Tow dinghy

[green]

That’s great advice, Russ. Thanks.

[ris]

This is how we tow our dinghy on long trips. We have 50 ft of floating line and put the dinghy on the second wave back behind the boat. We have even towed at 15 mph but you need to balance the dinghy on the front side of the second wave from the out board. This way only about half of the dinghy is in contact with the water. Took this picture this morning as we left Kingston Ontario this morning heading for the Trent/Severn Water Way.

[NiceAft]

Rich,

Do you tow with a small motor on the stern?

[ris]

No we have the 2.3 hp Honda on a bracket on the Mac. We never tow with the motor. We think it puts to much stress on the dinghy tow rings. The dinghy is seven years old.

[Russ]

Rich,

Do you tow with a small motor on the stern?

ONCE I towed with the 2.5 Suzi on the the motor was under.

Too much weight on the back to lift the inflatable up.

The dinghy went vertical as I watch it almost go airborne. Crazy. Never again towed with the engine attached. It still ran, but that was close.

Also changed my towing of dinghy protocol.

[Ixneigh]

My answer to the dinghy. She’s a bit heavier than I wanted but she tows really well, even at planing speeds, and she rows like a dream (I enjoy rowing so that’s a must) she’ll carry three average sized people or two, dogs, and a good amount of gear. And she’s dry, another must.

[NiceAft]

Ix,

The only problem I have with a hard shell is that IF it swamps or flips, it's going down.

[Ixneigh]

I’ll put a self bailer in her before I tow her to the Bahamas
Ix

[NiceAft]

Right! That will work

[Herschel]

Ix,

The only problem I have with a hard shell is that IF it swamps or flips, it's going down.

How about filling the voids under the seats with a spray in foam to act as buoyancy if it flips? I did that with my dinghy/sailboat. (It is a 1959 O'DAy Sprite BTW)

[Ixneigh]

There is foam under the seats

Ix

[Russ]

I'm pretty sure all hard sided dinghies have flotatioin. Now do I want to tow a swamped dingy and bail it out?

I will say I once towed my inflatable with that 2.5 (very light) outboard on the back in a wind. The dinghy went 90 degrees up and I'm sure was dunking the outboard. I normally remove the little outboard and mount it on the rail, but this time I got lazy. I swear that outboard got dunked. But it started right up the next time. Not salt which would have been nastier. But nonetheless, I learned to NEVER leave it attached to the dingy.

[Russ]

I have fond memories of stern seats from my first sailing experiences. I thought they were the best seats in the house. Is this model hard to install? Could a beginner do it?

Yes, I think deflating is what I will do. I’m also going to try to bring the into the dinghy dock tomorrow. Someone pointed out to me that it draws so little and who is to say what counts as a dinghy anyway??

Yes.
1 foot of water.
It's a dinghy by most standards.

[Herschel]

I towed my dinghy from Sanford, Florida to Jacksonville, Florida down the St. Johns River back in 2010. In order to make that passage I had the 15 mile stretch across Lake George. It is notoriously choppy when there is any wind, and there was a good chop when we crossed. My best recollection was that I was towing at about 7-8 knots. When I arrived at the north end of the lake and pulled into the marina in Georgetown, my dinghy was pretty swamped with water. But was faithfully following along. No mishaps, and it just took a few minutes to bail her out. Don't be too put off by the tannin-colored water.

[Drifter]

I am starting to lean towards this kind of hard dinghy over an inflatable...