know if it'll pull it! 30 seconds in the penalty box for you!

well just put it in reverse Kermit...there is no seats in the penalty box

Kermit · Jul 22, 2015

woodster said:
well just put it in reverse Kermit...there is no seats in the penalty box

You're so precious!

jibes138 · Jul 22, 2015

I wouldn't try to pull it with a dinghy. Try tying it alongside the boat and using it to push the boat along while steering with the sailboat.

Delezynski · Jul 22, 2015

At risk for banishment to the penalty box....

We were out on San Francisco bay soon after we arrived there back mid 90's. New to us was a long channel from our slip to open bay water. Before that we had a slip we could sail into and out of on a lake.

We were up the bay, sailing nicely, heading to an anchorage we liked. I started the engine to get a small push. It ran for about 2 min, then died!

I thought I had a clogged fuel filter (no vacuum gauge yet), so went below and pumped the bulb I had put in the fuel line. It started and ran for a short time then died again. Jill asked when I had last fueled, I sad not long ago. She said, "check it!" Only had a dip stick at the time, so opened the small cap and dropped the wooden dowel in, ... ..... THUMP .... it hit the bottom of the tank

So, set up the Portaboat, Put the British Seagull (what I had at the time) on it. Secured it tight to the starboard aft of the boat. I handled the dink & motor, Jill took the tiller and we went across the bay to a fuel dock. Worked GREAT! But the weather was not bad.

Addendum; looked in the log book, it had been, almost to the day, 2 years since I had fueled the boat.

:naughty:

:naughty:

Greg

Allan12210 · Jul 22, 2015

Brian D said:
Ah... I think a few heads just turned with the ole... "what?"

Yep, I am sure a lot of us have pulled our dinghy behind our boats when we were out cruising. looks cool and to some, it might even be a badge of courage. However...

Have you ever towed your boat with your dinghy? Wonder who has and what the reason was. I know I have been towed by SeaTow to get into my slip after my outboard died. But I wonder if I could actually tow my boat with my dinghy and its 2.5hp motor.

What say you?

Once when we ran out of fuel I tried to tow with the 5 hp dinghy. Big disaster. The dinghy had a mind of its own, oscillating all over the place regardless of the direction the motor was pointed. Luckily my friend in a big power boat came by and took over the tow. He just sling shot us to the fuel dock.

The next time when the exhaust manifold fell off the back of the engine I was ready. We tied the dignhy to the starboard side. One line went to the winch and around the motor. The painter went to the midship cleat. I started the outboard and locked it at straight ahead running at 3/4 throttle. We made 3.8 knots and controlled the big boat from the helm. It works fine that way.

Its the same principal as pulling the plug from the wall socket. You can pull the plug by holding the electrical cord, but you can't put it back in that way.

Calif. Ted · Jul 22, 2015

why not just put the 2.5 outboard on the swim ladder and push the boat while you steer from the cockpit

I did that once, 2 hp Honda lashed to the swim ladder of a C270 lowered to horizontal position. Dead calm, middle of the night, raining, in the harbor, took a long time for the boat to start moving. Achieved a speed approaching 3 knots at WOT towards the end of the 1/2 mile run.

Meriachee · Jul 22, 2015

Calif. Ted said:
I did that once, 2 hp Honda lashed to the swim ladder of a C270 lowered to horizontal position. Dead calm, middle of the night, raining, in the harbor, took a long time for the boat to start moving. Achieved a speed approaching 3 knots at WOT towards the end of the 1/2 mile run.

That's obvious. The 270 doesn't like to be pushed around by anybody.

capta · Jul 22, 2015

I have moved a 65'gaff ketch of 32 tons quite successfully with a 10' Avon and a 5 hp Seagull outboard, however it was on the hip, not towing. Towing a large boat is extremely difficult with a light dinghy unless the helmsman on the bigger boat is telepathic.
I've moved numerous other vessels with dinghies of various sizes and with motors from 8 to 25 hp without any problems at all, again all on the hip, even in conditions which it didn't seem as though it would work. The secret is to make sure the prop on the dinghy is aft of the rudder of the big boat and it is securely tied alongside. You may only be able to turn one way efficiently, so plan what which side the dink needs to be on according to your docking needs. You can almost use the dink motor as a stern thruster when maneuvering or just run the dink straight ahead for long runs, using the bigger boat's helm to steer.

MattObjects · Jul 23, 2015

I've got an 8' inflatable dinghy with a 5 hp Honda outboard. I once tried using it to tow a 26' 5600 lb Grampian. No dice. The dinghy just turned back and forth in an arc at the end of the tow line rather than moving the bigger boat. Part of the problem was that there was no good way to attach the tow line amidships at the stern of the dinghy while keeping it out of the way of the dinghy's outboard. Even if I had made some kind of towing bridle though, I don't think it would have worked well.

But when I put the dinghy at the stern of the Grampian and started pushing her, the dinghy had no problem moving the bigger boat. We were just going a short distance (off of a "surprise" shoal) but for longer distances, I would have tied the dinghy to the side of the sailboat rather than trying to push from the stern.

A fellow at my yacht club took his 30' boat to the Bahamas only to have the diesel on the sailboat fail just past Norfolk on the return trip. He made it all the way home to the Northeast River (in the Upper Chesapeake Bay) with his dinghy lashed to his starboard side, outboard set at 3/4 throttle, steering from the helm of the sailboat.

31seahorse · Jul 23, 2015

Brian D said:
Ah... I think a few heads just turned with the ole... "what?"

Have you ever towed your boat with your dinghy?

Old PA Dutch saying (as spoken often by my Dad), "Could a man talk so dumb?"

Yes, I tried to pull a larger boat with an inflatable dink. No go. As mentioned in two posts the dinghy danced all over the place as the boat drifted or remained still. Either not enough hull in the water for the dinghy or not enough steady pull on the tow line to overcome the sailboat's inertia.

Whenever I move our sailboat by myself I always take the dink and its motor along. I have decided that a hip push might be my first effort to move the sailboat if it were necessary and the second effort would be to try the boarding ladder attachment. None of those would work as well as calling TowBoatUS! Those Captains have been very skilled each time I needed their help. (Yes, more often than I would have thought.)

rpwillia · Jul 23, 2015

With an engine?

Who needs a stinking engine?

When we had our old US27 we were out sailing one evening in late October/early November. Finished sailing and went to start the outboard and had nothing (water in the gas). Fortunately we were at slack tide with no wind and we happened to be towing our dinghy but it had no engine only oars. So I tied a line to the stern of the dinghy and to the bow of the US 27 and rowed us the 100 yards into the marina. I would row and give the boat a bit of momentum before the light dinghy would zip off in a different direction, line up and do it all over again. Wife was on the boat steering. I was a little tired when I got us back in. Best part was no one noticed us until I was almost back at our slip.

Ron20324 · Jul 24, 2015

MattObjects said:
... The dinghy just turned back and forth in an arc at the end of the tow line rather than moving the bigger boat. ...

I'm sure the problem is, in towing with a dinghy, when you motor forward, the stern of the dinghy lifts up, the bow plows into the water, you got no steering- all due to the height of the bow of the boat. A longer tow line MIGHT lessen this condition.

This thread has given me the idea to put a spare towing eye (like on trailer boats) on the bow of my 323. May never use it, but I can think of other uses for it- like securing the dinghy when waxing the hull.