Dinghy for 310 Advice please

[Dreaming]

Hi Everyone,

I've taken a gander around the forums and the net and I couldn't find what I was looking for. I am sure that information on this is out there, but perhaps you folks might be able to access it more efficiently than me and help point me in the right direction.

I am currently in the market for a Dinghy for my 310. I am planning on living on a mooring ball and will be using the dink to get to and from shore in variable weather conditions with varying loads. (Laundry, Groceries, etc...)

I am pretty certain I want inflatable for ease of storage if needed and for weight concerns. But I am open to other opinions.

Secondly, I heard that an inflatable dinghy on davits on a 310 may add too much weight to the stern. However I like the idea of davits as an extra mounting system for something like solar panels. What do you think about Davits on a C310 and if you're not a fan, how would you suggest secring the dinghy for storage?

Again, your help, advice, and time is most appreciated.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

There are a number of different davit types and some need some custom fitting to match transoms. Some attach to or are partially supported by the stern rail, but you really need to know that the stern rail on your boat can support the weight of certain dinghies. Davits are very convenient and can allow you to carry a dinghy with little hassle in comparison to pulling them up on deck (taking deck space), or deflating and inflating them each time you wish to use them. Some things to think about is how fast you wish to go (a dinghy that will handle a larger outboard) and how many people or how much stuff do you want to carry in it. Consider these points......if you get a fully inflatable boat with a pull out, or roll up floor, they tend to be light and easier to stow on deck or deflate and stick in a bag (but you have to have a place to stow the bag). Make sure there is an inflatable keel or some sort of keel on the dinghy because a very flat bottom dinghy is very hard to row in a straight line. A keel makes it track better and it is not so squirrely rowing it. Very light dinghies can lack carrying capacity and can only handle a small outboard. I have seen people in more extreme situations trying to row against wind and waves and make little or no headway towards their vessel. It can be a lesson in futility. The same can be said with small outboards. You might get there, but not very fast and possibly not as fast as you wish in extreme situations. A larger dinghy with a larger outboard will carry more people and get you there faster. A fiberglass hull with an inflatable rid probably are the safest in bad situations and can hold more gear. Some will even plane which is nice if you have to motor a fairly long distance from an anchorage to your destination, for example. But, they tend to be heavy, not easily stowed. Most of the time they are either towed behind the boat (which is ok for short hops, but not necessarily passage making) or are put on davits, if the davits can handle the weight. There are other ways to strap on a dinghy and that would be with hooks that hold a dinghy in place sideways across the transom. Or some pull up a dinghy so that just the very rear end of it is dragging in the water and the rest of it is leaning against the transom. The outboard has to be removed in these cases and then put on a mount on the stern rail for safe keeping while not using it. Sometimes this is the case with davits too. Just to eliminate weight, you can remove the outboard. It all depends on how you wish to use your dinghy. I have used them to hunt for fish and lobster to spear, or conch to catch in which case you motor along for hours to scour the bottom with a glass bottomed bucket. A boat that is more robust is better for such tasks. Or, I have had to take dinghies to shore from an anchorage across some pretty bad cross winds at the opening of cuts through the reefs or rocks which are barriers between the ocean and the protected waters inside. A dinghy with more volume and a bit larger outboard is better than the very light craft. Inflatable dinghies are very buoyant and usually are not so susceptible to capsizing like a hard dinghy, although, I have seen some pretty well built hard dinghies that even have ballast in them (NW U.S. areas). Hope this gives you more insight than confusion.

 

[Witzend]

Here is what I have done, totes a 8.5 Mercury with Tohatsu 6hp. It does add weight to the stern causing even more wallow sailing in a following sea on your quarter. There are (2) Coleman 75W panels attached to a MPPT controller. Cheep panels, but have worked fine now keeping my batteries charged on our mooring for 4 seasons now. They use to be mounted on the bimini. I purchased the davits from Mark garhauer@garhauermarine.com he is great and customized them for no extra charge. The Dink and Motor from Defender.

 

[Dreaming]

Here is what I have done, totes a 8.5 Mercury with Tohatsu 6hp. It does add weight to the stern causing even more wallow sailing in a following sea on your quarter. There are (2) Coleman 75W panels attached to a MPPT controller. Cheep panels, but have worked fine now keeping my batteries charged on our mooring for 4 seasons now. They use to be mounted on the bimini. I purchased the davits from Mark garhauer@garhauermarine.com he is great and customized them for no extra charge. The Dink and Motor from Defender.

Thank you so much witzend! that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking at.

Could you tell me what size dinghy that is? And did you install the davits yourself? Do you remove the outboard when the dink is on the davits or do you have some kind of mount on the stern rails?

 

[Tom J]

I installed Mar-Tek davits and hang a Walker Bay 8 on them and mounted a 135W solar panel on top. The 3.3 HP Mercury OB usually sits on the stern rail, but we will occasionally hang the boat and motor just off the surface of the water at night, for security and to dry out the bottom of the dink. We have cruised quite a bit with this setup and are very happy with it. Next on the list is a Torqueedo electric OB.

 

[Dreaming]

I love the solar panel on the davits. But how does this set up handle in stronger winds? I feel like the wind would catch under there. But I guess its not really any different than a Bimini.

I was also considering Doing davits for the dink, but having a solbian solar set up on a bimini as maine sail had shown. But that may be a bit down the road yet... so the davit panel setup might be best.

 

[Witzend]

Thank you so much witzend! that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking at.

Could you tell me what size dinghy that is? And did you install the davits yourself? Do you remove the outboard when the dink is on the davits or do you have some kind of mount on the stern rails?

The Dink is a Mercury 280 RIB, the last of the true Hypalon, I paid $1950 for it from Defender.
You will notice a fair amount of lateral forces that are not accounted for in most Davit design. If you design with triangles as I did, it will stiffen it up considerable. The cross bars that are common in most designs do not provide (in my opin) proper lateral support. Also by making the distance between the two lift points of the ends of the Davits shorter than the lift points on your dink, this will act to stabilizes the side to side rocking. The lines will now be angled outward when pulled all the way up.
My setup is strong enough to run with the motor left on the dink for most common conditions found in the upper Chessy. If I were going off shore or know the weather is going to be rough I put the motor on the rail.

 

[Tom J]

I love the solar panel on the davits. But how does this set up handle in stronger winds? I feel like the wind would catch under there. But I guess its not really any different than a Bimini.

I was also considering Doing davits for the dink, but having a solbian solar set up on a bimini as maine sail had shown. But that may be a bit down the road yet... so the davit panel setup might be best.

My solar panel adjusts so the it can be angled forward or aft. When we sail, it remains horizontal, and we haven't had any adverse effects from wind. At anchor, we get a couple more hours of power per day by angling the panel. I like the davit location because there is no shadow on the panel, and it is out of harm's way.

 

[Dreaming]

My solar panel adjusts so the it can be angled forward or aft. When we sail, it remains horizontal, and we haven't had any adverse effects from wind. At anchor, we get a couple more hours of power per day by angling the panel. I like the davit location because there is no shadow on the panel, and it is out of harm's way.

So after reading around some other forums, cruisers who live on the hook and use their Dinks as often as I am planning to tend to go for RIBs. RIBs are of course more expensive, and heavier... But I can seem to find some fairly non expensive ones either used or on sale like the sale west marine is having right now on their Compact 310:

With the sale its $1500 for a nice new RIB.

Or I could get something like a Zodiac Zoom 260 with a wood floor for around $700 from defender.

The dink is gonna be a workhorse and see daily use carrying people and loads. So Im guessing most people will say a RIB. However, my concern with a RIB is that I will need a trailer to get it to the boat. Then... where do I put the trailer? I dont have a house or a garage to stow a trailer. so if I buy something with a trailer or something that needs a trailer Ill only really need the trailer once. Can I lash a deflated rib to the top of my honda?

Or do I need to borrow someones truck?

Thoughts?

 

[Tom J]

We like our little RIB for a lot of reasons. First, it is the right length. Anything over 8' would be too wide for the davits, and difficult to store on the foredeck. Like you, we don't have a house or garage, so we flip the dink over and store it on the foredeck for the winter, or if we are sailing in rough conditions. Second, it is light weight, about 73 lbs. without the collar. The inflatable collar is another 15 lbs. or so. By adding the collar, we almost doubled the carrying capacity of the boat. She'll handle 3 adults or 2 adults and a lot of gear. She also still rows nicely, unlike an inflatable.
We bought the Walker Bay at West Marine for $699 on sale, and the collar was about the same price. We installed the davits, solar panel and dinghy in the spring of 2010, and they have all served us well during our trip from Florida to Massachusetts that year, and during the summers we have lived aboard since.

 

[Dreaming]

So again, I'm curious: Did you guys install your own davits? Or did you pay to have a yard do it?

The stern of the 310 has a lot of curves and seems like it would provide a challenge for installing davits.

 

[Tom J]

I installed the davits myself. The base of the davits swivel, so they fit any angle of transom. The uprights clamp to the stern rail, and can be shimmed to fit. I was fortunate to have a dock behind the boat to aid in installation. The Mar-Teks came with the optional cross brace that required drilling into the ss tubing, and the dock was at just the right height to make this doable.

 

[JK_Boston_Catalina310]

We've decided to forgo the davits for our cruise to the Caribbean. Too many negatives without enough positives for us. I don't like the idea of that much weight in the air on the stern. From talking to cruisers they are not as convenient as they seem and you still spend a fair amount of time fussing with them to get out on the dingy. With the dog we use our dink too much for it to be inconvenient to launch and use. If we are sailing in rough seas we would rather have it on deck anyways. blah, blah, blah

We decided to go with a light weight aluminum RIB in the 8.5 foot range. Still working on finding the right one. We might go with a Dinghy-Tow style system but haven't fully decided yet. My thought is to make a dinghy wheel system that could double as a Dingy-Tow style system. We will see how my plans come out.

We had a 10' RIB but was too big on deck and blocked the anchor locker. We figure the 8.5-9' will fit in front of the mast but not block the anchor locker depending on the setup. The aluminum RIBs in that range that we have looked at are well under 100 pounds so getting it up on deck won't be too hard.

We have a 9.8 Nissan 2-stroke that we plan to continue to use. Great motor. Light weight (57 pounds). Less ethanol issues than our 4-stroke. I don't mind the noise or mixing the gas. Gets us up on plain.

Fair winds,

Jesse

 

[Tom J]

Jesse, my Walker Bay 8 fits in front of the mast, but the bow of the dink still sits on the anchor locker. I have been able to access the anchor locker by lifting the bow of the dink with a jib halyard. By the Dinghy Tow system, do you mean a bridle for towing? We tried towing an inflatable during our first cruise up the East Coast, but ran into numerous problems, mostly weather related. We usually ended up putting the dinghy on the foredeck, but then my wife couldn't see where she was going. Anyway, we now have the davits, and find them preferable. It's actually quicker to deploy the dink from the davits than from the foredeck, and, like everything else we do on the boat, it becomes easier with practice. Lately, I've been using the davits to hold the dinghy away from the stern when it is in the water. Saves wear and tear on the transom.

 

[rpwillia]

Would it make sense ...

Jesse, my Walker Bay 8 fits in front of the mast, but the bow of the dink still sits on the anchor locker. I have been able to access the anchor locker by lifting the bow of the dink with a jib halyard. ...

Would it make sense to have some kind of brace on the bow pulpit where you could rest the bow of the dinghy on and then be able to open the anchor locker?

 

[Tom J]

Ray, you could definitely set up some kind of brace to hold the bow of the dink, especially if you were just anchoring over night. Space gets kind of tight there, no matter what you do. I was able to raise the bow of the dink with a halyard to give myself more room, then stabilize the bow with lines to the pulpit.
I should also mention that without the inflation collar on my Walker Bay 8, I can move the bow of the dink over to one side to access the anchor locker. Might be something to consider if you don't need the added capacity the collar offers. The Walker Bay is still a nice little boat, unadorned, so the speak.

 

[valcour]

Walker bay 8 will fit also on the foredeck bow aft and still allow access to anchor locker and room to walk past.

 

[Tom J]

Thanks, Valcour, great pics. I never thought to turn the Walker Bay around like that. I should mention that one time I had the WB facing forward with the stern lashed down just forward of the mast, and with the bow of the dink held up and level with a jib halyard, I could open the fore hatch, with the dink keeping the rain off the hatch.

 

[Cat 310 #1 in GA]

Dinghy options

I was reading this thread about dinghies, davits and all the options and finally found some pictures that I wanted to post. One low cost option for carrying a dinghy might be the "Dinghy Sling" from Harbormenmarine.com in Mass. I ordered one for $245 and installed it on my Cat 310 (hull #1) and the attached pictures show how it carries the dinghy. Like anything it takes some practice to figure out the best position and then how to use it deploying and retrieving the dinghy. I have to say that I have not done extensive cruising with it yet but have made a two day ocean sail and it was very stable. Dinghy is a 9.5 foot Boat US model and is pretty heavy. But the system carried it very well and it was steady. I am downsizing the OB to a 2.5 hp so it is easier to handle and will use it again on another cruise in March or April. Just thought I would share this with the group as a possible low cost option to carry the dink.
Bob

 

[JK_Boston_Catalina310]

I was considering that as an option. The company that sells them is right near my boat.

What do you attach the bottom lines to?