Tacking while towing a dinghy

[and4ew]

I usually tow my dinghy with two lines that run from the forward quarters of the dinghy to the stern quarters of my boat. My Bayfield 29 is a cutter rig so tacking has to be a little more precise to avoid going into irons.
My question is: is it better to have the dinghy close, (less than 10') or further away (20' or more), or somewhere in between? I've been doing my own experimenting but would appreciate suggestions from those more experienced.

[Kettlewell]

I would only use a single tow line to make it much easier to adjust the length. In my experience a bridle is not needed or effective towing a dinghy since you have to let it out so far. The proper length depends on many things, including speed, sea state, and how your dinghy tows. I put it out at the length needed for the dinghy to stay steady with bow up at the speed I am going, and often that needs to be extended to keep it a wave back so that it doesn't surf down a wave into the transom of the boat. When I tack, obviously the boat slows up and with the longish line the dinghy will just float around back there for a moment until the big boat regains her way. In general, further away is needed with higher speeds and bigger seas, while closer in can work when you are going slower and seas are lower.

[Ryban]

I don't have a good answer to the question you asked, but just the advice that towing the dinghy is generally not a good choice, unless you're just doing short trips in calm seas.

When I did tow mine, I probably towed it 20-feet behind the boat on a single line.

However, I've also had the dinghy swamped in only 6ft seas between St. Lucia and St. Vincent -- and you know what's not fun? Having to get in the dinghy at sea and to bail it out, because a dinghy full of water being towed behind a small boat is going to stop all your forward progress, assuming it doesn't break something.

[MicHughV]

I made a 1/8" covered s/s bridle that spans each side of the outboard motor. In the middle of this bridle is a s/s eye hoop. The bridle is attached to the fiberglass transom with a padeye each side of the engine, mounted with thru' bolts, making shallow V in front of the engine.
I attach a tow line to this bridle eye, in addition to the one at the bow.

When I tow, I lead both tow lines to the top of the stern rail, but tie the stern rail tow line about 1" or so tighter than the bowline. This keeps the towing strain on the fiberglass transom, which is much stronger than the bow eye. The bow tow line keeps the dink pointed straight ahead. I like to use the top of the stern pulpit as a tie off point, as it tends to keep the dink's nose a little higher than the water, and is also much easier to adjust the tow lines. With a bit of playing around, you can set the dink distance from the stern according to the current wave conditions, so that it tends to ride on the back of a wave.

Ever since doing this, I found the dink to be well behaved while towing.

It takes a bit of experimentation to dial everything in right, depending on your dink and mother boat, but once you get the hang of it, you are likely to adopt it.

[SailingHarmonie]

I know this is not what you want to hear, but towing a dinghy is a fools errand for a cruiser. It can work in very sheltered water for a day sailor, but for cruising there is SOOO much that can go pear-shaped. If your dinghy is too big to take onboard--it is too big for your boat.

Our rule is simple: If we can not see the end of our sail from where we start we NEVER tow the dink. We do not do davits either. Our dinghy is stowed and lashed down for any kind of passage at all, even across a bay.

Yes, that is inconvenient sometimes. I know on a smaller boat where you have to deflate the dinghy to stow it on board it can be a PITA. But--someday--you WILL be sorry you towed.

[Don C L]

I too would recommend not towing your dinghy while sailing unless it is in very calm water. (Motoring is something else.) I see lots of people do it but just about every time I've towed a dinghy while sailing (long in the past) I have regretted it for one reason or another but I may be clumsier than most. If the wind pipes up and/or the dinghy starts getting swamped, you have a potentially dangerous sea anchor to deal with. Getting a dinghy up on deck when the swells and wind pick up is no fun at all. If you must, have one tow line as low down on the bow of your dinghy as possible and keep the dinghy as close to the stern as possible, if not ON the stern with fenders, IMO.

[GordMay]

On calm, open water, I, generally, liked to tow the dinghy two wave crests back, with the dinghy on the back side of the second wave. I used 2 [floating] bridles, one at each end of the tow rope.
Especially, if you’re towing in a larger swell, you want to match your dinghy’s rise and fall with your boat’s, so that, when the boat crests a wave, so does the dinghy.
In close quarters maneuvering, I tied the dinghy with it’s bow elevated, tight on the stern rail.

I don't recall tacking being a problem [it was long ago].

[MicHughV]

Well, certainly, one needs to pick one's moment when to tow a dink.
Deciding to not tow a dink during an open water passage is a no brainer, but shorter inter-island hops or protected waters is another.

I must admit to moments of laziness here. While my boat is equipped with davits, I don't like to hoist the dink up with the engine on, which means the engine must come off first...and then re-attached. This can be a royal PITA.

So my dilemma becomes one of laziness vs. practical sense. ie. effort required vs. benefits gained.
It's a tussle at times and my current towing technique was born out of a resistance to hoist the dink unless I absolutely had to.

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

I know this is not what you want to hear, but towing a dinghy is a fools errand for a cruiser. It can work in very sheltered water for a day sailor, but for cruising there is SOOO much that can go pear-shaped. If your dinghy is too big to take onboard--it is too big for your boat.

Our rule is simple: If we can not see the end of our sail from where we start we NEVER tow the dink. We do not do davits either. Our dinghy is stowed and lashed down for any kind of passage at all, even across a bay.

Yes, that is inconvenient sometimes. I know on a smaller boat where you have to deflate the dinghy to stow it on board it can be a PITA. But--someday--you WILL be sorry you towed.

I totally, totally agree. I've seen, and heard on the radio, more disasters involving towed dinghies than I think any other subject. You start out nice and calm, then the wind and seas pick up, then you have to deal with a wild and errant dinghy in poor conditions? It's a recipe for someone to get seriously hurt in addition to damaging, destroying, or losing the dinghy.

And don't get me started re those who tow their dinghies with the engine still on! Very, very poor seamanship!

[DEAN2140]

I have bareboated many times and learned that the best way to keep your dingy from being swamped or capsized is to run a tow line from both sides of the stern of the sailboat to the dingy and keep it close to the stern. Ideally, the motor should be off but we have sailed up to 40 nm in the Carib with the motor securely lashed down. For a longer passage, yes, get the dingy on deck or in the davits. As far as tacking goes, trial and error.

[Jammer]

It really depends on the dinghy. I have a Chameleon, which is not inflatable. Among its many merits are that it tows well with the only drawback being that it sometimes ships water between the two halves and has to be bailed out.


I use a length of Samson MFP floatline to tow it with about 20' working length. That is enough that the dinghy will mostly stop before it hits the mothership and allows plenty of room for tacking. If we are in tight quarters e.g. while docking I will pull it up much closer or bring it alongside the aft quarter.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

... I must admit to moments of laziness here. While my boat is equipped with davits, I don't like to hoist the dink up with the engine on, which means the engine must come off first....

You need to fix that problem. It defeats the purpose in having davits. Stronger davits, lighter motor, or better secure underway (tricing lines). No way I would take the motor off.

[wrwakefield]

I used to tow an inflatable dinghy in inside waters in another boat long ago.

The most workable solution I found for that canoe stern sailboat [Valiant Esprit 37] was a [floating] bridle from the dinghy passing through a free-floating metal ring. [I used a ~2” diameter SS ring, but an appropriately sized (i.e., both bridle lines can pass through the middle with room to spare) aluminum low friction ring would be even better.]

A boat-side [floating] bridle [to be cleated to the respective stern cleats] passed through the middle of the free-floating ring on the dinghy bridle, then back to the boat- effectively making an X with both bridles passing freely through the middle of the connecting metal ring so they could balance the pull on each bridle leg as needed.

This allows the dinghy to self adjust on the twin bridles when underway, never presented any problems when tacking, and makes for easy boat-side length adjustment since the boat-side bridle line passes freely through the ring on the dingy bridle.

Food for thought.

Cheers, Bill

PS: I never needed a longer tow line since I was only doing this in protected waters, but always thought if I needed to I could put a free floating ring on both the dinghy and boat bridles, and then connect the two rings with a single [floating] tow line of desired length to achieve similar results when a long tow was needed… [e.g., if dealing with a sea state]

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by thinwater

You need to fix that problem. It defeats the purpose in having davits. Stronger davits, lighter motor, or better secure underway (tricing lines). No way I would take the motor off.

Agreed. With a monohull sailboat there's some concern for dipping the outboard leg in waves while heeled to that side, which may require pretty tall davits (or removing the outboard before rough weather). But beyond that concern, I see no reason not to size the davits for lifting with the outboard mounted.

I did that with our setup and routinely lift the dinghy in "ready to go" state. Only thing to do for use is un-do the tie-down lines, install the drain plug, drop the dinghy in the water, then open the fuel tank vent and start the outboard.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by thinwater

You need to fix that problem. It defeats the purpose in having davits. Stronger davits, lighter motor, or better secure underway (tricing lines). No way I would take the motor off.

I agree. We always hoist the RIB with engine into the davits, as it is also our primary escape pod when in inside waters [a majority of the time for us.]

To that end- for the OP- we ran topping lifts from the end of each davit arm to the top of the mizzen mast even though this was not necessary for our strong davits. [I realize that may not work on many vessels, but mention it as a FWIW…]

I managed to work-around our inherent laziness of manually hoisting [less often than desired] the ~230lb dink [w/ 15hp 2 stoke engine and 6 gal fuel tank] using twin 5 part tackle by installing a cheap DC ATV winch as a proof-of-concept. [5 years, a few minor tweaks along the way, and it still ticking in full time use… The 5 part tackle still available for use if/when the winch fails…]

FWIW in case it spawns other ideas.

Cheers, Bill