MacGregorSailors.com

I have been so impressed with Duane Dunn's webpage. Aside from the fact that it brought me to the dinghytow website.
I really thought that my concerns for getting my kids transfered to shore and inflatable placement had been solved. But no, as I suppose many have already discovered. David Foster says not for Mac's.
Is there any hope in sight ? I have recently purchased a 9'6" Saturn (well tommorrow) for my '05. What's everybody with pre-schoolers doing?
I only have a 38 lb. thrust Minn Kota so that's not the issue -yet. :?

Struggling with this one...are you looking for a dinghy solution for a Mac?

Lotsa choices.....????

Sorry, It was probably too late in the day to be posting (brain went to sleep hours earlier).
I am purchasing a 9'6" Saturn inflatable today. Now I move on to finding or fabricating something like the dinghytow system that I can use to lift and tow the dinghy with.
As posted here, others have come across the "dinghytow" product only to discover the manufacturer cannot to date supply to us Mac owners. I'm a newbie on this page so I cannot provide url for you to link to supplier's page.
Has anyone in this merry band of Mackers found a solution or modification to transom lifting/towing ?

I just use a line. Not the best picture, but you get the idea.




or do you mean being able to keep it out of the water or something. It is easy to tow, easy to get in and out (relativly speaking!)

Paul

If your dinghy has a hard floor it should not be a problem. If if starts to wanter just get a bridal for it and then use both stearn cleats to form another. I tow mine all the time but I have a hard one. It takes a little getting used to getting in from the stearn.

Sounds like Commocean is looking for the combination of towing/storage postitions that dinghytow (at http://www.dinghy-tow.com) offers. It minimizes the wetted surface when towing and allows it to be fully cranked out of the water. It seems like one could make a trip to the local marine supply and come home with some blocks, line and a couple of rigid poles and make one for a Mac pretty quickly, no?

~Bob

I see. I just tow around the cape. Rigging the equivalent of a crane would just be too much on a boat this size imho.

That's right Currie. ALAS ! someone understands me. I'm new to discussion board and must learn to be more blatantly obvious I suppose.
Has someone engineered a similar product to the "dinghytow" specifically for the MacGregor allowing one to tow and also fully crank a dinghy out of the water ?

I attach the mast raising pole for my X to the mast, about eye level, and then swing the pole out past the gunnal. The block and tackle for the mast raiser works great hoisting my 10 foot porta-bote, which I use as a dinghy. The porta-bote weighs about 80 pounds when I hoist it up, and the block and tackle makes the task fairly easy. Once raised, I can swing the porta-bote across the foredeck, where I complete the disassembly.

Well thanks Chinook I guess I'll give that a try but I'm going to scratch my head and think about modifying that Dinghytow for now.
Thanks everybody.

commocean,

Is there a specific reason that you feel you need to go to all of that effort in hoisting a dingy onto your deck

Ray

I can't believe how this topic has taken off into odd directions. I am not bent on hoisting a 9'6" inflatable in & out of the water and placing it on my deck. My original posting was referring to a product I saw called "dinghytow". If you haven't seen it, it looks marvellous. You can tow your dinghy like a tow truck tows your car. Your dinghy transom sits in the air and you tow nose in the water with greater control, higher speeds etc.
Problem is the manufacturer has nothing for Macgregor boats transom style/configuration. Too bad, looks like a great idea so I was wondering if any of the many gifted thinkers we have in this forum have tackled the problem with any success.

Sometimes we can get overly technical for solving simple problems. Rube Goldberg's machine for placing a tee, for example.


Why do you feel that a simple line to the dinghy is not the way to go? That's what I do, but I raise the motor first (most of the time). My inflatable is a 9'.3" Achilles with a 6hp Mercury four stroke.


Ray

We did chat about dinghy tow at some point. I have never seen it on a Mac .If someone has installed one, Id like to see it.

I thing we have a lot going on back there with 2 rudders, motor, ladder, ballast valve.. that it would be hard to do seamlessly. Probably not impossible though.

I am thinking of docking, etc. at least with a tow rope, you can just drag it along side of the boat..or do something with it quickly.. with the dinghy tow, you have this big thing dragged behind the boat..your 26' boat instantly turned into a 36'

I am sure it can be installed someway.. but with the rudders UP, it may be a bit more challenging to install/use.

Good point Paul S. - rudders up - rudders down - creates quite an arc that has to be avoided. Not to mention side to side steerage.
Rumour has it NASA spent millions developing a pen that will write in zero gravity and the Soviets use a pencil.
Guess I'm off to buy a good tow line. BUT WAIT ! What happens if you break your pencil during a space walk ? I guess you can always get tough and use your teeth to sharpen it.

Thanks Gang