Need an on-line dingy lesson please....

shmoo

shmoo

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Warning - there are dumb questions in this post - if they are likely to irritate you stop reading now.

We have a Valiant 2 person inflatable with an inflatable floor and a 2 hp Honda engine. Have used the dingy for dinking in from anchorages but these have always been "elective" trips - we didn't have to go if it looked a bit iffy.

Now we are about to move the boat from the security of a marina berth to a buoy in the Orwell and so will need to use the dingy even if there is a bit of a chop. There will be days which are great for sailing but a bit challenging for the dingy. This leads to some questions:

1. If there is a bit of a chop running do I try to go faster? i.e. is there any dynamic stability to be had?

2. The bow seems to ride quite high. Is there any danger of the wind getting under it and flipping me over? Will I get any warning or is it sudden?

3. Sitting on the thwart I can hardly reach the control arm and see forward at the same time (I am of normal build for a 1.8m high man but my head will only turn about 90 degrees to one side!). Where should I sit? Is it safe to sit on one side or should I sit on the floor to keep the mass lower? But this will bring the bow even higher.
 
I agree with csail, sit low centre and as far froward as you can. If your bow is normally raised then I would suggest tilting your outboard to keep your bow down. (outboards usually have a pin with an option of holes that allows the angle to be adjusted when it is locked down.) Also go as fast as it feels safe to do so. Watch out for getting too much spray/water in the boat as this will be dangerous.
 
I have a healthy distrust of small outboards and so always take a set of oars with me. They, like most others, come in two bits and I have found that slotting one half over the tiller arm of the outboards is an effective tiller extension allowing you to sit forward.

As to charging forward at full rev’s, given SWMBO is normally in the (not so sharp) end and would catch most of the water coming over the front, this is not normally to be recommended, you will not get wet, she shields you, but you will get an ear full
 
As above shen the chop hits. sit as far forward as you can manage (tiller extension if needs be) and as low as you can, this protects you a little more from spray as well as lwering your centre of gravity. reasonable speed and head it to the chop directly if you can, things start to get messy in a dingy if your side on to the chop or diagonal. even if it means going the longer way and looping (u turn) around the back of the boat.

I got stuck in a F6-7 in a 2m Dinghy luckily with a 15hp wich really high chop, ended up riding it like a zap cat, almost laid down, weight forward etc...

Point is, you'd be suprised what they can do if correctly balanced, weighted and driven!
I've only ever seen my tender try to flip when it's been empty and with engine but if your unsure especially while it's secured i find a half full fuel can or similar lashed to the seat in the front helps alot.

We have a Swing mooring and it's rarely a problem.
 
<ul type="square"> [*]Go slower, you'll get soaked otherwise [*]Put some weight eg a big can of water in the bow [*]Extend the tiller if possible. In a Avon Redstart I put the oars across from side to side and sit on those. [/list]

I hope this dinghy is one with a transom , not a round tail.

The suggestion to adjust the angle of the outboard probably wont help, you won't want to tip it up as that will drive the stern sown and the bow up. You won't be able to tilt it the other way at least not by much.

I would recommend a nice heavy rigid dinghy 9 or 10 ft long if your mooring is more than a couple of hundred metres from the slip.

The big problem will be not getting out to the boat, if conditions are too bad you can call things off. It will be getting ashore again if conditions are bad when you get back.
 
I used to keep a previous boat on a swinging mooring in Portland Harbour.
You knew if it was too rough to put to sea because you couldn't launch your dingy! The same trying to get ashore after a rough trip.
So in lumpy conditions, if you can put crew ashore then pick up mooring single handed, all the better, same applies with collecting the boat to start a trip.
Be aware of being pooped when you beach, I used to turn nose to waves and leap out in the shallows.
You will get a lot of ware and tare on an inflatable, but it is more stable than a round bottom grp dingy, which is an alternative if you can get hold of a bigish one and keep it locally. Leave it on the mooring when you are away.
Now to your questions:
Go slow and at about 45 degrees into waves.
Use throttle control going with the waves, watch out for surfing down a wave and stalling in the trough.
Sit low amid-ship and put a tiller extension on.
 
Vic has pretty well covered it. I try not to sit on the side sponsons - this leads to the famous "wet bum" syndrome. If you have a seat - USE IT! If not, sit on a water container, fuel tank, sailing bag or whatever.

Try to launch upwind of your mooring, it is easier to go down or crosswind if it is choppy, the longer distance is not a problem if it is dry. Get as big a dinghy as you can manage, Maestrals often have bow dodgers and/or screens to help keep spray away.

Stack stuff in the bow that you don't mind getting wet & will keep some weight forward. I tend to go aboard on my own with just essential kit. SWMBO goes shopping. I then bring boat into quayside or jetty to unload car & load SWMBO & week's shopping.

Most of the time it will be lovely & sunny, just be ready to deal with the odd time it isn't! We use a trot all year round, and for 15 years before, we had a swinging mooring across a nasty tidal rip, also all year round. Some days you will simply stay aboard, read eat & drink while it blows/rains/ whatever. But mostly it is not a problem.
 
I have a sometimes rough ride to Jissel. It used to be the best part of a mile until I got my club mooring, now it's around 300 yards.

Basically, I'd agree that with previous posters - keep the weight forward to ballast the bow and use a tiller extension. That way, you only risk blowing over in a hurricane!

When it's a bit bumpy, I haven't noticed a significant difference in how wet I get between going fast and slow, but a friend who lived on board and was on a swing for a while reckoned the best thing for staying dry was a cyclist's cape!

The big thing is to remember that you're far more likely to need a lifejacket in your dinghy than you are once on your boat. The only unsheduled swim I ever took was getting from dinghy to boat. It happened while the water was warm, so, apart from a soggy wallet, it was merely something to joke about over a pint. If it had happened last Sunday, it would have been a lot more serious! We have a rule that LJs are optional on the boat, but compulsory in the dinghy. We aren't too strict about it unless it's blowy or dark, but we probably ought to be!
 
Are you planning to take the dinghy with you or leave on the mooring?

If the latter then an inflatable will be there when you return (unless it has been half inched by one of the local skates) but a rigid might have sunk or deep flooded if there has been heavy rain. I saw one a few years ago just below Clamp House submarining and porpoising in the tide, couldn't work out what it was from a distance.

Spray coming aboard in brisk conditions is the main hazard, but you can get spray hoods for some inflatables I think.

There have been days when it would have been fine to sail, but SWMBO was not prepared to undertake the half mile trip out to the mooring - in an eight ft rigid tender. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

As someone else has said you need to be prepared for quite different conditions when you get back.
 
Thanks for help so far!

Of course, I always wear a LJ in the dingy. In fact I wear it on the marina pontoon in winter and all year at night. (Being a duffer, I have actually fallen off a marina pontoon but, in fairness it was when a young woman on a passing mobo stripped off her top. The Admiral laughed like a drain)

Not sure about leaving it on the buoy. We will need to take a view as to whether will need it on the trip. They do warn off folks looking for a spare buoy. A trip-by-trip decision, I think.
 
My solution is to have an elderly 11ft ribby thing bought very cheap as it is full of patches. I use this to get out to the boat, keeping an Avon on board as the ships tender. Even with that huge, heavy, dinghy you can have the odd "moment" with big wind over tide.
I leave the ribette on the mooring and use the Avon when away. If leaving an inflatable on the mooring for any length of time I always flip them upside down. This saves swamping and the guano curse. Only problem, is that kind people will keep righting them for you, on the last one I put "This Way Up - Please leave" in big letters on the bottom!
 
I would buy a cheap but larger dinghy and leave it on the mooring. The tattier the better as it deters the tea leaves. Old Avons with some 2 part glue and repair material would be my choice.

Yoda
 
See we are not the only ones on the move .. We are in Neptune at the moment and have just sorted a swing mooring on the Deben outside a very nice pub .. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Bank manager ( SWMBO ) very relieved ..
 
"a rigid might have sunk or deep flooded if there has been heavy rain."
Not impossible, but in 15 years, the worst mine got was about 3 or 4 bucket fulls in periods up to 3 weeks.
I also cut into the sides of the seat spaces and filled the voids with buoyancy, then covered the holes with screw on hatch covers.
 
Woolverstone river moorings on the Orwell are full up for the first time in living memory. There's definitely a stampede for cheaper moorings going on. First sign of a recession!

Re the dinghy, Orwell chop over 1/2 a mile is never too much for my tatty old inflatable and Mariner 3hp. Anything over 1/3rd throttle is wasting petrol and getting nowhere.

Regards, Mudhook
 
I'd go for a cheap 10ft rigid for getting to the mooring any day. Even in the shelter of Mersea, gladys is well out, and in the afternoon with a south easter over ebb tide it's a lumpy wet old ride. Boarding on the boaerding ladder (transom mounted is impossible, so we have a portable one for midships.

Of course the WMYC launch is the best solution of all!
 
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