Dinghy towing

[Oily Rag]

When towing the dinghy from the port quarter cleat and on the port tack, I detected an increased weather helm.
What is considered best practice for towing? How to minimise drag? (Apart from stowing on deck of course!)

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Rig a bridle: i.e. a line between the port and starboard cleats, outside of any outboard, windpilot, or transom-hung rudder, and tie the tow rope to the middle of it. This will equalise the drag on the boat. You could possibly also rig a bridle on the towed boat to minimise yawing.

 

[Fimacca]

I see loads of folks drag their dinghy far behind them. I tie mine up close, kissing the stern. It will depend on your stern shape. The drag is reduced.
Best on deck, but my foredeck was too small.
Never had an issue, no stern ramming either !

 

[johnalison]

I see loads of folks drag their dinghy far behind them. I tie mine up close, kissing the stern. It will depend on your stern shape. The drag is reduced.
Best on deck, but my foredeck was too small.
Never had an issue, no stern ramming either !

Me too. You only have to be holding the painter at different towing distances to appreciate the difference. The bow of the dinghy needs to be clear of the water.

 

[Laminar Flow]

The length of the tow line on a dinghy needs to be varied according to the speed and corresponding wave system of the towing vessel. The dinghy needs to be riding on the downward slope of the stern wave; the correct position of least drag can be easily checked by the load on the towline.
There is good reason to tow the dinghy at some distance, as at certain times, it may cop a ride on a following sea and surge past the towing vessel or run into her stern.
Some dinghies tow much better than others and some are completely useless at it; we used to have a v-bottom, pram nosed (sailing) dinghy that would roll up on it's chine in moderate conditions and capsize. It was a nightmare to retrieve.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Best is not to tow it at all unless your going a very short distance , I am for ever reading people posting on the cruising forum asking if any one seen their dinghy they lost while towing .
Plus think of the fuel your using . When all it take is a few mins to get it on deck where it's safe .

 

[geem]

It totally depends on the dinghy. With a Caribe 9L towing it a nightmare. Huge drag and it flies all over the place. Very unsatisfactory towing it even short distances.
The current dinghy is a hard dinghy. Tows superbly. Very little drag. We tow on a long bridle attached to the dinghy tow point that is on the dinghy bow at the waterline. The bridle goes to both our stern cleats. The bridle is polypropylene as its stretchy and cheap and most importantly it floats. No risk of getting the bridle lines around the prop. If we are going up wind we dont need a drag device. Down wind we add a bight of rope from both aft dinghy cleats trailed behind the dinghy. This causes sufficient drag to keep the tow straight in any following sea and stops the dinghy surfing in to our stern. We have towed like this in 2.5m waves and gusting over 30kts trouble free. The dinghy is 3.8m long and stays bone dry

 

[vyv_cox]

We towed our Quicksilver 2.7 airdeck dinghy almost everywhere, from Spain to Greece. Too much hassle to deflate and reflate every time and too big for the foredeck because of our babystay. As said, towed with a bridle, no problem at all. In 10 years only capsized once, rounding Cape Malea in a gusting force 7 on the beam.

 

[johnalison]

The length of the tow line on a dinghy needs to be varied according to the speed and corresponding wave system of the towing vessel. The dinghy needs to be riding on the downward slope of the stern wave; the correct position of least drag can be easily checked by the load on the towline.
There is good reason to tow the dinghy at some distance, as at certain times, it may cop a ride on a following sea and surge past the towing vessel or run into her stern.
Some dinghies tow much better than others and some are completely useless at it; we used to have a v-bottom, pram nosed (sailing) dinghy that would roll up on it's chine in moderate conditions and capsize. It was a nightmare to retrieve.

The advice for hard dinghies and inflatables is different. I have only occasionally towed a hard dinghy, when I would have followed your method, but for an inflatable, the tighter the better for me.

 

[Neil_Y]

When towing the dinghy from the port quarter cleat and on the port tack, I detected an increased weather helm.
What is considered best practice for towing? How to minimise drag? (Apart from stowing on deck of course!)

Use a back up line as well that's slack . If I'm towing I use a long line with some weight in the middle to reduce any snatch. But prefer to get smaller dinghies on the sugar scoop if there is one.

 

[Laminar Flow]

I have towed many different types of dinghies.
Like Geem, we also had a Carib 9 rib which, hernia rupturingly heavy, had so much drag that we near lost a knot towing it. When we had to abandon an anchorage in a storm at night and didn't have time to hoist it to the davits it would come surfing past the boat.

Our last hard dinghy was a 7.5' GRP klinker from the rescue rack and it followed us like a faithful dog no matter the sea state. In the end, we found it too heavy to easily hoist on deck where it used up precious space and was an annoying inconvenience when anchoring.

We now have a 2.2m inflatable. It is light, can be brought up without much effort, is more stable than the klinker, rows like sh**.
We have towed it as Johnalison suggests, tight up to the stern; It works, but I have the same feelings about it as leaving the fenders hanging over the side.

Inflatables can and will become airborne given enough wind; it takes little enough for them to achieve liftoff, even with an outboard. Sport yaks II, the variety optimized for wet bum performance, tow well, but also have aeronautical ambitions.

 

[Sea-Fever]

Best is not to tow it at all unless your going a very short distance , I am for ever reading people posting on the cruising forum asking if any one seen their dinghy they lost while towing .
Plus think of the fuel your using . When all it take is a few mins to get it on deck where it's safe .

It doesn't take a few minutes if you have to deflate the blinking thing, roll it up and put it in a locker.

 

[FlyingGoose]

Towed my 3.2m rib on a bridle , Been some awful weather , the dink never looked in trouble or has it flew past us , I suspect the weight is one issue
It can sit are the front but is heavy to pull up
So just tow
2 large dogs me the wife the daughter just about all fit in.

 

[Zkaliman]

This is an old thread and sailaboutvic cautions to not tow a dinghy and it is probably the best advice but here we go again - I have a 44 foot defever trawler that does about 7 knots - I’ll b cruising the med - and I really want a large dinghy as I read I think on this forum that with a large dinghy - i’m looking at a zar 18 foot - instead of trying to get a slip at different places - just anchor out and tie up the dinghy at the feul dock for like 2-3 hours while u go get lunch or groceries. as opposed to getting a small dinghy that goes on the flybridge - just tow a large dinghy - good idea or bad idea ? What do you guys think. ? My boat is 44 feet and I’m thinking of towing like a 16-18 foot zar dinghy . Thanx again - love this forum.

 

[Refueler]

I am surprised by the replies ......

The usual advisory on dinghys was :

Inflatables should be hard up to stern of towing boat - preferably with bow out of water ... this is to stop the dinghy doing a flip over due to no-one / weight in it .. wind / sea can easily flip it over.

Hard construction dinghy should be towed at a distance bewteen towing boat and dinghy to allow the dinghy to follow reasonbaly controlled .. the length can be short or long depending on sea conditions at time.

I cannot see any reason to change that ... of course a RIB could be classed like the hard dinghy.

 

[B27]

This is an old thread and sailaboutvic cautions to not tow a dinghy and it is probably the best advice but here we go again - I have a 44 foot defever trawler that does about 7 knots - I’ll b cruising the med - and I really want a large dinghy as I read I think on this forum that with a large dinghy - i’m looking at a zar 18 foot - instead of trying to get a slip at different places - just anchor out and tie up the dinghy at the feul dock for like 2-3 hours while u go get lunch or groceries. as opposed to getting a small dinghy that goes on the flybridge - just tow a large dinghy - good idea or bad idea ? What do you guys think. ? My boat is 44 feet and I’m thinking of towing like a 16-18 foot zar dinghy . Thanx again - love this forum.

I'd suggest davits for a 44ft boat.
Towing dinghies is always a worry when the see gets a bit bit, and the bigger the dinghy, the bigger the worry.
A little inflatable doesn't have the mass to do itself much harm. Provided you can keep it empty of water. A big heavy dinghy can put a lot of shock loads on its painter and can easily take on a lot of water. You'll also probably want some kind of hoist for the outboard?

An 18ft dinghy is also a heavy liability on a beach. It may be a problem in some ports?

Committing to always towing a dingy will ultimately affect the weather you can cope with. I'm happy to tow mine a few miles, but I know I always have the option to deflate it on deck.

 

[dombuckley]

A Defever 44 can easily accommodate a 12ft RIB on the aft deck canopy, and most have a large single-arm davit for this purpose. That should be capable of carrying 6 people or a helluva lot of groceries: why would you need anything larger, which would only limit the capabilities of the parent vessel?

 

[vyv_cox]

18 ft is a massive tender. One model I have checked carries 10 people and weighs 270 lbs.

In some Mediterranean countries this is too big to qualify as a vessel tender, meaning it will require its own registration, permit, fees, etc.

You will be highly unpopular if you tie up at the fuel dock for 2-3 hours, especially with such a large dinghy. Far better to use something smaller that can be pulled up a beach or lie with all the others against a wall.

 

[Slowtack]

I keep the dinghy within a meter or so of the stern... bring the painter under the stern ladder hinge rung... Close to water level... And then up to mid stern cleat. This keeps the dinghy bow down and makes for a better tow I find

 

[William_H]

As Op has discovered a drag on one side of stern can affect steering and sailing ability. As said try to balance drag with a bridle.
Some while back I needed a tow in my 21fter due no wind after a race. Tow line was attached to stbd stern of 30fter sailing boat towing me. As we came up Blackwall Reach (not the London one) he was getting closer to a line of moored boats. I instinctively without thinking I crept outwards to his starboard away from the moored boats perhaps unconsciously thinking to lead him away. finally I realised his problem, my pull from his starboard transom plus my boat out to his starboard side pulled his stern to starboard. Leading the boat to port into danger. His rudder at modest speed could not counteract the pull. I then turned to his port side so turning him out away from danger.
The moto then is if being towed steer to the centre of tow boat transom and tow boat use a bridle to centre the load.
Tug boats have a tow point not just centre line but also toward the centre (fore and aft) of the boat to avert the load affecting tug steering. ol'will