Newport Inflatable Dinghy - No attachment points for lifting?

[HermanTheGerman]

I wanted to share an experience with Newport dinghys.

I just bought a Newport Carmel dinghy. Looks very nice and sturdy, and fits perfectly on the foredeck of my 36' sailboat where space is limited due to a baby stay. So far, so good.

Now, as I've seen in many sailing videos, I thought I could launch the dinghy from the foredeck and lift it back onto the foredeck using my spinnaker halyard. To make sure, I asked Newport what I could use as an attachment point for the halyard.

To my surprise, despite the fact that the dinghy only weights 70 pounds, they told me that neither the front grab handle nor the D-rings for the towing bridle will be strong enough to support the weight of the boat. Instead, they recommend installing Weaver davit attachments (to the tune of several hundred dollars) or using straps looped under the boat (which sounds cumbersome and they also didn't explain how that would look like).

That is unexpected and a little bit frustrating, and I'm looking for a solution that is easy and not super expensive.

Did anyone ever have a problem lifting a dinghy by the towing D-rings? Or any other recommendation for getting the dinghy on and off the main boat? Is this a Newport specific issue?

So many questions...

Thanks for following along!

[Orion Jim]

https://defender.com/en_us/defender-...hypalon-d-ring
You may have to resort to adding these to supplement your existing attachment points. What you have been advised seems utterly ridiculous and not something I’ve ever experienced with Achilles of Zodiac products. I routinely lift my dinghy aboard by the grab handle with my main halyard.
Sometimes the reduced price bargains are not intended to compete with the quality of the name brands. Sadly, this may be one of those times.

[Chotu]

Bargain option:

Run some load straps around the whole boat. One forward and one aft. Thread through those grab ropes to keep them from sliding fore and aft on the dinghy. Keep hardware at centerline.

Hook into the load straps at centerline fore and aft.

[Fishzine]

I have the Newport Seascape, 9ft with air floor. Here is what I do. I lift, and tow if from the front. It has D-rings on port and starboard on the bow and a handle in the center. They tell you not to tow it by the handle, so I have a bridle to the front the d-rings the pass thru the handle, so the d-rings support most of the weight but the pull is directed perpendicular to the the rings redirected thru the handle. When I lift boat onto foredeck, I use a halyard attached to the my tow bridle (which is just 1/2 inch floating line), so it is lifted vertically not flat. 2 1/2 years no problems so far with this setup, but as you say, not how Newport tells you to do it. I have considered rigging a lifting bridle to lift if flat but haven't yet.

btw, I really love my Newport dinghy with the large then many tubes, gives a very dry and stable ride, Isn't the easiest to get on plane with my 6HP outboard. I even put smart tab's dinghy size tabs that help with one but getting it to plane with two is a challenge.

[JPA Cate]

We have friends who used two straps (2" wide seat belt strapping), one forward, one aft.

They slipped them underneath the boat, and shackled them together, put the halyard on, and hoisted away. They did not, but one could, have narrower strops, to keep the fore and aft straps close enough together for the dink to not slip out, and to hoist evenly. One could also use line for it. They used their system for a whole circumnavigation.

***********

Another approach would be to make up your own towing eyes, with a large bonding surface, attach a bridle, and hoist with that. Think in terms of roughly 330 mm x 220 mm, which should adequately spread the loads. I would not go through the handle, for fear of levering up on it. It does not have a wide attachment area.

Ann

[Tim.Norris]

I just lift my newport vertically with halyard from the d rings, never thought to ask If it was OK. For launching I just pick it up and chuck it over the lifelines.

[kevin_j]

Same here, forward D-Ring bridle for about the last year. Mine does have rings in the interior that could work for a horizontal lift, but I haven't rigged them yet.

[HermanTheGerman]

Thanks for all the responses.

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks that either the design is flawed or the advice of the manufacturer is not correct. I will try lifting the dinghy vertically on the towing bridle. I've done this with my Mercury dinghy for 10 years (!) with no issue. It eventually fell apart at the seams (the transom actually fell off), but the attachment points were fine until the end.

And just think about it: Newport installs these really beefy metal D-rings for the towing bridle, but the attachment loop cannot take a brief 35 pound load? Doesn't seem to make sense. And if that was the case, would you even be comfortable towing the boat? Also, how do you get the dinghy onto a beach (with the engine weight added) if you can't hold it by the metal grab handle at the bow and the big rubber handles at the stern?

In any event, the purpose of the post was to bring this issue to the attention of the community.

Maybe Newport will even reply. I know that they occasionally follow the posts and respond. Let's see...

Thanks again.

[hugosalt]

Made towing bridle which I also use to lift dinghy with halyard.
Will try to post pic later.
Installed 2 eyes in transom of dinghy. Secured bridle to each eye and ran forward
through each D ring and continued forward in front of dinghy to tow line attachment point.
(dinghy is being pulled by transom attachment and D rings just guiding, put tubular webbing on for anti chafing).
Becomes/changes to lifting by simply attaching halyard to pre marked locations on each port/stbd leg. (for balance) If you do not want to put weight on D rings simply put excess of bridle from front under dinghy and D rings just become guides as they do when towing.
Dinghy is 9' 6" air floor about 60 lbs.
Works out well as I will only tow dinghy short distances.
Hopefully pic to come.

[hugosalt]

Pic of dinghy bridle/lifting combo

[pbiJim]

I always use a strap under the front half of soft bottom inflatables when lifting them.

Some of the better brands of Hypalon soft bottoms, like Achilles, will provide lifting rings up front, but I don't trust them. I only use the forward lifting rings on hard bottoms.

I'll use eyes bolted to a transom, & a strap up front on a soft bottom. I'll often feed the strap through a hand hold to keep it from sliding back, but the strap goes under the boat to carry the weight

[George_SD]

I can tell you what I've done with our Avon 310:
- factory properly glued D-rings on the front of the tubes. (you can buy them and glue yourself, but follow the proper procedure if you want them to hold!)
- 2 U bolts installed into the transom facing the bow
- then make a simple bridle for the four attachment points with stainless carabiners (goes on in 30 seconds)
- 4:1 BlueShark fiddle block system for hosting it off the spinnaker halyard. This way I can essentially single handle taking off the foredeck for the splash and taking it out of the water when we are taking off.

[hansverh]

I've got nothing to add. Just a picture of how we do it.