Towing Dinghy

[Letterkenny]

Looking to buy a center console dinghy (likely an Achilles 315DX or 350DX). I’ve read the threads around with many cautionary tales but wanted some thoughts for my scenario. I’m a coastal cruiser and most times that I would tow this would be to short hops within the San Diego bay (glorietta or South Bay trips) which I can’t imagine is an issue being in the protected harbor, just watching for power boat wakes. The next place I may tow her would be Mission Bay, 18nm trip around Point Loma. Again, only in good weather and fairly short, any concerns here? The last that I would consider would be the overnight sail to Catalina. That would be the most concerning as it’s the longest. I’d be very cautious on sea state if I took her, otherwise I’d take my roll up on board but just wanted to see some feedback. She would be towed behind my Jeanneau 349 either under motor or sail.

[Oeanda]

We’ve towed our zodiac around for the last three years now. Not that we particularly want to. We just haven’t gotten around to getting a smaller and lighter dinghy that will fit on deck. Some other people around here also tow.

It can be done. The wiser voices all seem to say that - it’s fine, until it’s not. Then it’s really not. Which is why they don’t do it.

There have been quite a few days where we shuddered to look back at what was going on behind us. I’ll be happy when we change the system and don’t have to tow anymore.

[MicHughV]

I towed my dink, with engine on, pretty much thru' the B'mas. It was a 10 footer with a 15 hp on back

This is what I did.

I attached two pad eyes, thru'bolted to the transom, with big washers under the nuts, either side of the engine to which I attached a short piece of stainless cable with an eye in the middle, so that the eye was about 12" in front of the engine, give or take.

To this eye, I attached a tow line, 3/8" nylon, in addition to the tow line on the bow, which was also 3/8". Both tow lines were about 35' long. Generally speaking, the dink was about 15-20' behind the boat.

When I towed the dink, I always attached both tow lines to the top of the stern pulpit. The reason I did this, was so that I could adjust both tow lines with precision, so the that the rear tow line, was maybe an 1/2-1" shorter than the forward tow line, this kept the towing strain on the dink transom, with the other tow line keeping the bow straight behind the boat.

Doing it this way, kept the dink more or less flat, instead of bow up. I would adjust how far back the dink rode, depending on wind and wave condition.

You may have to play around with this to suite your own circumstances, but for me, it was an ideal situation. I could adjust this towing arrangement on the fly to bring the dink closer to the boat or further back.

The rear tow line did all the heavy work, the bow tow line just kept the dink going straight.

Maybe something like this could work for you.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Letterkenny

Looking to buy a center console dinghy (likely an Achilles 315DX or 350DX). .... She would be towed behind my Jeanneau 349 either under motor or sail.

You certainly make some interesting choices.

Sounds like you have your mind made up. Let us know how it works out.


For the benefit of other readers who may visit this thread, the problems are:


1- towing any dinghy there is always some risk that the tow line(s) will part, whether due to chafe, shock loading, mistakenly tied knots, or attachment hardware failures. Redundant lines reduce the risk, good seamanship reduces the risk, but it is never zero.

2- there is a risk of capsize due to wave, wake, or wind. Lighter dinghies can take flight and windmill in a strong breeze when towed. A dinghy that is a good candidate for towing is one that will not be seriously damaged by a capsize and that is feasible to right.


3- there is a reduction of speed as a result of the drag from towing, which may matter or not depending on the situation. A question to ponder is whether towing a large dink will detract from the enjoyment of sailing that is presumably part of the reason for the whole activity.

I would think it a wise exercise to consider what the consequences would be of having the dink flip or the line break, both in terms of dollar cost and in disruption of an otherwise enjoyable time on the water.

[GordMay]

When towing your inflatable is unavoidable, make sure the dinghy the towline [length] is adjusted so the dinghy rides the backside of the stern wave, in a somewhat bow-up position.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your dinghy one wave behind you at under 6 knots, or two waves behind you at around 8 knots. The faster you go, the farther you will want your dinghy behind you, and the more hazardous towing becomes.

[JPA Cate]

Just accept that it is terribly bad practice, and does risk losing the dinghy. A center console dinghy flipped it's owner out during a rescue of the mother boat down here a few years back, and at that point, not only was a boat almost on the rocks, but it's owner was in the water, too. There is no doubt there is risk. [Both successfully rescued, though.]

That said, we used to tow our dinghy overnight coastally. we use two painters, and they are attached to our running backstay chainplates. We also keep a drogue rigged and ready to deploy. The drogue is on a bridle, about 15 ft long in total, and we made 2 pvc fabric (Herculite in this case) cones for it; it is weighted by a couple of feet of old chain we found somewhere and galvanized fresh as part of an anchor plus anchor chain order. The drogue is placed in the boat with it laid out in a way that Jim can pull the bow right up to the mother boat, and use the boat hook to chuck the drogue out of the dinghy.

Now, the dinghy by itself is good for 1 to 1-1/4 knots loss in boat speed. It is a lot more than that with the drogue deployed, but the drogue does keep the dinghy from surfing into the big boat and damaging her. I know So Cal is a light wind area, but you are only one BIG beam on puff away from having the dinghy flip. When it does, the shape of the bow makes it want to dive. Had it been night time, we might have lost the dinghy. You do lose anything loose in the dinghy. With a center console dinghy, you would short out all the electric things, too. I don't think I'd do it with one. And we're pretty experienced dinghy towers. Don't even think of trolling for sea fish while you're towing the dinghy! Having Mr. Dorado in the dinghy on the fish line is just too much to deal with for just a couple.

While we're on the subject of center console dinghies, I know the idea of them is really cool. No offense intended, but in a way, it is a kind of an ego trip. However, I'd suggest most strongly you drive one before you buy one. The reason is that they are not as easy to drive precisely as a tiller steered dinghy; and it will save you $$ if you decide to not buy one, because you don't like that either. You have about 3 or 4 turns lock to lock, and no worries as long as all you want is slow course changes. I was driving one for our sailing club, and it was being used as a shore taxi, so I was bringing crews ashore, and taking them and/or their guests back part of the afternoon on a hosted race weekend, for a number of years. If your object is to go alongside gently to pick up cargo, and so on, a tiller steered dinghy of appropriate size is way more convenient for most jobs. Especially dive trips, where not having the console in the way gives you more space for dive gear, laundry and groceries, whatever you want to cart around. the center console dinghy is even more subject to skittering around because it has more windage, and is more sensitive to puffs. For some reason, I am fond of having the boat go where I want it to, when I want it to.

Ann

[Oeanda]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Don't even think of trolling for sea fish while you're towing the dinghy!
Ann

Yeah this is a very important point- at least to me. It makes it almost impossible to troll and expect to land a fish. We basically have to forget about fishing while underway, which I don’t like at all.

[GreenWave]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I towed my dink, with engine on, pretty much thru' the B'mas. It was a 10 footer with a 15 hp on back

This is what I did.

I attached two pad eyes, thru'bolted to the transom, with big washers under the nuts, either side of the engine to which I attached a short piece of stainless cable with an eye in the middle, so that the eye was about 12" in front of the engine, give or take.

To this eye, I attached a tow line, 3/8" nylon, in addition to the tow line on the bow, which was also 3/8". Both tow lines were about 35' long. Generally speaking, the dink was about 15-20' behind the boat.

When I towed the dink, I always attached both tow lines to the top of the stern pulpit. The reason I did this, was so that I could adjust both tow lines with precision, so the that the rear tow line, was maybe an 1/2-1" shorter than the forward tow line, this kept the towing strain on the dink transom, with the other tow line keeping the bow straight behind the boat.

Doing it this way, kept the dink more or less flat, instead of bow up. I would adjust how far back the dink rode, depending on wind and wave condition.

You may have to play around with this to suite your own circumstances, but for me, it was an ideal situation. I could adjust this towing arrangement on the fly to bring the dink closer to the boat or further back.

The rear tow line did all the heavy work, the bow tow line just kept the dink going straight.

Maybe something like this could work for you.

Absolutely the best way to tow over any distance.

[Tayana42]

Letterkenny, I’ve towed my dinghy up and down the coast between all the places you mentioned. Short costal hops are ok since the weather in SoCal is mostly predictable. And I do often tow it to Catalina Island from Long Beach or San Pedro. But I wouldn’t tow from San Diego to Catalina. I think there is too much chance of unexpected wind or waves over that distance. (Don’t forget about Santa Anas.) My dinghy is an air floor not a rib. I never, never tow with the motor on the dinghy. If mine were to flip, which it never has, it would ride pretty high and be possible to turn it right side up again. Even from Long Beach to Catalina or Santa Barbara I prefer to bring it onboard and inflate it when I get there.

[Letterkenny]

Originally Posted by Tayana42

Letterkenny, I’ve towed my dinghy up and down the coast between all the places you mentioned. Short costal hops are ok since the weather in SoCal is mostly predictable. And I do often tow it to Catalina Island from Long Beach or San Pedro. But I wouldn’t tow from San Diego to Catalina. I think there is too much chance of unexpected wind or waves over that distance. (Don’t forget about Santa Anas.) My dinghy is an air floor not a rib. I never, never tow with the motor on the dinghy. If mine were to flip, which it never has, it would ride pretty high and be possible to turn it right side up again. Even from Long Beach to Catalina or Santa Barbara I prefer to bring it onboard and inflate it when I get there.

Thanks, appreciate a useful post. If you took yourself to a powerboat forum here, you will get a completely different answer than than what I’m seeing here. The Catalina part was where I was cautioned. I mainly just want to use it on its own and the wife wants to tow it some to places in harbor like glorietta, South Bay, or la playa. Biggest concern is power boat wake here.

I have another dinghy that’s a roll up that I’ll mainly use for longer trips. I tried to ask my question with some specific context but still got the copy and paste from years old threads. Guess we can put towing dinghy threads in the same category as portable generator threads with the same people repeating the same comments.

[MicHughV]

At the time I came up with my dual towing bridle arrangement on my dink, my boat did not have davits.

On longer off shore trips, the dink would be brought alongside the mother boat, and the 15 hp outboard muscled onto the deck, and then laboriously walked back to the stern where it could reside on it's own outboard bracket. The dink was hoisted onto the foredeck, using the spinnaker halyard, flipped over and lashed down. Not an ideal situation either as it prevented movement on the foredeck. I had hanked on sails in those days.

It was quite the ordeal to accomplish this, trust me on this. It was not easily done, and required at least two people to accomplish.

Towing the dink from only the bow, came with it's own set of problems, which led to my dual tow bridle idea.

I knew I had to come up with a better way, so experimented with the dual tow line arrangement, which much to my surprise, worked so well, I did it most all of the time.

In later years, I had dingy davits on the stern on my new boat, and also used a smaller engine....8 hp Yammie, so putting the dink in the davits was clearly the way to go.

As always, one has options.

[Letterkenny]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

At the time I came up with my dual towing bridle arrangement on my dink, my boat did not have davits.

On longer off shore trips, the dink would be brought alongside the mother boat, and the 15 hp outboard muscled onto the deck, and then laboriously walked back to the stern where it could reside on it's own outboard bracket. The dink was hoisted onto the foredeck, using the spinnaker halyard, flipped over and lashed down. Not an ideal situation either as it prevented movement on the foredeck. I had hanked on sails in those days.

It was quite the ordeal to accomplish this, trust me on this. It was not easily done, and required at least two people to accomplish.

Towing the dink from only the bow, came with it's own set of problems, which led to my dual tow bridle idea.

I knew I had to come up with a better way, so experimented with the dual tow line arrangement, which much to my surprise, worked so well, I did it most all of the time.

In later years, I had dingy davits on the stern on my new boat, and also used a smaller engine....8 hp Yammie, so putting the dink in the davits was clearly the way to go.

As always, one has options.

Thanks for this. I’ve decided at least not to tow longer than the 18nm plan I have and as stated before, only under ideal weather conditions. I’m mainly getting this for use outside of towing it but towing would just be an added use. I agree with others that this can be a hassle and so it would never be my first choice but for those times that we would really want to use it, looking for best setups like this.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

While we're on the subject of center console dinghies, I know the idea of them is really cool. No offense intended, but in a way, it is a kind of an ego trip. However, I'd suggest most strongly you drive one before you buy one. The reason is that they are not as easy to drive precisely as a tiller steered dinghy; and it will save you $$ if you decide to not buy one, because you don't like that either. You have about 3 or 4 turns lock to lock, and no worries as long as all you want is slow course changes.

I've never understood the attraction of smaller center-console boats (having operated several). You give up a lot of space, you give up control, and you can't move laterally to keep the boat in trim. Plus it's extra weight.



Last summer there was a fishing guide who was taking us out on a boat with a 300 hp tiller-steer outboard. I think that goes too far the other way but the point is that there are some experienced guides whose dislike of console steering is strong enough that they'll run a setup like that.


Having been at the helm of a number of boats with 35 hp outboards, some tiller steer some center console, I much prefer tiller steer. At around 60 hp or so I think a console starts to make sense because the boat can benefit from the weight distribution being further forward.