Towing Dinghy Down Island

[Journeys End]

I am planning to head down island from North Sound Virgin Gorda to St. Martin/Marteen or Anguilla in Feb/March. I do not have davits and was planning on towing my dinghy behind my sailboat. Any thoughts, plus or minus would be appreciated from seasoned sailors who have made the trip. Thank you.

[Paul L]

Towing a dinghy offshore is not something we ever do. What are you going to do if it swamps or flips. Stick it on the foredeck for offshore passages.

[Journeys End]

Thanks

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Towing a dinghy offshore is not something we ever do. What are you going to do if it swamps or flips. Stick it on the foredeck for offshore passages.

Not if, when.
Of course when it does it’s nasty, unforecasted Wx, too bad for you to be playing games in the water with the big boat being thrown around etc.

If you must, I’d be sure to remove the motor and I’d tie the dinghy with two lines right up against the big boat, I mean bow in contact with it, and don’t go with a big following sea.

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Journey's End,

Yes, it is best not to tow the dinghy at sea. People who do are often surprised at the creative ways dinghies try to commit suicide.

If it is something you must do, do as A64pilot suggested, put the o/b on the mother boat, take EVERYthing out of the dinghy, use two painters, and rig a small series drogue that you can deploy before you turn downwind. Downwind, they try to surf onto the mother boat, but a small series drogue can hold it off. (The one we made used pvc cones, a fabric called "Herculite" that we tried after trashing some nylon cones.)

You'll want to retrieve the drogue PRIOR to anchoring. And, shorten up the painters so that you don't get 'em stuck wound around the prop. When we towed in the ocean, we set the dinghy quite a ways aft of the mother boat, with the bow coming up the 2nd wave aft of us. It is really NOT recommended, is viewed as poor seamanship, and is time consuming to set up, although it does give you practice at making a small series drogue.

Ann

[chouliha]

I think the question you should ask your self is how easy is it to buy a replacement dinghy where you are cruising. For us we NEVER tow the dinghy when making a passage. It’s to valuable to us to either loose or damage. Stowed on deck it’s one less thing to worry about.

Case in point.... We have friends who towed their brand new dink from
Moorea to Huahine in supposedly calm conditions. It flipped 2xs and broke free once and they were surprised as the conditions were tougher than forecasted!. They were lucky they were able to find it and get it tied back to the main vessel.

Is it worth it to just save a little time and work not stowing it onboard?

Just our two francs worth

[a64pilot]

I towed mine for awhile and was astonished at how much it slowed me down sailing, then realized maybe it was because I was dragging it above it’s hull speed, but not fast enough to plane it.
Then after watching someone else, I pulled it in tight, and by that I mean bow raised well of the water and tight up against the boat.
That worked much better, but I was surprised at how loud it was, the noise of the water against the dinghy was annoying.
The best likely is to lash on the bow in front of the mast and I can, but I’d have to give up my stay Sail boom and loose foot the sail.
I believe one day if we are to do a serious crossing that will be my plan, but til now my longest crossing has been only about 400 N.M.

[Scout 30]

What is the mother ship? What kind & size of dinghy?

[Tayana42]

This is why I chose an air floor dinghy. I do tow it for short trips in settled weather with the outboard removed, but I deflate it and roll it up for longer passages or if the weather is unsettled.

Mine is a 10’3” hypalon Walker Bay. I use a 3.5 hp outboard that I had from a previous smaller dinghy and it is adequate for my needs but a larger one would do better.

[singlespeed]

Virgin Gorda to Sint Maartin/St. Martin is almost always an upwind slog. Towing a dinghy while sailing close hauled is a recipe for disaster. Going south from St. Martin towards Guadeloupe is usually a very close reach to a beat. Put the dinghy on deck and count your blessings that very little tacking will be involved.

[Sailorman Ed]

I lost a rigid dingy in calm conditions when i left the OB on and water swamped over the transom..my own fault. Another inflatable dingy flipped several times ( no OB) in moderate wind. We ALWAYS lift out of the water for any distance now.

[CarinaPDX]

Only tow a dinghy if you want to lose it - a matter of when, not if. Instead put some thought into rigging a lifting bridle with a halyard such that bringing the dinghy onto the foredeck, and launching it, can be done easily (this is a very frequent task). When in harbor use the system to lift the dinghy out of the water beside the topsides every night (lift it, lock it, or lose it). Leaving the dinghy in the water also leads to growth on the bottom - more work to clean regularly. Of course this means buying a dinghy appropriate for your boat: buying a dinghy without first solving the storage problem is a bad idea. Sometimes RIBs need to have the front chamber deflated to fit forward; sometimes a fully inflatable dinghy is needed (buy a quality electric inflator - it is a great labor-saver). On my 31' Carina a 2.7m RIB fits between the mast and staysail, with just enough room on the sides to get forward. The storage location dictated the size of the dinghy, assuming I didn't want to fully deflate/inflate every time.


Greg

[mvmojo]

We towed a 12' Caribe RIB behind our 42' ketch from Bonaire to St. Croix - a 3 day beam reach. We were bringing it to a friend in St. Croix who bought it from someone in Bonaire. Our dinghy was on davits. There was no motor on the Caribe. We found by using a very long tow, 200' or more, that the dinghy rode pretty comfortably behind us. It was definitely behind the 2nd wave aft of the boat. Before I agreed to tow the thing, I got my friend to agree that if the dinghy swamped or got lost, etc., he wouldn't blame me and I would not be responsible for it. He got a great deal on the dinghy and felt it was worth the risk. We arrived in St. Croix without any problems, but I would not tow MY dink like that!

[a64pilot]

Often a vacuum cleaner can be used to inflate a dinghy fast, it may not get it completely right, but it will get it 99% inflated, the rest you top off with a hand pump.

[Don C L]

I'm sure you've heard enough here but one more thing worth considering; it is FAR more dangerous to captain and crew to wrestle with retrieving a dinghy and bringing it aboard when things get rough. Forget what damage you'll do to the dinghy or mothership, the potential danger to crew alone should make the decision easy.