Using a Center Console as a Tender

[MBLittle]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

That means an even lighter dingy as you have to be able to drag it up the beach with the wife in it.

And to be fair to the admiral, usually it's her dragging it up the beach with me in it.

One of the many benefits of marrying a polish woman who was in the Army.

Sent from my LG-E980 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[a64pilot]

The smallest Boston Whaler is I think an ideal tender. Might even end up with one myself for the Caribbean when I go. As far as Passage making with it? Bad plan sell it before you leave


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BandB]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

The smallest Boston Whaler is I think an ideal tender. Might even end up with one myself for the Caribbean when I go. As far as Passage making with it? Bad plan sell it before you leave

I agree, much better tender than their larger models. Still limited to four passengers and one issue is the plate limits it to 25 hp which won't do much with four people. Now many people have 40 hp on it, but could get into a problem and Whaler will not sell one like that new. Some people buy whaler's, sell the Mercury outboard, then put another outboard of their choice on it. The 110 weighs 460 lbs so weighs about 600 lbs with engine.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by BandB

I agree, much better tender than their larger models. Still limited to four passengers and one issue is the plate limits it to 25 hp which won't do much with four people. Now many people have 40 hp on it, but could get into a problem and Whaler will not sell one like that new. Some people buy whaler's, sell the Mercury outboard, then put another outboard of their choice on it. The 110 weighs 460 lbs so weighs about 600 lbs with engine.

Mines an 11.5 SuperSport. Selling it. It was a good tender though.

[jtsailjt]

I currently have an 11'AB center console dinghy with a 30hp Tohatsu 4 stroke and I'm about to start trying to sell it in favor of an open, tiller steered RIB. I really like the CC seating position and the depth sounder is handy and it zips right around nicely, but with a wife and 3 kids and a big dog and all our gear, we really need the floor space an open RIB offers. Wish the OP was closer to our boats current location in Massachussetts but if anyone else wants a great deal on a nice little 11' center console RIB...?

Our sailboat has a very rugged dinghy lift rather than davits, and I love how handy it is to store and launch the dinghy compared with davits while coastal cruising, but to go offshore I want my dinghy upside down on the foredeck with the outboard on the aft rail and the center console doesn't offer that option. No matter how high your davits lift your dinghy, it's possible it can suddenly be filled with water, causing its weight to be hugely increased. I guess a taut cover that prevented water from filling the dinghy would help if it could be fastened to the dinghy securely enough, but a cover like that would add windage up high at the aft extremity of, not good in a real blow either. The very last thing any of us need in the type wind/seas that could make that happen would be the mess that a broken or badly bent davit with a heavy dinghy with outboard now smashing against the transom of our boat. Makes me nervous just thinking about it! I guess I'm not going to be much of a salesman to sell my current dinghy even though it works just as intended. It's a good boat, just not what I want as a dinghy for cruising that includes offshore sailing.

I wouldn't even think about towing a dinghy offshore. I once left Gloucester for Portland, Maine on a nice, calm morning, and by noon the wind had unexpectedly piped up so my towed RIB looked more like a kite, alternating between upright and inverted every few minutes, than it looke like a boat. The outboard was on my rail and safe but I lost the fuel tank, enough to learn my lesson about towing dinghy's unless I'm absolutely sure of the weather conditions.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by minaret

I hate to say it, but it sounds like I might not enjoy being in an anchorage with you. Trying to escape from jet skis and other loud annoying go fast boats. Find them especially annoying in a peaceful remote anchorage.

I've gotten rid of my console tender and gotten a nice sailing hard dinghy with a propane outboard. And oars, lots of oars.


Is 40 knots ever really necessary?

Is cruising itself ever really necessary? Of course not.

If I could possibly ship a jetski somewhere I would do it in a heartbeat. A wonderful magic carpet to explore far and wide when the mother ship is at anchor.

And 40 knots? Mine (the one at my lake house) will do 52.

Joking aside, of course, the drivers of such devices should take care not to disturb people at anchor -- which I do also in my RIB. But just because some idiots drive jetskis in inappropriate ways doesn't mean that jetskis are inherently bad.

[boatman61]

Ahhhh for the days of the 2-3 1/2hp tenders &O/B's before all you bludi Schumakers came along...

[BandB]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Ahhhh for the days of the 2-3 1/2hp tenders &O/B's before all you bludi Schumakers came along...

Wifey B: Guess you wouldn't like our tenders then.....Schumacher.....I don't know. Aren't you a few decades behind and Vettel not so hot this year. Maybe Johnson's. Guess you'd frown on 40 knots in a tender....uh oh.....hehe

Sorry, Boatie....but we use ours not to just get to shore but to explore...large areas, lots of things..

I do sort of miss our 55 knot boat we had on the lake. Fastest we have now is 42 knots. But we go slow too.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by BandB

Wifey B: Guess you wouldn't like our tenders then.....Schumacher.....I don't know. Aren't you a few decades behind and Vettel not so hot this year. Maybe Johnson's. Guess you'd frown on 40 knots in a tender....uh oh.....hehe

Sorry, Boatie....but we use ours not to just get to shore but to explore...large areas, lots of things..

I do sort of miss our 55 knot boat we had on the lake. Fastest we have now is 42 knots. But we go slow too.

Horse's fer course's.. us sailors go 'Wheeeeeee' if we hit 10kts..
Some of us like to escape the rush of modern life.. others like to take it with them..

[BandB]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Horse's fer course's.. us sailors go 'Wheeeeeee' if we hit 10kts..
Some of us like to escape the rush of modern life.. others like to take it with them..

Wifey B: Perchance we sometimes confuse rush with stress? Fast on the ocean, wind in your face....that can be an escape just like slow and powered only by sail. When I go fast, rest assured I'm not taking any of the stress of modern life along. It's still an escape.

Relaxation is what we really seek. Some get it on a golf course, although all that sport does to me is stress. Some just walking on a trail in the woods. This morning we played basketball at a local high school with some teenage boys. Now we're waiting for a court to clear to play tennis. Very relaxing. Then back to the boat.

And speed on a sailboat can feel super too. We've been out with a friend who got up a good bit of speed on a windy day and it feels a whole lot faster. But then on a Sunday afternoon when the lake was a crowded mess, we use to pull a couple of cheap little styrofoam like sailboats into the water and just float around close to home. Talking, watching the others go by, relaxing. And on the occasion we got carried away and flipped, no big deal. Had our bathing suits on and easy to right them.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by BandB

Wifey B: Perchance we sometimes confuse rush with stress? Fast on the ocean, wind in your face....that can be an escape just like slow and powered only by sail. When I go fast, rest assured I'm not taking any of the stress of modern life along. It's still an escape.

Relaxation is what we really seek. Some get it on a golf course, although all that sport does to me is stress. Some just walking on a trail in the woods. This morning we played basketball at a local high school with some teenage boys. Now we're waiting for a court to clear to play tennis. Very relaxing. Then back to the boat.

And speed on a sailboat can feel super too. We've been out with a friend who got up a good bit of speed on a windy day and it feels a whole lot faster. But then on a Sunday afternoon when the lake was a crowded mess, we use to pull a couple of cheap little styrofoam like sailboats into the water and just float around close to home. Talking, watching the others go by, relaxing. And on the occasion we got carried away and flipped, no big deal. Had our bathing suits on and easy to right them.

A Katana 1100 at 150+ is pretty cool as well...

[BandB]

Originally Posted by boatman61

A Katana 1100 at 150+ is pretty cool as well...

Wifey B: I wimp out there....I like all my skin, all my bones in tact, and my brains no more scrambled than they are. I'll just sit and watch them go by.

[JPA Cate]

Dockhead,

If you make the change to the tiller steered lighter dinghy, I think you will be very pleased to discover how much easier it is to maneuver. [I had the experience of driving a center console tender for most of the daylight hours for two days earlier in the year, and with the number of turns lock to lock on it, compared to my usual tiller steered RIB, the flash tender was not nearly as maneuverable. It was a surprise to me.]

Ann

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

The smallest Boston Whaler is I think an ideal tender.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I once considered one as a tender that I could have had a good deal on, but I decided to go with a RIB instead. Whalers, especially small ones don't have much freeboard, especially when loaded with all your gear, and are very heavy compared with a RIB.

I like Whalers and respect their quality, and own a 17' Montauk to use on a lake runabout/fishing/waterskiing boat and it's great, but I wouldn't want a Whaler as a tender.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

I once considered one as a tender that I could have had a good deal on, but I decided to go with a RIB instead. Whalers, especially small ones don't have much freeboard, especially when loaded with all your gear, and are very heavy compared with a RIB.

I like Whalers and respect their quality, and own a 17' Montauk to use on a lake runabout/fishing/waterskiing boat and it's great, but I wouldn't want a Whaler as a tender.

Grew up loving Whalers although never owned one. But have two problems now. First, their rated engine capacity really underpowers them. The 11' Sport now only rated for 25 hp and so that's the most it's sold with. Some buy it then sell the Merc and put a 40 hp Yamaha or something on it. But I don't like the liability attached to overpowering one. Second, in the same amount of deck space it takes for the Whaler you can put a 12 or 13' rib which has a wider beam, will accommodate a larger engine and perform better. Montauk and Dauntless are both nice in the 17' range.