Offshore with a dinghy

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Billyo

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So here's a question, would anyone, ever, go offshore with a dinghy on their davits?

Bit of background, I have a self tacking jib on the foredeck and a pair of highly over enginered davits on the stern. The p/o over engineered so that he didn't have to lose the self tacker in order to store the dinghy on the foredeck. I've been pretty adamant the I need to lose the boom but I had a stainless fabricator on the boat today for something else, who knows his mustard, and he swears he wouldn't have an issue going offshore with a dinghy hanging.out the back.

Any thoughts?
 
Billyo said:
So here's a question, would anyone, ever, go offshore with a dinghy on their davits?

Bit of background, I have a self tacking jib on the foredeck and a pair of highly over enginered davits on the stern. The p/o over engineered so that he didn't have to lose the self tacker in order to store the dinghy on the foredeck. I've been pretty adamant the I need to lose the boom but I had a stainless fabricator on the boat today for something else, who knows his mustard, and he swears he wouldn't have an issue going offshore with a dinghy hanging.out the back.

Any thoughts?
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What do you mean by offshore? I would be ok for a hop across the Channel or North Sea but maybe not sail on a trip down to the med sor an ocean crossing. Mind you I have met many boats circumnavigating that keep the dinghy on the back always.

The risk is that if you loose it in big wave how much damage would that do tbe boat? Are you dependent on the dinghy when you get to your destination?

Ypu need decide on risk and make up your own mind. No matter how strong you think your davits are the sea is stronger. How likely are you to encounter those conditions?
 
Billyo said:
So here's a question, would anyone, ever, go offshore with a dinghy on their davits?

Bit of background, I have a self tacking jib on the foredeck and a pair of highly over enginered davits on the stern. The p/o over engineered so that he didn't have to lose the self tacker in order to store the dinghy on the foredeck. I've been pretty adamant the I need to lose the boom but I had a stainless fabricator on the boat today for something else, who knows his mustard, and he swears he wouldn't have an issue going offshore with a dinghy hanging.out the back.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I would have just a short, simple advice for you: DON'T DO IT. Dinghy anywhere else than VERY securely fixed on the foredeck is asking for trouble. A big one. I was experimenting with a few other methods and most of them worked well - until I got hit by a bad weather. Unless you have a reliable way how to avoid it (let me know if you do, I am keen to learn), you are going to pay for your complacency. Like everything else on the open sea: don't do it 100% and it is going to turn back an bite you in the ass :)
 
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Tradtional place is the coachroof, not the foredeck.
You can get a lot of water over the foredeck.
The best thing for offshore is to have your dinghy deflated and in a locker.
But I know lots of people who have crossed Biscay and the Atlantic with a dinghy on davits.

In a storm, it is possible the sea will take the dinghy off the stern. Losing the dinghy is annoying and expensive. Losing the integrity of the stern rather more so.
Maybe considerr whether the weakest link is in the right place?
 
I know someone , coming back from St Kilda, ended up with the dinghy spinning uncontrollably right over the helm, nearly killing the skipper. They had to cut it loose and it eventually washed up hundreds of miles away, completely destroyed. So that would certainly put me off using davits in any sort of weather.
 
It is not just big seas that one has to worry about. What if one encounters a couple of heavy rain squalls & the dinghy is normal way up? the additional weight could rip the bottom out of an inflatable or just add a lot of weight onto the pendulum effect on the stern. Are you going to keep stopping to bale it out? If you leave the bungs out of a ridgid floor dinghy then when you launch it you will have to put them back as you launch otherwise it will start to sink as you get back in:ambivalence:

What is the issue with the self tacker? Is it one with a Hoyt boom or do you just have the sheet leading forward. If it is just the sheet that is the problem this is easy to fix.
 
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Billyo said:
So here's a question, would anyone, ever, go offshore with a dinghy on their davits?

Bit of background, I have a self tacking jib on the foredeck and a pair of highly over enginered davits on the stern. The p/o over engineered so that he didn't have to lose the self tacker in order to store the dinghy on the foredeck. I've been pretty adamant the I need to lose the boom but I had a stainless fabricator on the boat today for something else, who knows his mustard, and he swears he wouldn't have an issue going offshore with a dinghy hanging.out the back.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

what class is the yacht, size will make a difference
 
It depends on how the dinghy is secured to the davits. I've crossed the Atlantic with all dinghy on the davits but it wasn't just hanging there. It was lashed in place, so it couldn't swing. The bow was secured slightly higher than the stern with the hung removed, so any water could drain out. It had a full cover, so water mainly didn't get into the dinghy. Engine remained in place. The davits also supported a solar array and were fairly serious bits of engineering. The dinghy itself was a rib, so awkward to simply deflate and stow elsewhere.
On my own boat, for long passages offshore, the dinghy is either stowed inflated on the cabin roof or deflated and stowed in its bag down below.
 
Given that you don’t need the dinghy from departure to arrival, what’s the point of having it hanging in the Davis, or even lashed on the foredeckmor coach roof?

Pack it into its bag, stow it away, and get it out when you get close to destination, or even leave it till you have arrived and anchored. No brainer really?
 
Richard10002 said:
Given that you don’t need the dinghy from departure to arrival, what’s the point of having it hanging in the Davis, or even lashed on the foredeckmor coach roof?

Pack it into its bag, stow it away, and get it out when you get close to destination, or even leave it till you have arrived and anchored. No brainer really?
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Many people have davits because they cannot do what you suggest as they have either a solid dinghy or more likely a RIB.

It is clear that many do sail offshore with the dinghy on davits - I was on an Oyster 435 recently that had just finished a 15 year round the world with a RIB on the davits without any problems.

So, it is a matter of personal choice and if the choice is to use davits to ensure that they are strong enough and then have a strategy for keeping the dinghy secure (as duncan suggests earlier). As always there is a risk but that needs to be offset against the benefits of having a bigger and more versatile dinghy. Also worth bearing in mind that boat sizes re gradually increasing and carrying a dinghy this way becomes more practical.
 
Richard10002 said:
Given that you don’t need the dinghy from departure to arrival, what’s the point of having it hanging in the Davis, or even lashed on the foredeckmor coach roof?

Pack it into its bag, stow it away, and get it out when you get close to destination, or even leave it till you have arrived and anchored. No brainer really?
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Can't do that with a RIB (AB/Caribe type). Lashed down (inverted) on foredeck worked for me - never used my davits in open water.
 
99 times out of 100 you will be fine!!!
I was Sailing out of Marseilles on a 60ft cat we got caught out by a bit of unexpected weather. Running under bare poles at 11Kts ,large wave ripped of one of the fixings on the rib, it didn`t take long for the lashings to work free leaving it hurtling about by its other two tethers. We just managed to salvage it, at one point we were going to cut it free as it was becoming too risky to save. Never sail Offshore with anything remotely ill secured. We were in enough danger as it was, retrieving a loose tender just added to it.
 
Lot of guessing going on here, so I wonder what kind of dinghy the OP has?

If he can do what I have suggested, then that is my answer to his question. If he can't, then probably better on the coach roof or, at a push, the foredeck.

If he cant do any of those things, the question is pretty much academic, and it's either in the davits, or sell it, and buy a new one after the crossing.
 
Hi all, thank you all for the responses. To answer the points that have been raised, the boat is a 44 Bruce Roberts, the dinghy is a 3m hardbotton, so can't be deflated and stowed, however I wouldn't leave either the engine or fuel tank abord it when on the davits. And on the foredeck I have a hoyt boom.
 
Local/inshore sailing it's hoisted on gantry with engine on. Offshore, the engine, fuel tank and seat bag removed and it's lashed at an angle to stop it swinging and so it can't hold much water plus bung removed for drainage.
 
jiris said:
I would have just a short, simple advice for you: DON'T DO IT. Dinghy anywhere else than VERY securely fixed on the foredeck is asking for trouble. A big one. I was experimenting with a few other methods and most of them worked well - until I got hit by a bad weather. Unless you have a reliable way how to avoid it (let me know if you do, I am keen to learn), you are going to pay for your complacency. Like everything else on the open sea: don't do it 100% and it is going to turn back an bite you in the ass :)
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Totally agree with this. One big wave throwing a ton of water onto this would trash it and damage your transom if the davits were ripped off. On deck upside down for lond passages. Makes a good seat as well.
 
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Richard10002 said:
Given that you don’t need the dinghy from departure to arrival, what’s the point of having it hanging in the Davis, or even lashed on the foredeckmor coach roof?

Pack it into its bag, stow it away, and get it out when you get close to destination, or even leave it till you have arrived and anchored. No brainer really?
Click to expand...
Unless you use it as a basic life raft then you want it inflated. If you have a life raft then put it away.
 
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