Almost Lost Our Dinghy

[SteveSadler]

I don't trust anyones knots or cleats with my dink, so I splice a stainless karibener or snap shackle to my 3/4" painter and when I hear the click, I know it won't come loose. 3/4" nylon is needed so you can get a good grip on it if you stand in the dink in rough conditions. I used 3/4 polypro for a year but it randomly broke in a squall and won't trust it again. If you don't use a Karibener the use an eye splice.

[mikedefieslife]

I've never understood why people actually tie a dinghy up. Just use some kind of clip, and you can secure the dinghy to the boat in less 1 second, and free it in 2 seconds. It also makes it super east and quick to secure it to docks, especially ones where quite a few others have tied up on the same cleat.

Happy to be educated if someone can tell me why tying it is better?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I've never understood why people actually tie a dinghy up. Just use some kind of clip, and you can secure the dinghy to the boat in less 1 second, and free it in 2 seconds. It also makes it super east and quick to secure it to docks, especially ones where quite a few others have tied up on the same cleat.

Happy to be educated if someone can tell me why tying it is better?

We don’t tie, but use a loop in the line.
I don’t want metal because of the noise as the winds and waves snatch the dinghy, metal on metal is going to make noise.

[hamburking]

Why not tie a loop in the end of the painter, and lay the loop over the cleat, perhaps with a couple wraps for insurance.

A bowline would suffice, but a double figure 8 would be better (for tying the loop).

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I've never understood why people actually tie a dinghy up. Just use some kind of clip, and you can secure the dinghy to the boat in less 1 second, and free it in 2 seconds. It also makes it super east and quick to secure it to docks, especially ones where quite a few others have tied up on the same cleat.

Happy to be educated if someone can tell me why tying it is better?

The big advantage of tying, compared to loops or clips, is that you can regulate the length of the painter in order to bring the dinghy closer or further and adjust to different places you may have tied it up to.

[Lihuedooley77]

Great wayward Dinghy scoops.

Just to add a little insurance, underway or moored, we use a proper cleat hitch to
a stern quarter deck cleat, and then back that up, with securing the bitter end
of the dink painter with a bowline to a bight to the stern pulpit.

Actually, it appears we have been lucking out, as we have not had a proper cleat
hitch slip. However, we will continue to back the cleat hitch up with the bowline to
the stern pulpit.

Escape dink tales. Only two.

Last BVI trip, we had left Anegada, on our way to Marina Cay Maybe a half mile off
Marina Cay, a bit south of Scrub Island we spot a dink adrift on our bow.

I look off to our south, and see a sailing vessel, making good knts, and sailing well.
Ahaa, must be his dink . We sure are not going to be able to retrieve his dink and chase him down. But, we since he just left marina cay, he would probably
contact them, and we would have turned the dink over to the dock master .

I roll in the roller snarler, and get ready to lower the main, as we approach
the adrift dinghy.

Looking back toward his boat, we has come about, and is full speed, under full sail, with a bone in his teeth, heading back to get his dink. Probably thinks that we are going to abscond with it.

No worries,

we just sail on past, and continue into Marina Cay. Another case of a freedom
loving dink trying to make the great escape.

the only other escape dink story, is from back in Cat Harbor , Catalina Island, Ca
Happily moored, friends dinked over to join us for boat drinks. Hubby and wife.
They climb aboard , the wife ties off the dink painter . They join us in happy hour.

A few minutes later, the guys wife says " i dont do too well at tying knots . "

We all look up and the dink is blown bye bye, at a good rate of drift as the harbor has
tall hills on each side that makes for a great venturi and stronger winds.

The hubby says, " I was on the swim team in college ! " and leaps off the stern
rapidly swimming for the dink. He makes the rescue, and motors back, secures
the dink with a proper cleat, and I added on the bowline, and handed him a
fresh boat drink. All was well.

The other dink stories are mostly motley dastardly outboard motor mantra, which all of you are well familiar with in your own experiences.

[Sailor647]

Originally Posted by nhschneider

I quickly got on the VHF and alerted some friends who were anchored nearby and they rescued our wayward dink.

Not only do you not know how to properly secure a dingy, you - my fellow cruiser - are confused.

I know this because we were anchored in Caleta Partida right behind you when your/our friend CALLED YOU on the VHF to alert you that your dingy was adrift. You did not hail them. According to your response on the radio, you didn't even know it was loose.

True, they promptly hopped in their dingy and returned it to your boat.

So, it begs the questions - why on earth would you feel the need to "stretch the truth" about something that happens to practically every cruiser at one time or another?

Wow.

[JPA Cate]

@sailor647,

Since dinghy walkabout is such a common phenomenon, maybe this is a case of mistaken identity? Is the kind of situation you feel a need to warn others of? or just enjoying superior knowledge?

Many early mistakes occur in the Sea of Cortez. We used to anchor off El Mogote, and it was common, then, to have local fishermen returning Yank dinghies. It is a stop that occurs early in people's cruising careers, when they are still on the steep part of the learning curve.

Ann

[Tingum]

That will teach you to mess with your wife's knot!

[Amapola]

Happened to us in the Bahamas. Now our painter has a cllp and a loop on the end. No trouble since.

[puffcard]

Use two lines. Add a solar light to motor top. If dinghy goes adrift at night you had about a minute before it's out of sight. Also put your boat name in/on the dinghy.

[Robert E]

After many of thousands of miles cruising from northern British Columbia to Mexico we decided after several scary surprises there would be no more fire drills at 3AM due to changing wind and sea conditions. Every evening our inflatable was lifted onto davits and a second hard dingy set on deck. No exceptions every.

It is not uncommon to find yourself on a lee shore with rising winds and a dingy gyrating wildly.

Bob

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Robert E

After many of thousands of miles cruising from northern British Columbia to Mexico we decided after several scary surprises there would be no more fire drills at 3AM due to changing wind and sea conditions. Every evening our inflatable was lifted onto davits and a second hard dingy set on deck. No exceptions every.



It is not uncommon to find yourself on a lee shore with rising winds and a dingy gyrating wildly.



Bob

Thread drift, but I’ll continue it and agree with you. Unless it’s really settled then before we go to bed we lift our dinghy on its davits, pick up all the kayaks and sups and get them back on board, and lift the swim ladder. If we do have trouble during the night we don’t want to mess around with gear around our stern.

Back to the dinghy painter, we have a large soft eye at the end of our floating painter (a single braid Spectra/polypropylene blend). On our boat we’ll either hook it through and around the arms of an aft cleat or we’ll tie it with round turn and two half hitches (ignoring the eye).

The eye at the end of the painter is also handy to clip to our dinghy anchor rode.

Our SUPs and kayaks have short painters with small wire gate carabiners to make booking them to the boat really easy, especially for our guests. I’m afraid the only person who’s knots I don’t check anymore is my wife, so clips on the toys makes life easier. But for the dinghy, I don’t want the clatter of a hard clip.

[Fishbone 1]

Towing our dinghy around the southen end of Florida, motoring up Hawk Channel, All is well. Dingy towed on a bridel. Went below to get a drink, came up dinghy nowhere in sight! We had to turn around, retraced our path. Luckily we found our dinghy with the help of some fihermen coming out of Marathon Marina. It was against the seawall about 50' away from being blown under 7 Mile Bridge. From then the bridel ALWAYS gets clipped on both sides of our stern rail. I'm currently looking to install davits

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I've never understood why people actually tie a dinghy up. Just use some kind of clip, and you can secure the dinghy to the boat in less 1 second, and free it in 2 seconds. It also makes it super east and quick to secure it to docks, especially ones where quite a few others have tied up on the same cleat.

Happy to be educated if someone can tell me why tying it is better?

As noted upthread, you can't adjust the length of a clip.


Clips fail, too. In particular, they are susceptible to damage from off-axis pull when they are stuck in whatever hardware they're clipped to. They are also noisy. They have a propensity to damage paint and flesh alike when they contact either with force. If you depend on them, they are one more spare to bring along. They corrode over time and the springs in them can fail without warning. They serve as line traps and catch everything else.


I am quite convinced that the previous owner of my boat couldn't tie a knot, because there were clippy things everywhere. I've been on a purge