Almost Lost Our Dinghy

[bobnlesley]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

...It is Murphyism at its best: what can go wrong, will...

In matters nautical, I prefer to be guided by O'Toole's Law which states:
Murphy! That Murphy fella's a bloody optimist.

[bobnlesley]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Many early mistakes occur...early in people's cruising careers, when they are still on the steep part of the learning curve.

I wish that were true, but sadly after fifteen years of cruising, it was only about a month ago that one of ours went float-about and neither the hi-tech clips and shackles, nor the assortment of recommended knots and bends would've helped: I came alongside, put the groceries over the guard-rail into the cockpit and climbed in after them and with the painter still laid in the bottom of the dinghy, it drifted quietly away; the Swedish guy anchored astern of us returned it ten minutes later - I'd not noticed it's departure.

[dfelsent]

I’ve been sailing for 50 plus years. Every time I learn a new way to make a mistake.
30 or 40 years ago I might not have recognized the mistake.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by bobnlesley

I wish that were true, but sadly after fifteen years of cruising, it was only about a month ago that one of ours went float-about and neither the hi-tech clips and shackles, nor the assortment of recommended knots and bends would've helped: I came alongside, put the groceries over the guard-rail into the cockpit and climbed in after them and with the painter still laid in the bottom of the dinghy, it drifted quietly away; the Swedish guy anchored astern of us returned it ten minutes later - I'd not noticed it's departure.

Yes, and this sort of mistake becomes easier when there are two of you in the dink, each thinking the other has the painter. Ann and I have a ritual exchange when alighting... "do you have the string?" and not exiting until this question is resolved. Works for us!

Jim

[SteveSadler]

Hi Fishbone, what were the conditions like when you lost it and what broke?
I tow mine a lot as it's quite time consuming to haul it up for short hauls.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Yes, and this sort of mistake becomes easier when there are two of you in the dink, each thinking the other has the painter. Ann and I have a ritual exchange when alighting... "do you have the string?" and not exiting until this question is resolved. Works for us!

Jim

My son and his wife are both flight instructors.

I've adopted the modus in airplanes for EVERYTHING we do aboard, when responsibility shifts. For the above:

"Your dinghy." Transfers control to the admiral
"My dinghy." Acknowledges control
"Your dinghy." Confirms I heard it.

Same thing at the helm, when we're about to bring the dink up, aside (as others here have done) to keep the critters at bay (I take the lifting bridle as I step up; before I let go of it, I have her confirmation "My Boat", e.g.), and any other transfer of responsibility.

Sounds silly if you don't know why, but it only takes one "OH ****" as happened before we started using this protocol, and the admiral had not secured the dink and it was floating away

[Group9]

Hearing those sad 6:00 am radio calls in the Bahamas, "Has anybody seen a dinghy floating by?" made me adopt my redundant dinghy securing system of "One is none, two is one" when it comes to dinghy painters and securing the dinghy in the water or for towing.

This actually became "Three is one" at night, when I would go ahead and lock our steel cable to the pulpit as well. Once it gets to be a habit, you don't even have to remember to do it.

It may seem like a lot of effort, but it is nowhere near the effort of trying to procure a new dinghy and motor in a place like the Bahamas.

[a64pilot]

I bought a 30’ plastic coated steel cable at a home store, meant for locking grills or something, made by Master Lock. It locks the outboard to the dinghy as well as the dinghy to the dinghy dock and leaves of course a little less than 20’ of cable.
I usually don’t raise the dinghy at night but lock it to a stanchion. Anyway woke up one day and the dinghy wasn’t alongside of the boat as usual, it was behind the boat attached by the cable, the painter had chafed through

[Group9]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I bought a 30’ plastic coated steel cable at a home store, meant for locking grills or something, made by Master Lock. It locks the outboard to the dinghy as well as the dinghy to the dinghy dock and leaves of course a little less than 20’ of cable.
I usually don’t raise the dinghy at night but lock it to a stanchion. Anyway woke up one day and the dinghy wasn’t alongside of the boat as usual, it was behind the boat attached by the cable, the painter had chafed through

That sounds exactly like the cable we use. Nice to have extra length at sketchy beaches when you have to lock it to something not too close to the water.

[a64pilot]

This one, and surprisingly it’s held up great I’m salt water, had it a few years now and no rusting, and it’s often under water.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Master-Lock...-Lock/50371776

[wsmurdoch]

While most of this is about losing the dinghy from the mothership, we have twice had ours go wandering off from a beach. Once my mis-tied bowline untied itself and a friend had to give me a ride out to my floating away dinghy. (There is a reason that climbers tie a re-thread figure eight rather than a bowline.) The second time we pulled the dinghy up onto a small beach for a short exploration that lasted longer than we had anticipated. The tide lifted the dinghy, the wind blew it away, and I got my daily exercise with a 300 yd run followed by a 200 yd swim.

[BlackHeron]

Contrary to popular belief among many bkaters making more figure-8's does almost nothing to the security of a cleat knot.

The American-style cleat knot isn't really secure beyond a lunch hitch anyhow, even on a cleat that is properly sized for the line. The Euro OXXO is more secure but on an oversized cleat an extra full wrap or two at THE BOTTOM adds the added security necessary, before the locking cross-8 at the end.

Just like on your winches, putting a few more full round turns around the bottom of the cleat or winch drum keeps the line from slipping under a load or micro shock loads over time.

Also, I never trust one single line to secure our dinghy. One point of failure is not good. We have a breast line and a stern line on our dinghy as we prefer to board and store our dinghy midships. I don't even get out of the dinghy at the mothership until I have two lines secure.

The stern line is quite long since it runs all the way to the stern rail of our sailboat and back to a jibsheet cleat. When we tow the stern line gets threaded through the dinghy and under the thwart seats, then over the bow and is then a backup painter in case the actual painter parts because of chafing or failure of the attachment point.

Others may think the belt and suspenders philosophy is just too much work. It's your dinghy in the end, until it is not...but never fear, WestMarine sells more when it goes on permanent walkabout because doing it right was to much of a bother.

https://youtu.be/BBqsF72xNSU

[Group9]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

This one, and surprisingly it’s held up great I’m salt water, had it a few years now and no rusting, and it’s often under water.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Master-Lock...-Lock/50371776

Dat be it!

We're actually on our second one. The plastic got braided away at one point on the first one over the years, and it quickly started to rust in that location. But, we definitely got our money's worth out of it! I used it to lock my outboards up after we got back.