Quote:
Originally Posted by Dockhead
I appreciate y'all's concern, but there's not much I can do about that. The dink is a 12' RIB and cannot be accommodated anywhere else. The davits are rated for the load, and they are quite high above the water. They have survived about 15,000 miles or so in the English Channel and Bay of Biscay in up to Force 10 without incident, and other large cruisers in these waters carry their dinks the same way.
I might just ship a different and smaller dinghy when I venture off crossing oceans. On the other hand, I don't think I'm every likely to sail anywhere with conditions as tough as right here, so maybe not worth messing around with it. With part of the load taken to a halyard, should be quite a bit more robust than it is now.
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Not sure that many on here from the US side of the pond actually appreciate the kind of
weather and seas that can be experienced 'over there' I think you have already come to a reasonable solution that should safely take you another 15,000 miles or more.
WE were once caught in an unforecast secondary depression storm in the
English Channel off the North Brittany coast of
France with winds of 50kts over the deck whilst we were doing up to 10kts over the ground downwind so a true
wind of up to 60kts. the seas were horrendous after two weeks of gale following after gale, we were in a 33ft centre
cockpit Westerly 33
ketch on our way home from ourregular south Brittany (Biscay)
cruise Our dinghy was safely tied down on the foredeck but we were in close company with another Westerly 33 that had his 12ft 'Tinker'
inflatable dinghy hanging in davits on the transom. Their dinghy never once filled up in those seas although they told me afterwards they worried it might but the boat always lifted in time to avoid the following seas breaking over it.