Tender love

[Cobra25]

I hate the thing! We have a pram dinghy - a Salcombe Pram to be precise. It could be any dinghy, we have tried an inflatable and don't like that either. We have to get to the boat in the middle of the, drying, estuary 3/4 mile away, wash from fishermen, well their boats (why are they such A.. Wi..s), wash from evdery thing is a potential threat and now my wife tells me there is only six inches of freeboard at my end while steering! We are thinking about getting a 14' to moor 20 yards off the quay and walk to it or use tender when necessary. Does anybody else have a strong dislike of getting wet ( this includes a little spray on the way across the estuary) and an even stronger desire to be sure of not ditching in the water. THIS last statement excludes any answers from those partisans among us who are stoicly pressing on with the use of wheelbarrows to get to their boats!

 

[Robin]

You cannot get a dinghy really that is suitable for on board tender duty that is going to be big enough to be dry going out to a mooring and we had this problem for many years in Poole with a mooring exposed to the SW. The best compromise is a biggish rigid dinghy that gets left on the mooring and rig it with a small sprayhood. Latham launches are popular at our club, wood or grp clinker style, some with little Stuart Turner inboards, they go for around £500 I believe these days. Other than that an inflatable with BIG tubes for maximum buoyancy and get/make a waterproof bag to put all your gear in - I have seen a 'body bag' used succesfully! Plan B would be a nearer mooring, Plan C one with a launch service and Plan D a marina berth!

Robin

 

[Cobra25]

Thanks

Where did you get the flag icon on your name.

Cheers

 

[squidge]

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I use a small rib (3m)with a big outboard. its dry in all but the worst of swell and with a blip of the throttle the bow will lift over the wash of those less considerate.Its also quick enough to make gettin wet fun./forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[dralex]

It's getting bad when you have to wear full oilies in your tender more often then on the proper boat. We used to have a swinging mooring about 1/2 mile from the jetty, combined with a dog and then a baby. A marina was a treat after that. Inflatables are the only real portable option on smaller boats ( under about 34ft) and even then they can be a real weight when lifting them around. I was investigating alternatives last year and decided just to stick with my existing balloon for now. If I had to buy again, I'd probably go for an inflatable floor. The other option is a great big boat with davits and a RIB. I'll keep dreaming.

 

[Robin]

http://www.uselessgraphics.com/

We carry a BIG St Georges flag on board that comes out only when besieged by Saltires, Welsh Dragons and fake Cornish 'ensigns'. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Gunfleet]

We have a 3.1 metre Zodiac inflatable for a 26 ft yacht - overkill but it works. It has an inflatable floor which means you can stand in the inflatable quite easily when you get out of it. Also the inflatable floor has underwater ribs which mean I can row it. Hurray! No more lugging the outboard back and forth.

 

[blackbeard]

It could be worse.
I saw a fellow club member cutting up a tender with an angle grinder. Apparently wash from a mobo had swamped it and, after having given the matter due consideration (and presumably after having swum ashore) he decided that it was not seaworthy enough to justify further use. Not only that, but he also decided that he would not sell it as he didn't like the idea of anyone else having the same problem. Hence the angle grinder.
One of the problems with tenders is that you can't spend too much on them in case this makes them too attractive, in which you might return to the mooring to find no tender. I have a relatively de-luxe tender for which I paid top dollar - about twenty quid.
I wonder if an old sailing dinghy - most dinghy sailing clubs are jammed up with old dinghies which don't appear to have an owner, the club is sometimes reduced to holding a Viking funeral for old dinghies on November 5th in order to clear out the dinghy park, and might be open to offers - might be an answer. Something like an old GP14 possibly, these row very well and can be adapted to take an outboard, and will be drier and safer than a normal tender. Just a thought