Dinghy best practices

[zinahewitt]

Hi all,

Hope your week is going well.
I bought a dinghy so I can reach the shore from a mooring ball. At least that is the goal.
Avon R3-10

As far as I know the Marina allows me to store the dinghy at my slip.
They give you a contraption that sits at the triangle near the dock.
You can put the dinghy on it.

1. Do you just flip it, tarp the dinghy and tie it ? or should I make a proper cover for it from sunbrella or something ?

2. When towing it, do you take three lines and make bridle ? anything you recommend ?

3. I assume I should add some float to prevent the line getting sucked by my prop ?

4. Is there a rule as to how far back to tow the dinghy from the sailboat ?

5. Besides varnishing the wood which I am good at, any recommendation for taking care of the Plastic ?


Thank you

 

[SFS]

You will probably get lots of thoughts on this, but here is my take. We started with an inflatable, and quickly changed to something else. However, while we had it (on a Hunter 31, with an angled transom) we just pulled the inflatable as high up on the transom as we could, and secured it. MUCH less drag that way, and less stress on lines and cleats. Perhaps the bottom 20% of the length was still in the water.

...1. Do you just flip it, tarp the dinghy and tie it ? or should I make a proper cover for it from sunbrella or something ? I would flip it, tarp it, and tie it. The tarp (I suggest an inexpensive one from Harbor Freight) will give it some UV protection, until the sun eats the tarp. Sunbrella is kind of expensive, compared to a $4 tarp. You may want to tie down the dinghy, cover it, then tie down the cover. That way the dinghy is sort of tied down twice.

2. When towing it, do you take three lines and make bridle ? anything you recommend ? I wouldn't tow it, an inflatable has a lot of drag. But if you must, I would use a bridle, it lessens the stress on the attaching point on the dinghy.

There are threads on this site about creative ways to carry an inflatable on a standard transom without using davits. If I can find them, I will edit this response.

3. I assume I should add some float to prevent the line getting sucked by my prop ? Take a different approach. Buy floating line, preferably in a high visibility color (ours was yellow, and inexpensive nylon, but oversized for extra safety margin).

4. Is there a rule as to how far back to tow the dinghy from the sailboat ? I have no opinion on this. There is a rule of thumb but I've forgotten it. Something about just below the crest of the second wave back in the wake, but I guess that is for powerboats. Note that there are at least two disadvantages to a longer towline: a) it can take a longer time to retrieve if you need it in a hurry; and b) in crowded areas, you don't want so much room that an unobservant boater can cut between your stern and the dinghy.

5. Besides varnishing the wood which I am good at, any recommendation for taking care of the Plastic ? I would do a Google search. There are coatings you paint on the tube material to gain some protection, but you have to buy the right product for your dinghy material (Hypalon, etc). The manufacturer may be able to suggest something.
...

There are also threads here about towing dinghies. You may want to search for them as well.
Good luck. I'm sure others will chime in.

 

[east coaster]

Have a 10 ft dinghy, air floor and 6 HP tohatsu . When I tow I do haul it up on the transom as high as possible, motor is not removed but raised up out of water. To ensure an equal strain on the dinghy while being towed, I run a bridle from the after hand holds outboard to and through the two front rings on each side at the bow then to a cleat on the stern. A security line is attached to the centre bow ring and with a little slack is attached to different cleat. Has worked very well for me for a few years, doesn't get in the way when manoeuvering the boat and little risk of having any floating lines mess up my propellor.

 

[shemandr]

I towed mine - a hard pram - about three waves back from the transom. More specifically, on the front face of the third wave , so that I wasn't fighting gravity.
Yes I used a bridle and if you use floating line prop entanglements aren't a problem.
The H356 had a scoop transom and I know others pulled the dink up sideways on it but I didn't want to do that because it cut off the access to the swim plateform and those rear lazarettos. Also that would cut off access to a dock from the transom. Stopping for a swim was not unheard of for us.
We did take the engine off. There was no external fuel tank but I did keep a 1 gallon plastic fuel container aboard the dink. Whatever fuel you have on the dink should be tightly closed to avoid a spill in case of swamping.
We only had 2 stampings in 20 years of cruising. One was a large powerboat wake and the other was a tremendous rain event.

 

[ggrizzard]

Stampings???

Were they "cancelled"?

 

[higgs]

While towing my inflatable I NEVER left the engine on. It did flip on me in rough conditions. I agree with the practice of bringing the bow up onto the transom.

 

[east coaster]

I believe he means "swampings".

 

[shemandr]

I corrected that twice but spell check was determined to use “Stampings.”