Inflated dinghy storage on transom - suggestions please.

[Yeoman_24]

I have seen some great but pricey ideas for transom dinghy storage but am thinking of diy alternatives. I have a fairly vertical transom with a cenre hinged, bathing ladder which could be secured at 90 degrees as a bit of a “shelf”. Fixed backstay too. Any suggestions please? Thanks.

 

[Tranona]

A sling like a big nappy attached to the top of the stern and hoisted with the topping lift or a dedicated halyard works. However it is really not a good way to carry a dinghy unless you have a large and wide transom. A typical dinghy is wider than the stern of most sailing boats under say 38' and the beam is greater than the height of the transom.

 

[Yngmar]

Ours doesn't need inflating, but it's still a bit of work putting it together. In flattish waters, instead of towing it, we backpack it sideways across the transom. Just takes two mooring lines from the bathing grab handles at each side of the transom bottom. Also handy for storing it out of the water over night.

 

[Neeves]

Ours doesn't need inflating, but it's still a bit of work putting it together. In flattish waters, instead of towing it, we backpack it sideways across the transom. Just takes two mooring lines from the bathing grab handles at each side of the transom bottom. Also handy for storing it out of the water over night.

Yngmar - I think yours is a Portabote, or an equivalent - we hang ours on davits suspended by the seats - but we have a 22' beam and the dinghy is only 10'6". If we are making long passages we fold ours up and strap to the lifelines, aft (like a big surfboard) and keep the seats and transom in the aft cabin. Ours weighs 18kg but is still a bit of a handful to get on deck, use a halyard, but we have lots of deck on which to fold or re-assemble.

I would not want to carry any dinghy sideways nor on davits, as you indicate nor as we do, in big seas. We have had seas over the cabin roof, which is roughly 3m above sealevel - and they could fill a dinghy with one hit - and the davits, which are about 1.6m above water line and dinghy would not take the load. When we had our mono we would have breaking seas sufficient to throw everyone off the windward cockpit seats to leeward - they would wipe a dinghy on davits out.

Jonathan

 

[Spyro]

I've stowed mine on the transom like you suggest. My boarding ladder folds in the middle so I tie a rope on to the end of it. The dinghy sits on the step ladders with the ladder forming a shelf. The rope from the bottom of the step goes over the dinghy and ties onto the backstay. A couple of tyings onto the pushpit either side holds it in place.

 

[cpedw]

Ours dangles from 4 short lines, each tied to a ring near the 4 corners of the dinghy. The rings are there (fitted by the manufacturer) to hold the rope that runs around most of the edge of the dinghy. The other end of each line has a snap shackle which clips onto the eyes that accommodate the transom gate.

To use it, first arrange the painter so it runs under the rope round the dinghy, on the far side from the boat. Then attach the painter to the boat (just in case). Now lift the near-boat side of the dinghy and clip 2 low lines onto the lower eyes of the transom gate. Then pull on the painter to lift the far side of the dinghy up to about vertical. Now clip the other 2 snap shackles to the top eyes of the transom gate.

It sounds a bit complex but a picture might help - I don't have one. The boat is 35' and the tender is the smallest 3D, 1.8m I think. So far (2 seasons) I haven't felt concerned about the safety of the dinghy but I haven't undertaken an ocean crossing either.

A bit of time was needed to adjust the 4 lines to a good length to keep the dinghy firmly out of the water without making it too high for comfort.

Derek