towing an inflatable boat with a 27ft cruising yacht

davidmh said:
I need the tow my tender occassionally when in the Solent not in F6!. I have done it few times and know the pitfalls etc. The tender is a 2.3 mtr air deck with transom stern and side tubes aft of the transom, typical of inflateables today. This one has a centre towing eye at the bow and an eye on either side of the bow a little aft and nearly the full width of the dinghy apart. what is the best way to rig the tow line
1. one centre tow line
2. a bridle from each side eye to one central tow line.
3. separate lines from each side eye led to the port and starbord of the stern.

Which method will give greastest control on the yawing of the dinghy, i will put a little weight in the stern to keep it bows up a liitle.

hope to get some advise from those who have done it.
David MH
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I used to tow mine backwards with only the vee of the bow in the water. Never ran any risk of flipping even In bad chop or strong winds. Minimal additional drag. Our boat had a sugar scoop stern without any obstructions. This allowed the inflatable tube extensions to be pulled under the lower rung of the aft rail. Holes in the top of the transom were strong points allowing dinghy to be lashed onto the stern with the transom resting on a rubber pad on the centreline.
I hated having it either inflated or deflated in front of the cockpit because of restricted vision. It made an easy access route for swimmers without any need for a boarding ladder. Never used it for mob recovery but it was a safer option than a hard transom recovery.Screenshot_20250727-142710_MarineTraffic.jpg
 
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lustyd said:
Spinnaker halyard will happily hoist it on/off the foredeck, I do this solo on mine quite often.
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That would be a 2-man job on my boat, with the halyard led to the cockpit. In any case, I would still have to manoeuvre the dinghy out of the cockpit, along the deck and past the rigging, when all I have to do is get it out of the locker and start pumping, and in any case the rails forward are slightly higher. My laziness knows no bounds when it comes to saving myself effort.
 
thanks for all the various suggestions, towing with a bridle to the outer rings with a central slack line seems like a good idea. and allows for adjust line lengths to get it to tow were you want it. Mine is a crewsaver virtually the same as as seago both made in the same Chinese factory I suspect.
I dont put it on deck as there is not room for it fully or partly inflated and even fully deflated it make deck work quite a challenge. If I was doing long passages I would probably deflate it and stow it on the deck, or use my old Avon redcrest which I can stow on deck.


David MH
 
Post 16 speaks from experience. One early cruising couple towed a rigid dinghy around the world in that manner, the dinghy actually wants to sit in that area of negative pressure. The downsides are that it has to be tacked and an old Avon will make a right mess of white topside from it's black fittings.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
We have one, I don’t really understand why anyone these days carries their flubber inflated.
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We have aluminium floor, its a lot of work to inflate/deflate and we use the tender a lot. The tender also sits nicely on the foredeck inflated but is less easy to secure when deflated, and we’d then have to store the floor somewhere.

Plenty of reasons, every boat and crew have different requirements. i also saw a lady using an electric pump this week and she took so long to inflate that i walked to the shower and back and the tender still wasn't inflated so lower effort isnt necessarily better
 
lustyd said:
We have aluminium floor, its a lot of work to inflate/deflate and we use the tender a lot. The tender also sits nicely on the foredeck inflated but is less easy to secure when deflated, and we’d then have to store the floor somewhere.

Plenty of reasons, every boat and crew have different requirements. i also saw a lady using an electric pump this week and she took so long to inflate that i walked to the shower and back and the tender still wasn't inflated so lower effort isnt necessarily better
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You’ve got the room to keep it inflated obviously. Technically we do too, but it would get in the way of the downwind sails and the handling of them. Our electric pump takes about 5 minutes to inflate ours, and air floor model. Most important, Mrs C can use the pump, I can finish tidying and packing the main, tidy the cockpit and make sure whatever mooring we are using is sound. We’ll be in the bar at least as soon as someone towing theirs. Assuming we arrive at the same time that is, what with them losing a knot or so by towing, without even bringing halfmarans into the conversation🤣
 
TSB240 said:
I used to tow mine backwards with only the vee of the bow in the water. Never ran any risk of flipping even In bad chop or strong winds. Minimal additional drag. Our boat had a sugar scoop stern without any obstructions. This allowed the inflatable tube extensions to be pulled under the lower rung of the aft rail. Holes in the top of the transom were strong points allowing dinghy to be lashed onto the stern with the transom resting on a rubber pad on the centreline.
I hated having it either inflated or deflated in front of the cockpit because of restricted vision. It made an easy access route for swimmers without any need for a boarding ladder. Never used it for mob recovery but it was a safer option than a hard transom recovery.View attachment 196814
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Hey, nice looking boat. What type is that?
 
johnalison said:
I found it easiest to tow with the dinghy pulled in as tight as possible, with its bow clear of the water, which with my set-up greatly reduced drag.
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Correct.

Hard traditional dinghys on a long painter ...

Inflatables - pull bow up to transom and elevate. Lash so dinghy does not flip over.... with bridle as well as painter.

So many you see towing inflatables on long painter - WRONG ! Any wind / wave combo can flip the dinghy over ...

OK - on short trips in good weather - I have towed dinghy by long painter - BUT made sure all gear is out !!
 
Lots of good advice, seems that you should tow using the two bow side rings with a bridle. I have never made a bridle up before. do you just use two lines on to each ring and secure them to the stern of the yacht with the same cleat to make the bridle, or do you make up a 3 leg bridle two short legs from the side rings joined at a ring to a 3rd centre leg to the yacht. What sytems have the forum used and what knots did you use, a double fishermans or anchor bend seems secure and the round turn gives better wear compared to the single turn bowline.
look forward to your ideas.

David MH
 
My bridle and painter never come off. The bridle is attached with two bowlines with the tails seized to the standing part. The line is quite long with a carbine hook on the end for convenience, although towing is always via a cleat.
The painter is attached to the centre ring via a plastic thimble, with the line seized. Again, it is quite long with a carbine hook at the end. It is handy to be able to bring the dinghy from the foredeck astern without ever having it unattached to the boat.
When ashore at a wall or pontoon a long painter is best when there may be many other tenders there also. Saves hogging limited landing space.
 
I wouldn’t use a carabiner for this as any strange side loads and the dinghy is gone, we’ve had reports of that on the forum before. Knots are very easy so there’s no reason to.

Mine is a length of (about 2m ish) floating line from one d-ring to the other. I tied a knot in the middle to give a loop which i can attach another floating line to when towing. As per Vyv, mine never comes off and i use it to lift the dinghy onto the boat as well as towing. I also have a painter on the centre ring to tie up the dinghy.
 
lustyd said:
I wouldn’t use a carabiner for this as any strange side loads and the dinghy is gone, we’ve had reports of that on the forum before. Knots are very easy so there’s no reason to.

Mine is a length of (about 2m ish) floating line from one d-ring to the other. I tied a knot in the middle to give a loop which i can attach another floating line to when towing. As per Vyv, mine never comes off and i use it to lift the dinghy onto the boat as well as towing. I also have a painter on the centre ring to tie up the dinghy.
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The carabiniers are only used as a temporary measure, e.g when returning to the boat or attaching to a ring ashore.
 
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