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I have towed a 12' Aluminium tinny with a 15hp motor on it for over three thousand k's now, if we have following seas we just lengthen the rope or ropes.
Had it kiss the transom once when we got caught out unexpectedly but for fishing in our Northern waters anything less would worry me a hull of a lot more than rough seas.
We don't tend to get out in real rough weather but have been caught with out any problem so far.
Hoisting the transom up seems to be a lot of trouble to a) do it and b) inconvenience accessing the Mac?
Thought the dinghy was creating a fair loss in power but on checking the GPS this does not seem to be the case (probably 1-2 kph).

I found the same thing in rough seas - by letting the tow line out I could get the dinghy to ride staying a constant distance to the boat and not stressing the line too much nor taking on water.

If its really that rough Ill get the h*** off the water (easy in the Cape of course.)

My inflatable could be pulled up on deck - my new Watertender 9.4 weighs about 100# so would be hard to get on deck, especially after conditions get nasty.

I just don't see the need of hoisting the dinghy aboard in most cases. When I'm out on the lake, I tow my 9'6" inflatable often. I have to be cautious when in reverse, but it's fine. When out on the ocean, I don't take it along. If I really wanted to, I'd let out plenty of line, but the thought of trying to lift it aboard because of changing conditions, is enough to not wish to bring it in the first place. The Achilles weighs 75lbs, and the 6hp Merc weighs about 40. That's too much work! If someone has that much drive to want to do all of that, well, that's good for them, but it's not for me.

I guess this falls under the three S W rule. Some will. Some won't. So what!

To quote Charles Dickens in the last line of A Christmas Carol;

And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!

Ray

To quote Charles Dickens' 'Bob Cratchit'............

"I am behind my times,we have been making rather merry" (these past few days)...... So progress has been slow......hic!

However, some bits are installed, and other bits are waiting on the wings.

Having Hogmanay just around the corner might be a bit of a problem too.

A Happy New Year folks

Ron

Way to go, All the best for the season. Can't wait to hear from you in the new year.

Ive found my Sevy 250 keeps 'dry' in rough seas by just opening the transom valve, and keeping the bow elevated enough to gather the water in the back of the dinghy. You can even see the water level from the cockpit so you can keep tabs on it.

This seems to work OK

2001-26X with attached 9'-6" dinghy using 2 alum. struts plus 1-anti-sway bar. Rubber strip on the struts gives a firm footing going aft. The chain sway link in 4 places is restrained by a 3/8 x 4" pin dropped in between a pair of 3/8 eyebolts on Mac transom, also the dinghy transom.

1/4' line both sides can easily be pulled up and initially secured on a Ronstan "V" cleat at the required height,and then more securely attached to the adjacent horn cleat. These lines can go back to the winches for more leverage, if req'd.

Dropping or lifting s'board rudder involves temporarily lifting the anti-sway bar to one side.

Releasing the dinghy from the Mac only requires pulling out 2 3/8 x 4" pins, and you're off.







Total cost for everything was about $110, and ran about 5-6 hours messing about, fine tuning,etc

Now down in South Texas for extended sea trials.........

Will report back in due course

Cheers.....R

Nicely done piece of work - elegant in simplicity.

I had once drawn up a similar system but in a mockup there was too much play and pressure on the dinghy skin for reliability.... because it didn't dawn on me to tow the dink backwards.... duh!

Our 12' Portabote will tow with no problem, but I will sell it soon to get a light weight inflatable so the Admiral can launch and retrieve from the foredeck if necessary, with a halyard.

Nice Mod. Seems like most of the bareboat charters I've seen in the Med use an elevated tow backwards plan like this. I would think the other advantage here is that you could leave the outboard motor mounted on the dinghy pretty easily and that would certainly minimize the hassle factor. For my norm of 1-3 day type cruises, its usually too much hassle to rig up a dinghy too (plus the fact that you can always get pretty close to a Florida beach with the Mac), but this would certainly be a good way to tow on a longer cruise.

Thanks for the positive comments. Yesterday out in 20 mph winds the dinghy sat behind behaving beautifully. Very stable with no worries.

Ron

I'm wondering how well this works motoring under full power. Does the wake create any problems with the dinghy that close? Have you tried that out yet?

Chinook,

you probably will be disappointed to hear my lil' 20 hp Honda,
flat out might only be a modest 8-10 mph............

But in any event, we'll have an answer back to you in a couple of days though........

Cheers.........R

Nice work Ron I'll use your plans to make a proto type for my own smaller two man dinghy that does not have a hard transom
How long are your lifting poles !

john

Thanks John,

Lifting poles are 1 3/8" ID X 54" long aluminum.
Anti-sway bar is 1/4" X 1" X 36" long stainless.

cheers.......Ron