Dinghy Storage - Part II

Paul F · Feb 18, 2013

I use the main halyard to hoist the dinghy on board. Had a hard 8' sandpiper which would likely be heavier than your 6'. It was no trouble at all. Made up a rope rigging with two lines from the back of the dinghy and one with a "Y" tie in front to go over both sides of the front hull when upside down. These were long lines tied together in a loop at the center balance point. Then clipped to the main halyard and pulled on board. Usually did it my self but it is easier with two. The problem with storage on-board is that the dinghy obstructs the forward view.
We do not bring a dinghy along unless we are cruising. We swim ashore if need be, normally the dinghy is not on the boat. Would suggest one of the lighter plastic kayaks for the cooler water in your area.

Paul F · Feb 18, 2013

Picked the dinghy up from the forward side of the boat. Either side was the same. Yes used the winch to pull it up over the life lines. The PVC, plastic nature of the dinghy was easy on the sides of the boat. Never any damage. Give it a try I think the method I used will work for you. However, the extra spinnaker halyard should work as well, maybe better. Can you tie it off after the dinghy is at the right hight? If so, it is fairly easy to then move it over to where you store it and flip the dinghy over. this is where the "Y" tie at the front comes in and holds the dinghy upside down until you are ready to lower it on deck.

onecoolair · Feb 18, 2013

Are you at a concrete floating dock marina or an older fixed wooden dock design? Most Marinas I know of that have concrete floating docks allow for in the water dingy float dock in the front of your boat in the slip. You just have to keep it in good condition and not and eye sore. The walker could then be stored up side down on top of float and with a good sunbrella cover to keep it looking nice. I have davits but do not leave dingy hanging off the davits all the time. My caribe 10' lays on top of floating dingy dock in front of my boat. I have a dingy cover that also allows me to use cover even while hanging on the ships davits.
Okay heres another idea...Have you seen how some power boats have there dingy tipped up on its side on the rear transom. Well you you could basically do do same on your sail boat. You could depending your boats transom design. Just keep it simple and on the cheap at first try this tie webbing to your rear stern railing base, slide straps under dingy and then try flipping dingy up on its side against rear of transom. See if this works for you. Now if your transom is of the newer popular swim transom design you can up grade to brackets that are made just for this.

Tom J · Feb 18, 2013

What is your 6' Walker Bay made of? My 8' Walker Bay is plastic and weighs about 71 lbs. without the inflatable collar. It winches up easily with the spare jib halyard, even with the collar installed.

sailor420 · Feb 18, 2013

Instead of having the halyard run under the mast cleat, attach a block on short piece of line to the cleat and run the halyard through it to the car. That would certainly cut out a lot of friction.

Tom J · Feb 18, 2013

Doug, my jib halyard runs down the inside of the mast to a turning block at the base of the mast, and then through a deck sheave to a clutch and winch next to the companionway. You could use a snatch block (with a quick release) on the mast cleat, just as sailor420 describes, to make the winching forces much more reasonable, or mount a turning block at the base of the mast for a more permanent solution.

Bill Roosa · Feb 18, 2013

You really need some sort of mechanical advantage when you get to pulling down on a rope that has more than 1/3 your weight. A gun tackle with the upper block attached to the halyard and the lower attached to a three point bridal (2 aft and 1 forward). Hoist the halyard with upper block above the highest point you will need to raise the dingy. Take the lower block to the bridal. Hoist away (on the gun tackle not the halyard) till the dingy is above the life lines. Tie off the tackle and swing it inboard (I prefer the jib or spinnaker as the boom does not get in the way). Flip it in the bridal and lower to the deck. Reverse to launch and don't forget the painter.

Or attach the halyard to the bow eye and let the First Mate hit the electric winch. I use the latter much more often as it allows the dingy to be placed right where I want with little fuss and the First Mate is quiet handy with surging a winch.

Snowling · Feb 19, 2013

Dinghy Storage

We hang our 11 foot dinghy with hard bottom from garage ceiling and hoist it with pulleys

YVRguy said:
I posted a thread on this some time ago but a month later I am still struggling. My buddy and I have a 6ft. Walker Bay dinghy. Our marina has no storage facilities for it and they insist that it not be left in the water. I thought it would be a simple matter of using the spinnaker halyard to haul it off and on the deck but the dinghy has proved much to heavy. When we tried to winch it I thought something was going to break. We are now playing around with a block and tackle but this all seems way more complicated than it should be. So my questions are:

- Should you be able to easily winch a 6ft. hard dinghy on to your deck without a block and and tackle? If so, how do you rig the lines so as not to put undue pressure on anything?

- Do most of you use a dinghy even if you're not planning to row ashore? (I'm wondering whether we should just put it in storage somewhere until we plan a long trip)

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Ken Cross · Feb 19, 2013

We do ours a bit differently

Since we don't use the dinghy much we have a light weight vinyl boat with an outboard mount.
To stow it we remove the outboard mount and deflate the dinghy. It goes in a bag tied on the bow (low enough to not interfere with the headsail.) It inflates to 10 feet 6. The little Honda 2 horse hangs on the aft rail. we carry a 12 volt toy inflator and a manual pump to finish the job (more pressure.) Start to finish it does take about 10 minutes to inflate or stow it.

Jerry Clark H356 SV Persi · Feb 19, 2013

Not going to break!

You should use your cabin top winches and your spinnaker halyard. Your Walker bay is too light to break anything on the mast as long as your spinnaker halyard is not damaged. If you could break your mast with the weight of a walker Bay, you would dismast your boat in a very light wind! Just keep the dinghy off the sides with your Buddy pushing it out and winch it up. It will be in your visibility, but when you go out sailing, just lower it into the water and tow if the visibility on the front deck is too limited.

I use this technique on my Avon that weighs 66 lbs. My boat neighbor in a 356 uses the same technique with his Walker Bay. Your boat is much stronger than you give it credit!

ROBERT9907 · Feb 19, 2013

Take A Look

Side mount for dink works well enough for a weeklong cruise in the gulf and keep dink out of the way while docking. Two lines attached to the dink gunnel and to the cleat and winch on boat provide a VERYstable mount for getting in and out. A line on the starboard side of
the dink is used to raise, lower and tie off the dink. Plastic boat weighs about 70 pounds
(8' SANDPIPER). Proved to be faster than other catalina 22s pulling boats. Fenders keep
boat from rubbing topsides. Remember this is a catalina 22 so should work even better on
a larger boat.

toddbrsd · Feb 19, 2013

I had just finished refinishing my 8 ' sailing dinghy and did not want to leave it in the water, so I rigged up a Lift so that the dinghy hung from the stern.

One continuous line ran from the starboard cleat, under the dinghy, back up to a 4:1 purchase, down to the other end and under the dinghy and back up to the port cleat.

The ladder on the stern was lowered midway to act as a buffer between the dinghy and the transom. I already had an eyelet attached to the back stay that was originally used to hold up the boom when not in use. This made for a convenient attachment point for the purchase.

I used foam noodles to protect the bottom paint of the dinghy. I never left it hanging from the boat when I went out, but it took me about 1 minute to load and unload the dinghy. The marina I am in allows for a 4 foot overhang in the slip, so it worked out.

Merlin Clark · Feb 19, 2013

I have a Water Tender dinghy which is also made of plastic and rain water can get into the space between the hull and liner through the hull to deck joint if it's left right side up.
If your Walker Bay is too heavy to lift with a halyard it might have taken on some h2o.

waternwaves · Feb 19, 2013

interesting,

if the dinghy was hanging off the back of the boat you would be charged for a slip with sufficient length

if the dinghy is tied to the front of the boat during storage, it is narrower than the taper of the hull. and does not extend past the front of the boat. IF you had a trawler, you would be covering more of the slip than a sailboat with dinghy.

In BC you pay for the slip, not the shape of the boat. merely its overall size and width.

I would be looking carefully at the exact contract wording of what you are leasing,

PErhaps identifying the subject marina might bring to light the specific chapter and verse in the regulations where a boat and its contents which fit within the listed overall slip size is not allowed. The dinghy is as much a part of the boat as the davits, bowsprits, boarding ladders and the like.

Preferences and what a marina is licensed to are two separate things of course, and I am sure that "red dock" " government dock" mooring practices are discouraged, But I wonder if the private marina has formalized this in published regulations,

AND ,
A little birdie told me in BC, any vessel structures are considered part of the vessel. A rigid two bar or three pole bridle tied to a hardpoint on the hull clipped to the dinghy pretty much meets that requirement. (you will find numerous fishing vessels in BC with tenders rigidly attached and their hulls)

I found clipping the dink harnass bar to the anchor roller easily fits within my slip

rocksculpter · Feb 19, 2013

Another way

Here's a bit of a twist to all the comments. You should have a bridle so you can lift the boat level. I use a fwd halyard but it would work with the main. I tie off the halyard so I have enough room for a hoist between the bridle and the halyard. I started with my 4:1 vang but needed 10:1 to make it easy. From the side of the boat I can lift the 110 pound dinghy. One hand on the vang and the other to guide the dinghy over the rail and swing it around to the fordeck. The cam cleat is pretty easy to work with just a flick of the wrist. I made a pvc support on my sampson post for the front and the aft sits on the cabin top. Cover or pull the drain plug. The whole thing takes but a couple of minutes.

Barry

Dinghy Storage - Part II

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