Pram tender - anyone use one?

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fredrussell

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My boat is on a fairly sheltered swinging mooring at Pin Mill on the Orwell. Occasionally there might be a bit of swell - say 18 inches max - would this present a problem for two adults (80kg each) in a pram tender? I like the look of them as I reckon that at a pinch one would just about sit on the fore deck of my 23ft boat and perhaps not get completely in the way when under sail.

The fallback plan would be the trusty Redstart thats always aboard - but its a bit of a faff to inflate/deflate and doesn't row too well.

Any fans of pram tenders out there?
 
Had one for a year or so. My wife and dog refused to get in it :-)

Felt a bit tippy getting aboard but not bad once sat down.

Mine was a 'Minipram' which are fairly flat bottomed as pram dinghies go. Rowed well but never used the O/B.

Now sold and replaced with an old Avon. Dog happier :-)
 
I have to row 500 yrds in sheltered water to reach the boat. Even a minor chop across Portsmouth Harbour or a boat going past causes mild panic. No way could the wife and I fit in and be able to sit in the middle and row. We leave it on the mooring and use a 2.6m inflatable on board, way more stable even fully loaded and lighter too. The only saving grace for the pram tender is its GRP so bomb proof for launching on a concrete slipway.
 
fredrussell said:
My boat is on a fairly sheltered swinging mooring at Pin Mill on the Orwell. Occasionally there might be a bit of swell - say 18 inches max - would this present a problem for two adults (80kg each) in a pram tender? I like the look of them as I reckon that at a pinch one would just about sit on the fore deck of my 23ft boat and perhaps not get completely in the way when under sail.

The fallback plan would be the trusty Redstart thats always aboard - but its a bit of a faff to inflate/deflate and doesn't row too well.

Any fans of pram tenders out there?
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Depends how big it is surely but I guess one that will sit on the foredeck of a 23 footer is not going to be very big.

Mine is too tippy for me now.... capsized it while getting into it awkwardly a few years ago. ... otherwise its been great for just me or me and one of the children

c9d48597.jpg
 
Just noting your comment about rowing the Avon. Inflatables with a inflatable keel row much better than flat bottomed tenders and I now regret not paying the extra for the inflatable keel. Yes we can row across to a the harbour wall but our final destination isn't always the wall we started out for. We did have a little Suzumar 2.3m which sadly failed but only after 25 years of use. Should have bought another.
 
Made one on scratch back in 1983. It is easy to make one that isn't tippy; 'splay' out the sides as much as possible so as the dinghy tips it increases the resistance. It won't beat a rubby dubby side to side but will beat aft. Major advantage over the rubber dubby is to design it with rocker - fore and aft. When aground over the mud one leg forward and one leg aft will rock the dingy to release suction and can be easily poled. The size of two adults isn't going to fit a 23ft foredeck unless nested.
 
I have an 8ft pram, plywood. With a Yam Malta (3+ hp) it romps along,even two up .Wouldn't want anything smaller, though, and can be wet in a chop.
Capsized once,my fault. I now have fenders on the sides(fixed) to avoid a repetition
 
Praams are fine, but they've got to be big and sturdy enough.

We had a 9 ft clinker built one when I was very young. Ok for two adults plus me in very sheltered waters.

Then, when I was a young teenager, we sold that and got a grp launch and a minipram as a tender which I think was 6 ft 9 ins. Incredibly skittish compared to the old clinker built job. Ideal for me and maybe a mate to row about in. I guess it would have been safe for one large adult, but as a 60+ year old with a dodgy hip, my dad couldn't get safely into it. Maybe a maximum of two small adults would have been Ok in it on a duckpond.

Whatever their size, praams are better load carriers and more stable than a stem dinghy of the same length. But they've still got to be big enough in the first place. A similar length inflatable will always be safer.
 
fredrussell said:
My boat is on a fairly sheltered swinging mooring at Pin Mill on the Orwell. Occasionally there might be a bit of swell - say 18 inches max - would this present a problem for two adults (80kg each) in a pram tender? I like the look of them as I reckon that at a pinch one would just about sit on the fore deck of my 23ft boat and perhaps not get completely in the way when under sail.

The fallback plan would be the trusty Redstart thats always aboard - but its a bit of a faff to inflate/deflate and doesn't row too well.

Any fans of pram tenders out there?
Click to expand...
I suspect any Pram dinghy small enough to fit on thr foredeck of a 23 footer isn't going to cope too well with 2 people and a chop. I have tried various dinghies over the years and is surprising how much they vary in shape and sea keeping abilities. I had one, a Pram I think about 7'6" that seemed quite stable until two of us managed to fall out of it one day when I dropped an oar and both reached for it at the same time. It also had quite a low freeboard that made it a little concerning in a chop. I had another, lighter mock clincher GRP Pram that was probably about 7' that had a reasonable freeboard that was great with just me in it, but became very tippy with 2 or 3 in it. I then tried a Heyland Toad (not a Pram). Very stable and OK for 3 people until the water got choppy. We got quite wet at times and concerned about shipping water on a few occasions. I now have a Walker Bay 10 that is great for my use getting to and from what can be a fairly exposed mooring, but certainly wouldn't fit on deck on my Fulmar let alone a 23 footer.

I have a Plastimo 240 Air Dec inflatable that rows well, good with the outboard and remarkably dry in a chop with its large diameter tubes. It's light enough to lift on board and fits well on the foredeck, however I don't use it very often as I really need a hard dinghy to leave on the club dinghy rack. I have also had 2 small punctures in it, so not sure how resilient it is.
 
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My 6' pram dinghy is OK even with two blokes for the 100yards in sheltered water from the slipway down river to the mooring. I would not want to try further or in anything of a chop.
The pram dinghy stays on the mooring when we leave. I have an old Tinker Tramp on board. Rows like dream even in lumpy conditions.
 
I made several clinker ply praams in the 1980s. 8' is realistically a minimum size for 2 people and gear as a tender to a boat on a swinging mooring. However, not suitable for carrying on deck on a small yacht, although mine towed quite well behind my 26'. Like many, I used the hard dinghy for getting to the mooring, but left it there and carried a Redcrest on board. Arguably the best combination if you have somewhere secure on shore for the hard dinghy.
 
Hi there.

I built a dinghy to these http://bateau2.com/free/D5_free_m.PDF plans but i made it nesting to fit on the fore deck of my 26 ft trailer yacht. I also reduced the hull to 4 mm plywood for weight saving, but i put a single layer of glass cloth on the bottom to increase abrasion resistance.
see photos here.
http://s328.photobucket.com/user/johnlord1/library/

Pros:
Can be dragged up beaches.
Tows easily and well even in quite rough seas.
Rows brilliantly! Especially one-up, its a real pleasure. Recently one of my crew spurned the OB and went off for a row around the anchorage we were in and was gone for an nearly an hour. Who would row a blow up for an hour for fun?
Planes with 3.5 hp outboard and one passenger.
No Punctures to worry about.
No UV damage to worry about.
Cheap and fun to build.
Cons:
It really isn't as stable and buoyant as a blow up.
It is a bit in the way on the fore deck, but i have raced (including spinnaker work)with it aboard so it is managable.

Up to you....
 
Rhoda Rose said:
Had one for a year or so. My wife and dog refused to get in it :-)

Felt a bit tippy getting aboard but not bad once sat down.

Mine was a 'Minipram' which are fairly flat bottomed as pram dinghies go. Rowed well but never used the O/B.

Now sold and replaced with an old Avon. Dog happier :-)
Click to expand...

Looking for a dinghy that I could row I was recommended a Minipram by a friend, it turns out to be as you say good to row but very, very unstable to board. It needs Walker Bay style inflatable bags along the gunwales or a flatter shape. My childhood memories of a plywood kit built Yachting World Utility Pram which used to carry 3 or 4 with no stability issues and was a delight to row is not replicated in any modern equivalent I have found.
One here being restored http://cvrda.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4757
 
Capt. Clueless said:
I've just bought a used Bic sportyak off Ebay, nice & stable, and although we tie it to our swinging mooring, it will fit on the bow of our snappie 23. Only weighs 19kg or so.
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mmm, you must mean the bigger orange one, a mate and I 40 odd years ago rowed out to his dad's Iroquois, he asked if I was ready for his disembark, I set myself up for a thwartships movement, only for the bows to lift out as he got out and the dinghy to capsize bow over stern...
 
Gladys said:
mmm, you must mean the bigger orange one, a mate and I 40 odd years ago rowed out to his dad's Iroquois, he asked if I was ready for his disembark, I set myself up for athwartships movement, only for the bows to lift out as he got out and the dinghy to capsize bow over stern...
Click to expand...

I've been given an old dinghy similar to the big orange, blue and green Sportyak 245s. Not tested it to see how stable it is fore and aft but its awartships stability has transformed my dinghying experience.

DSCF1200.jpg
 
One other snag with prams I discovered the hard way - naturally - is that they're just right to get lodged under transom ladders as one tries to board that way, or if streamed astern at the mooring.

I can't imagine any rigid dinghy - inc folding - which will fit on a 23', the ideal as mentioned is a decent sized rigid dinghy to and from the mooring, inflatable to carry around.

It always amazes me when I see people with £50,000 cruisers carrying every safety aid known to man, then risk the family's lives going to and from the mooring in a tiny cockleshell...
 
Gladys said:
mmm, you must mean the bigger orange one, a mate and I 40 odd years ago rowed out to his dad's Iroquois, he asked if I was ready for his disembark, I set myself up for a thwartships movement, only for the bows to lift out as he got out and the dinghy to capsize bow over stern...
Click to expand...

Gawd knows what you two were doing, to get a yak to do that!! I used to row my Dads tabur yak out to sea and fish from it. The current yak I have is a small very stable sportyak 213, but I only need to row on ullswater to my snappie with my outboard, before collecting my wife & supplies etc from the comfort of a jetty.
The sport yak has two small air filled hulls either side with a flat bottom. and as I said at only 19kg makes it ideal at least for lake moorings.
 
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