Dinghy on top of a 32 foot

[RECESS]

We recently purchased a Pearson 323. Over the years I have really grown tired of towing our 9.4 Water Tender dinghy behind the Oday 25. The dinghy makes us lose a knot of speed and it really kills us in light air. I only tow the dinghy on trips. I do not tow it during day sailing trips.

I was wondering if people in the 32 foot range of sailboats have found it easier to carry a hard dinghy on the front deck when they are cruising? Does it cause any problems? How do you secure it?

Any advice is welcomed.

 

[RAD]

Get davits!!!! best investment I ever made and now you'll have a place to put extra stuff while traveling and a place to mount the solar panel

 

[Sumner]

Get davits!!!! best investment I ever made and now you'll have a place to put extra stuff while traveling and a place to mount the solar panel

I agree if you use the dinghy much and the boat is big/wide enough for them to work.

I realize a lot of people store the dinghy on the foredeck, but since we use ours a lot that wouldn't be a good deal for us since it would involve a lot more effort to use it and then store it than what we want to do at our age. When we were looking for a larger boat davits was a must and if we would of bought a boat without them they would of been added right away.

We pull the dinghy everywhere behind the Mac since it is too small for davits and it has worked well, but only because I turned the stern ladder into a tow bar while towing and it keeps the dinghy out of the back of the boat. It also functions as a loading platform into and out of the dinghy and becomes a normal ladder when needed.

I guess it is going to boil down to if you can put davits on the boat and/or if you use the dinghy much at all,

Sum

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37 [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]
Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]
Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]

 

[Kettlewell]

You don't have an inflatable?

I ask the question tongue in cheek--it seems like everyone uses an inflatable these days. In the past, when most people used hard dinghies, most people had a method of storing them on deck aft of the mast. A lot of boats had special chocks to hold the dinghy there. That was also the era when most boats had end-boom sheeting, which made it possible. I still prefer having the dinghy off the foredeck where it makes things like handling the anchor so much harder. It's not a great location for windage or weight either. I'm not a fan of davits on smaller boats (meaning under about 45 feet or so) as they are inevitably too close to the water and therefore vulnerable in rough seas. If you are not ever going offshore or into rough water they can be OK, but don't carry the dink there on a 32-footer in rough weather.

 

[RAD]

I'm not a fan of davits on smaller boats (meaning under about 45 feet or so) as they are inevitably too close to the water and therefore vulnerable in rough seas. If you are not ever going offshore or into rough water they can be OK, but don't carry the dink there on a 32-footer in rough weather.

Having an inflatable gives you the option of hauling it on deck and deflating it.......the tricky part is when do you make that decision......on a passage off the south shore of Long Island around Montauk a fellow sailor made the exact comment and I also said "my very sharp 19.00 West Marine rigging knife will solve that problem in minutes if need be"

 

[MrBee]

I have sailed on boats with a dinghy hanging on Davits and personally do not like it there. It totally blocks the transom, can't see out the back and sunlight can't make it in. Also your marina and others you stay at will charge for that extra length for slip fee's so that is a factor also. We have a 34 foot boat and just bought a 6'7" inflatable. I know that is small but for how often we will use it, it will be fine. Plus deflated it will fit in our quarter birth pushed to the back, out of the way.

Brian

 

[Ray Bowles]

Recess, We also had a 9.4 water-tender as our "taxi". We mounted a set of davitts up against the cockpit pulpit rails on our Island Packet 38 and were very happy with how that worked. It did require cross bracing to prevent cross swinging of the davitts and I mounted 2 brace rods that held the boat away from the rear pulpit. It had a desire to swing for and aft.
Sailing in the gulf waters and the Bahamas we would raise the boat each evening so it was just above wave height to prevent rampent flora and fauna that would attach itself to the dink bottom.
We really liked the water-tender and had a Johnson 4hp that pushed it nicely. With just 1 person it would plane. I figured for its price I could replace it about 10 times for the price of a cheaper inflatable. It was still working after 8 years.
Ray

 

[CalebD]

Congrats on your new Pearson 32'!

 

[RECESS]

Thank you Caleb.

Ray, We have really enjoyed this dinghy. It is very stable and we use a 2.5hp four stroke and it moves it very fast with my wife and son on board.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Other things to consider no matter where you store the dink
If you are tall you probably can see over the dink while at the helm when on deck or in the davits, short folks do not have so much luck. So check out the forward and rearward visability before you commit to a solution.
Davits and stern nav lights usually do not play well together so anticipate having to move the light.
Water entrapment. Not a problem on a dink with a drain but a hardshell may need a cover to keep rain water out. They get quite heavy when filled with water.
Docking stern in with a dink on davits pushes the bow of the boat a good 4 ft further out into the fairway and keeps the stern 4is feet from the dock and finger pier. This may or may not be a problem for your home port slip. it will be a problem for some while cruising.