What Did You Think Was Going To Happen?

[senormechanico]

Too bad you didn't get a few photos of that !
It would have made several yachting magazines for sure.

[SKG56]

Originally Posted by magellanyachts

I was tied to a buoy off Lopez Island one morning. The wind was 40+. A new HR came in the previous night. Obviously 2 fathers and sons. New everything. They were pulling the dink onboard using their main halyard. The wind caught the dink and the next thing it was perpendicular to the mast. Parallel to the surface. Flying like a flag 65 ft above the water. One of the funniest things I have ever seen.

That's Hilarious

[Mithril Bham]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Too bad you didn't get a few photos of that !
It would have made several yachting magazines for sure.

Yeah, before fancy smart phones.

[seahag]

30 knots gets this much attention? Fresh breeze lol

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by CaptRory

Personally, I think if my dink can take being towed around in the open ocean, it can probably take an anchorage in a blow.

I'm sure the guy who lost his dink last night agreed with you yesterday. I bet you he feels differently today....

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by seahag

30 knots gets this much attention? Fresh breeze lol

I know right? What a joke! I bet the guy whose dinghy chaffed through it's painter in 30 knots and drifted off to sea thinks it's funny too. He is probably rolling around on the deck laughing his ass off!

[roverhi]

Originally Posted by Delancey

I know right? What a joke! I bet the guy whose dinghy chaffed through it's painter in 30 knots and drifted off to sea thinks it's funny too. He is probably rolling around on the deck laughing his ass off!

No, he called his insurance company and will get it replaced by them. In the meantime the rest of us are paying for it in higher insurance costs.

[elknimrod]

Originally Posted by magellanyachts

I was tied to a buoy off Lopez Island one morning. The wind was 40+. A new HR came in the previous night. Obviously 2 fathers and sons. New everything. They were pulling the dink onboard using their main halyard. The wind caught the dink and the next thing it was perpendicular to the mast. Parallel to the surface. Flying like a flag 65 ft above the water. One of the funniest things I have ever seen.

We were anchored in Hyannis harbor last summer. I was woken by the sound of a freight train going by, right over my head. We were in the middle of a squall that was recorded with gusts to 62 knots. I started to pull my dink in, it had about 25 ft. of line out, when it took off, literally. All of a sudden I was holding a big kite as it rose 15-20 ft. in the air. Then it came down upside down, dunking the engine that was still attached. I start pulling again and up it goes, this time flipping right side up.

I now keep the dink very close to the sugar scoop when tying off for the night. Don't like flying dinks.

Ed

[buzzstar]

I think I may be able to duplicate the idea presented by weavis by using a wading pool and the abundance of spare deck space that we all have, along with a small inflatable and a Slip&Slide or plastic sheet. Might cost less too. Still working on avoiding the problem, if you care to call it that, observed by magellanyachts in the PNW, where anything is possible.

[Jim Cate]

Seems to me that an alternative solution is to simply use a painter that is stronger and be sure that there are no chafe points. That's worked for us for many years and many midnight squalls. One instance of the RIB flipping with the engine on... in storm force winds and gusts that caught it from abeam. One case of walkabout when we used a faulty snap hook, visiting on a friends boat that had no cleat handy to make fast to. That's in over 30 years and literally thousands of nights at anchor.

Nowadays when there are strong winds forecast (gale or more) we will tie the dink crosswise, close behind the sugar scoop, and in such a way that it can not invert. Bow and stern lines, both of 12 mm line and with zero chafe points between dink and cleats.

Why don't we take it aboard? Well, it is a PITA in the first place, requiring deflation and removal of engine and contents (no davits,which I abhor). Second, I view having it available for use to be a good thing. Over the years, we have several times gone to t he rescue of other folks loose dinghies, towed folks in small sailboats who had capsized or had been unable to sail back to their yachts, taken out additional anchors, and done other "humanitarian" acts, all in strong winds, sometimes in the dark.

I will note that these have all been biggish dinks... 3.5 to nearly 4 meters long, and with big outboards. They have been heavy enough that flight isn't a worry. Small and lightweight inflatables will take off and spin like a top at the end of their painters... with no good results. Our technique wouldn't work well with such, but then they are much easier to get on deck, and wouldn't do so well as "rescue" craft.

Jim

[carlheintz]

Magellanyachts: So we have a new expression: go fly your dink!

[Eder]

Some of the gear people have here in Mexico I'm surprised their painter holds in 5 knots of wind.

[buzzstar]

Most of these stories blame painters. Once, and only once, long ago our plastic dink (yes, plastic, not fiberglass) holding our dive gear, and well secured with the longish remnant of a poly ski line as we sailed to another mooring across a bay in a high wind, did not part. Instead, it held, and the dink literally broke into two pieces. We recovered most of the dive stuff that would float, as well as the forward half of the dink and the painter, but never saw the rest again. Now, I trust neither dinks nor painters not to part.

[grantmc]

Dinghies at night are always a challenge. I only have a small dinghy powered by arms and oars so not so heavy. Years ago an old salt I used to sail with had a rule that the dinghy always came onboard at night. Two reasons; less likelihood of theft, but more importantly if a situation arises during the night that requires you need to up anchor and evacuate then no worse moment to have the dink cause a mishap, say foul a line on the propeller or get caught on some other boat’s line. His lesson; in emergency there’s enough to think about just getting the boat going, and you’ll never remember there’s a dinghy tied on somewhere.

Anyways the point of this post is to share that hiab cranes could be the answer for the ultimate davit. And so super easy to lift the dinghy out at night.

Tied up at the Picton, New Zealand visitors wharf a few weeks ago a family pulls up across the jetty from us in a little launch. When I looked up I thought what is that by the dinghy on the cabin top? When I looked closer I realised, no, it was a Hiab crane. Its purpose: to lift the dinghy on and off the boat.

Now I know even small hiabs aren’t cheap, nor is installation simple. Turned out too that in order to counter balance the weight when in use, they’d had to rearrange water and fuel tanks etc to the opposite side of the cabin.

And for those technically interested, the model chosen was a Hiab 008T-1 crane (0.8 tonne metre) with a max. outreach of 3.8m weighing in at 125kg.

[PaulinOz]

Quote:Grantmc "if a situation arises during the night that requires you need to up anchor and evacuate then no worse moment to have the dink cause a mishap, say foul a line on the propeller or get caught on some other boat’s line. "

Totally agree. Last thing you want to worry about at 0330 dark when somebody has dragged onto you and are now towing you out to sea, is where is my dinghy.

On the davits, on the deck or even hanging on a halyard secured to the side of the vessel, will never foul the prop or get in the way when trying to extricate your self from a situation in the dark.