Advice re: Difference in Dinks

[downunder]

A vote for the NIad's as mentioned in earlier posts. Proven their worth in Great Barrier Reef charter fleets. Seen them last over 15 yrs used daily.

NZ design built in NZ and at the Gold Coast. Al hulls with durable outer skin covering with tubes inside. Most likely higher cost but definitely superior quality and durability. may not be easy to source in Med??

[svcambria]

Coupla notes about AB dinghies and hoisting:
The Lammina 9.5' weighs 95 pounds, the 9.5' Ventus weighs 106 pounds. If you take the %&#@ fiberglass/wood seat out, you save about 8 pounds, so the weight difference approaches insignificance.
I hoist mine with the main halyard and a line with a pair of fiddle blocks - four part purchase, like a vang - attached in series to a loop in the painter. The halyard and winch brings it up to the lifelines, then the "vang" allows me to move it further up and down and about the deck and position the dinghy with relative ease. So the weight when raising it doesn't become a problem.
Dinghy wheels with large pneumatic tires work pretty well for getting a lot of weight up the beach as long as I don't have to be in too much of a hurry. I use DaNard wheels
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...els-26167.html
can't find them on the internet at the moment; I cut the legs down to the point where the wheels just clear the bottom of the transom when down, allows me to go in further to shore before bottoming out and the dinghy doesn't look like it's in heat on the beach. Also easier to drag it up. And if the surf is up too much, I anchor the dinghy out and swim in. It isn't any more fun to pitch-pole or broach in a lighter dinghy than a heavier one...
And altho it seems incongruous, the longer dinghies are easier to get moving and on a plane than the shorter ones...

Michael

[Jimbo2010]

I have a Achilles 9'6" with wood floor, using 5hp, its ok

I'm selling the boat soon, not the motor.

I'm building a 10' Lawton dink, a classic 1932 design out of strip plank.

It's tooted as a great towing boat and can fit on my fore deck.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Jimbo2010

I'm building a 10' Lawton dink, a classic 1932 design out of strip plank.

OK thats the best looking dink!!!
Dunno if you'd like beer kegs rolled into the bottom and oceans worth of trash bags chucked on the seats...

Originally Posted by svcambria

Coupla notes about AB dinghies and hoisting:
The Lammina 9.5' weighs 95 pounds, the 9.5' Ventus weighs 106 pounds. If you take the %&#@ fiberglass/wood seat out, you save about 8 pounds, so the weight difference approaches insignificance....

Michael

Nice thoughts, Michael!
A few pounds is approaching insignificance... and totally if the pitch is kept correct compared to a OB badly pitched.
I like your lifting setup. The block and tackle off the halyard is a good trick. One of the things I couldnt figure out in my head is how to lift it by myself. But that solves it

Originally Posted by osirissail

- - Are you saying Mark has a "fat ass," so to speak? ... I hate getting "dinghy butt" or wet shirts when heading into town.

Not me, Shhhh but Sea Life has a fat bottie!

The other reason to keep the dinghy small is so if one of those wide transom Island girls take a liking to me I can say say: "Sorry love, but my Dink can't handle your ass!" Then I go...



Mark

[Jimbo2010]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

OK thats the best looking dink!!!
Dunno if you'd like beer kegs rolled into the bottom and oceans worth of trash bags chucked on the seats...
Mark

both the outer and inner is covered in 6oz cloth/epoxy then 3-4 coats of uv protective varnish, its going to used and abused as needed, if scratched, it will get a coat over the winter.

[tager]

Um, yea. White paint maybe, varnish no. Beer kegs are pretty serious cargo.

[hummingway]

I have no problem lifting my 10 foot avon with a halyard. Hardest part is flipping it over on deck. Still I tow it more often then not. The motor was the tough part since I have a high transom, even with a 5 hp honda. I solved it with a Garhauer Garhauer Marine Hardware -1689559

Sorry to say it again but I've found bigger is better. I regularily fill the Avon up but then I anchor when out and use a morring ball when home, I don't tie up to a dock, so it provides all my ship to shore activities. Without the motor on I haven't found it to heavy to haul up on shore but I do with the motor on, if the tide is out and I have a long drag so ... I row unless covering a lot of water.

[osirissail]

I use a spare mainmast halyard to lift the dinghy and since my halyards lead back into the cockpit I can put it on a winch and grind the dinghy high enough to clear the lifelines. Then I move the dinghy by hand to amidships on the foredeck and undo the dinghy transom cradle lines or more simple detach the halyard and hook it up to the handle or cleat on the bow of the dinghy. Now I can raise the bow with the halyard and winch enough to spin the dinghy around and then lower it inverted onto the foredeck. I install eyebolts through the cabin top positioned so the dinghy can be lashed down with spare lines when doing passages.
- - I never tow the dinghy as I rarely ever look back to where I have been but only forward to where I am going. Lost a couple of dinghies that way so I put them on deck now. Also there is the problem of backing over the dink or it getting in the way when docking. I don't have comprehensive insurance on the boat but when I read a policy it was quite explicit that "towing a dinghy" is an exclusion to collecting on its loss.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by osirissail

I can put it on a winch and grind the dinghy high enough to clear the lifelines. .

Does it scratch the sides of the hull having the dinghy dragged up it?

Hardest part is flipping it over on deck.

Yeah. I would love to get the davits fixed up first but I think thats further off to access the parts, money and instalation

[zeehag]

davits are overrated. pacific seas are tall enough to break into the dink n them and hurt your boats transom and deck. i saw a neighbor come back from catalina-- wasnt pretty.
my dinks stow on deck. i have to use halyard to lift them. long ago i was on a boat where from we hung dink on halyard every night--didnt scratch paint on that steel hull. i am thinking seriously of doing that with my roll up inflatable when i get out of here. hard dinks i side tie bow and stern to the mother ship in anchorage/moorings.

[svcambria]

Does it scratch the sides of the hull having the dinghy dragged up it?

I pull mine out by the bow. Half the time the tubes wind up facing the hull, the rest of the time I have to stop when it is almost totally out of the water and flip it sideways to put the tubes against the hull. With it lifted up so the stern end of the tubes are at the caprail, I throw a bucket of sea water into it to clean out the sand and crap that accumulated inside. This also gives it a couple of minutes so the ablative antifouling paint on the bottom (now facing outward) can dry. Then pull it up further with the "vang", pull it over so the transom is near the mast, flip the line to release the C cleat on the vang, and lower the bow to the stem. Tie off to taste...

Michael

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Does it scratch the sides of the hull having the dinghy dragged up it?
Yeah. I would love to get the davits fixed up first but I think thats further off to access the parts, money and instalation

No. the AB has large tubes and doesn't leave any marks. I used to use the whisker pole (or spinaker pole) to keep the dinghy clear of the boat sides but found it was just too much trouble.
- - I have been doing all this "single-handedly with no outside help for the last decade. It takes maybe twice the time from what it would take with a helper.
- - I raise the dinghy in segments. Grind it up a few feet and then go forward and make sure it is not hanging up on something like the splash rail and give the halyard/bridle a push outward to get everything settled then go back and raise the dinghy the rest of the way to the lifeline tops. Stopping one or two times between in water and top of lifelines allows me also to position the dinghy - fore or aft - where I want it to be.
- - Just before the dinghy clears the lifelines I also take the dinghy painter and tie it to the anchor windlass drum or a bow cleat. This keeps the dinghy from swinging fore and aft or otherwise doing weird things as it comes up above the lifelines.
- - As it clears the top of the lifelines the dinghy will swing to amidships and oscillate back and forth a few times depending upon how much the boat is rolling on its own. I time the swings and let out the halyard so the dinghy settles to the deck where I want it.
- - Then I do one of two things depending upon the strength of the winds across the deck. With low winds I move the halyard to the bow attachment of the dinghy and haul the dinghy bow skyward until it is almost clear of the deck. Now I can wash out the insides if necessary and also release the plug for the air chamber between the two aluminum hulls to let out any water that got in there.
- - If the wind is a factor I move the halyard to a handhold/whatever midway down one pontoon and then haul up the side of the dinghy enough to get it to flop over upside down. Then lash it down to the deck eye-bolts.
- - Having the lightest possible RIB (e.g., the aluminum versions) makes this process very easy. Of course, everything has been removed from the dinghy before it swings inboard. Normally I do this when the dinghy is level to the tops of the lifelines as it is easy to reach inside and remove all the stuff. The outboard motor I remove using a the mizzen mast halyard run through a snatch block on the end of the mizzen boom. But I found a better system as my mizzen boom has a topping lift and a the mizzen sheet runs from the end of the mizzen boom down to a eye cleat on the transom. I put a snatch clip on the block at the bottom where it attaches to the transom. The I can unclip the mizzen sheet and use the mizzen boom as an adjustable crane to lift the motor to a holding pad attached to the stern railing.
- - It takes maybe 30 minutes to stow the motor and move the dinghy forward and lift it out of the water, invert it and tie it down on the foredeck. But heck, it you want to do things faster sell the boat and take an airliner to the next place. Single handing is not difficult, it only takes a bit more time to do each step carefully. Having an assistant speeds things up but also introduces a source of random errors and misunderstandings about how you want thing done. Some things are just done better if you take matters into your own hands.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by zeehag

davits are overrated.

I should know better than to argue with Zeehag, but I'm going to have to disagree. We never went with davits on previous boats, but after having a dink stolen I decided to go with davits on the new boat. I'm kicking myself, in retrospect, for not having discovered them sooner. It's not just the convenience of lifting the dink out of the water, but it's the fact that we no longer leave the dink in the water overnight. Additionally, at an anchorage the dink closes off access to the cockpit via the walk-thru transom, so it becomes far more difficult for someone swimming from shore to board the mothership.

Added bonus: not having the dink clutter up the foredeck.

[svBeBe]

We have an AB with aluminum hull and love it. Would require deflating to carry on foredeck of your boat, but should be doable because friends on a 38-ft Island Packet have the same dinghy and they carry it deflated on deck when at sea. The aluminum hull is great because you don't have to worry about cracking as can happen with the GRP bottoms. The worst that can happen is scratched paint if you hit rocks. It is heavy for pulling up onto beaches, but manageable.

We use a 15hp OB, but yours would work. Probably won't plane, but will get you there.

Judy
S/V BeBe
Amel SM2 #387