Hold On in a Fast Dinghy ?

[MarkJ]

Hi Folks,

Some advice please:

Yesterday I jumped into a dinghy with 2 people. The mental pygmy at the controls (I shouldn't really call this brain-fried drip a mental pygmy as he is a fellow member of this forum!) told me NOT to hang on! He said if bounced out I would break the holding-on hand. He, of course was holding on to the outboard throttle and his girl friend was holding on the dinghy painter.
It was blowing 20 knots with squalls often above, we were going to windward with a fetch of nearly 1 mile and there were lots of bumpy waves. His OB is 25 HP and he is never known to run it slow.

I told him to put a sock in it and hung on for grim death.

I have only recently bought a big dink which planes - the old 3.3hp was too slow to require any holding on to anything..


Do you hang on in a fast dinghy? How?


Thanks


Mark

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Hi Folks,

his girl friend was holding on the dinghy painter.



Do you hang on in a fast dinghy? How?


Thanks


Mark

Was his GF nice, if so, I'd have hung on to her

[David_Old_Jersey]

You should have shot him. and claimed his girlfreind (and the Dink ) as spoils.

Free handholds come with both

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Was his GF nice, if so, I'd have hung on to her

Thats how the conversation started. I was sitting on her side, aft and had my hand through the loop and she sat on it. I suggested she need not move....

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

The mental pygmy at the controls (I shouldn't really call this brain-fried drip a mental pygmy as he is a fellow member of this forum!)

This is the part I want to follow. You're thinking he won't notice this thread?

Sit low in the boat. The holding on part is automatic.

[boatman61]

Only one way to ride a dinghy Mark.....

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Minggat

This is the part I want to follow. You're thinking he won't notice this thread?

I rest my case

By the way, while I am waiting for further and better answers to the holding on question, I have been meeting quite a few Cruisers Forum people in the Caribbean. They should not think I am referring to them.... unless they took me for a dinghy ride last night.

Theres plenty more Cruisers Forum people to meet between here and Antigua in the next few months! Everything is kinda fun!

Yesterday we went to the Sunset Beach Bar to watch the planes land at the airport. This might sound a bit juvenile.... but the best fun is when the planes are taking off. They have to launch themselves from close to the end of the runway and their jet blast flys back over the beach. So the local idiots hand onto the fence and get blown about, whilst idiots like me go down to the waters edge and wait to get sand blasted. When you can't take any more pain you dive in and swim underwater till the plane takes off. If you can't hold your breath long enough you get a head full of sand.

Then you drink more at the bar.

Yesterday was Sunday and heralds the arrival and takeoff of two 747's so all the morons of the world are fence hanging or doing the sand blast & swim.

I had lots of fun, but as I sit here sand and bits of coral and dropping out of my hair all over the keyboard. My back is totally exfoliated.


Ya think its the rum?

[Vasco]

Always hang on. We stand up and hold onto a line that comes from the bow. My dink only goes WFO. I have a piece of pvc pipe on the tiller as an extension.Have to warn the passenger when slowing down or they'll go over the bow. Have had as many as four persons in my dink, all standing behind each other.

[sevent]

Why would you stand? Besides maybe being fun...?

[Palarran]

To answer the question, I like holding on to the anchor line. I lower my butt down the tube, bend my knee's and brace off the other tube. Usually when someone rides with me they hold on with both hands and wedge their toes in between the hull and tube.

My dingy hauls ass and I'm sure if I ever gave you a ride, I'd be a mental pigmy too. Except that I would have said to hang on for dear life.

[Palarran]

BTW, I thought the best thing about the Sunset Bar was that topless girls drink free and there's usually a few taking the bait. The jet wash is secondary enjoyment.

[mct]

ahem, it was me at the controls. I actually made fourteen hundred million posts before (by complete chance) managing this one.

My suggestion was counselling Mark not to loop his entire hand under the dink's strap-type handles, which was doing at the time. In the very unlikely event of him falling off, i wanted him to fall clear of the dink -not to half-fall off, perhaps twist his wrist/shoulder and/or get dragged along whilst slightly getting ripped by the prop. All these things can happen in less than a second. It's fine to hold things but not always such that you can't let go. It's the same philosophy as when handling a powerful drill or starting handle: - you should hold the drill/handle with thumbs clear ie as though you have no thumbs and are wearing mittens - then if the drill overpowers you suddenly, you don't get a broken thumb/hand. At the time i mentioned to mark that an experienced motorcycle pillion (er, i'm just realising what a dangerous life i lead...) should actually "hold on" to their own knees - not try loop their hands around bits of motorcycle.

By the way - the standing up while driving a dink is obviously slower (due to air resistance) and the driver has a very tough time looking behind. I tested this by belting up behind a stander upper who had quite a surprise. Stander-uppers can't make fast big moves to stbd (in emergency giveway situation) to the same degree as sit-downers.

hm and i also note that he had a pop at me. Harumph. Mark - you were a bit of a wuss. Oh yes you were. Well, a bit. I was even going quite slowly AND you were on the downwind side.

Actually i think the problem is that Mark is used to sailing and dink-driving himself, and seeing as how his transat took 2x ours and his previous dink hardly moved, he's just having trouble acclamatising to modern-day life, so all perfectly normal, i reckon.

Ok, and look, that time I set the outboard to flip up and then I drove it at the beach at 20ish knots and kerwhammed it up the beach, that was quite normal too, ahem...

and another thing: iuewgilye ssnw sgrghrr wrirgi wriwrwiw wrrw wewei wewewewe w wewew ewewwew ewe wewefwerwerwr wewewer ww werwewerw w wewerwerw we weweweww w wwlwewrt rerrgewrewrgewrgewewrgwerewrtwrtwr ergewrt wrewtwerwertwerwer wretwertwwrtewe werwetwe wewewewertwerw wewewewerwetergsdfgdfgdfghfthrth erertyeryeryeryeryerter eryertertertert erertertertert erertertertertertert ertertertewrt ererterterterrghfgrthryjtyjrergewfweewrg erertertertertert

[senormechanico]

"Ok, and look, that time I set the outboard to flip up and then I drove it at the beach at 20ish knots and kerwhammed it up the beach, that was quite normal too, ahem..."

With Mexico's steep sand beaches, that was standard practice for our Avon 3.10 RIB with 15 hp Tohatsu.

I learned how to read the waves by watching how the Mexican fishermen did it with their pangas.

They always came in at high speed behind the biggest wave.


We finally put stainless steel plates on the center curve of the bow and stern to prevent any more gelcoat wear.

We did it so often that one time at Philomena's Restaurant in Melaque, the cruisers were ready and held up scorecards.

We got mostly 9's and one 10.

[witchcraft]

For me I am not a fan of standing up in the dingy. Saw a nasty spill with someone doing that, and they did not have a cut off attached to them, so the dingy turned and ran them over. Not nice, I sit.
Fair Winds

[boatman61]

I find the best way to pillion on a M/bike is to put my arms round the riders waist and rest my hands on his outer thighs... then if he starts playing silly buggers... a quick shift and squeeze of the nuts calms em down real quick....