Towing an inflatable

[Dull Spark]

I know it's best to lash it to the deck, but usually it's safe enough and more convenient to tow it. I remove everything, including the outboard and tow close astern.

Any tips or advice on this and on minimising drag?
Many thanks.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Pull it up high so the bow is out of the water.

 

[Deleted member 478]

Not too close astern: they tend to surf your wake which results in them catching up with you, then hitting your transom.
Another thing, if you have a bung in the dinghy's transom, remove it so that the bung hole becomes a self-bailer. With the o/board removed, the transom should no longer be in the briny.

 

[Spyro]

Grab hold of the tow line and see what distance or length of line produces the lowest or most drag.

 

[elton]

I once towed an inflatable with my Centaur, but never again. It filled with water quite quickly just from waves occasionally splashing over it, and acted as a brake, slowing me to two or three knots.

 

[Slowtack]

Bow tied up with only the stern of the tubes in the water suits me best

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

Don't tow alongside, even for a short distance..I scratched the yacht's topsides badly after 5 miles in sheltered water doing that, the chafing by the inflatable was 100 times worse than I imagined..

 

[Old Harry]

I once towed an inflatable with my Centaur, but never again. It filled with water quite quickly just from waves occasionally splashing over it, and acted as a brake, slowing me to two or three knots.

I have often wondered why"inflatable dinghies" were invented

 

[Rocksteadee]

Ideally tow length, measured stern to stern, is 2 wave periods.
This minimises jerking as each boat rides the waves simultaneously

 

[johnalison]

Ideally tow length, measured stern to stern, is 2 wave periods.
This minimises jerking as each boat rides the waves simultaneously

That might be conventional advice for a tender, but try pulling on the painter and see how much drag you are inducing. Try again with the dinghy's bow clear of the water and you will see a massive difference. With my moderate sugar-scoop stern this means that the dinghy prow is rubbing on the stern, but apart from squeaking a bit this doesn't cause a problem.

 

[Daydream believer]

I once towed an inflatable with my Centaur, but never again. It filled with water quite quickly just from waves occasionally splashing over it, and acted as a brake, slowing me to two or three knots.

That is your excuse������

 

[Old Harry]

That is your excuse???

The dinghy was faster than the Centaur :triumphant:

 

[Daydream believer]

Different inflatables tow differently. The old Avons are rubbish to tow because the bow digs in. I found that it was better to drag the bow up tight to the pushpit and take the weight like that and just drag the stern in the water. If it got too windy there was a problem of it then flipping over.
Others tow better but the main thing is to avoid snatching, as one soon rips the towing eyes out. I recently spliced 2 sections into a customers painter so that the weight was evenly distributed to the 2 side eyes as well as the main central eye because he felt that the main eye was begining to tear the glue line.
a spare loosely hung painter is not a bad thing either

 

[Daydream believer]

The dinghy was faster than the Centaur :triumphant:

Be fair, being a Centaur they were probably both full of water

 

[lw395]

That might be conventional advice for a tender, but try pulling on the painter and see how much drag you are inducing. Try again with the dinghy's bow clear of the water and you will see a massive difference. With my moderate sugar-scoop stern this means that the dinghy prow is rubbing on the stern, but apart from squeaking a bit this doesn't cause a problem.

This.^^^

We tend to avoid towing, butt if we do, we haul the bow up the bathing ladder.
That way, only a liited amount of water can stay in the dinghy and we can always haul it higher to lose most of that.

It only takes a few waves dumped in the dinghy to make it a ton weight which breaks the tow.
This happened to a mate of mine near a shallow area (hence the rough water) so he couldn't go chasing the dinghy.

 

[dunedin]

Ideally tow length, measured stern to stern, is 2 wave periods.
This minimises jerking as each boat rides the waves simultaneously

Possibly for a traditional rigid dinghy (or heavy solid RIB), but not what we would use for a smallish inflatable dinghy.
We always towed (using two painters attached low down) with the bows right up within a few inches of the stern pulpit.
Did hundreds of miles in bouncy Scottish waters like that.
Certainly we removed outboard and oars, and bung out. Typically perhaps just once a year might get some really rough weather which caused to fill or flip, when it is a case of heave to and use boathook to unflip.
Davits are the best solution if boat big enough.

 

[Old Harry]

Possibly for a traditional rigid dinghy (or heavy solid RIB), but not what we would use for a smallish inflatable dinghy.
We always towed (using two painters attached low down) with the bows right up within a few inches of the stern pulpit.
Did hundreds of miles in bouncy Scottish waters like that.
Certainly we removed outboard and oars, and bung out. Typically perhaps just once a year might get some really rough weather which caused to fill or flip, when it is a case of heave to and use boathook to unflip.
Davits are the best solution if boat big enough.

We are talking "inflatable" designed to be inflated for use deflated to stow them, not hung in davits to fill with water & add windage

 

[dunedin]

We are talking "inflatable" designed to be inflated for use deflated to stow them, not hung in davits to fill with water & add windage

Each to their own. We don’t sail in the land of water taxis, and have sometimes launched, used and retrieved our dinghy 3 or more times a day. Not going to deflate and stow each day. Hence why towed a lot before fitting davits.
Leave bung out and it never fills with water on the davits, and not many boats have overtaken us under sail this year whereas we have passed many, so don’t think windage on davits is material compared to say a sprayhood.
I did see another bigger and faster boat going upwind at nearly 8 knots towing a dinghy (close to stern), but that is getting extreme ;-)

 

[Luffe44]

We have had the towing line break in a bit rough seas. Then tried to keep the dingy on the foredeck, getting in the way for the jib as well as in harbour. Our solution is to switch to an inflatable canoe. It is light and can be kept on deck or quickly deflated. Problem solved.

 

[Mistroma]

We have had the towing line break in a bit rough seas. Then tried to keep the dingy on the foredeck, getting in the way for the jib as well as in harbour. Our solution is to switch to an inflatable canoe. It is light and can be kept on deck or quickly deflated. Problem solved.

I rarely tow the dinghy but have tired hauling the bow up onto the sugar scoop and that seems to be OK. However, it only takes a minute to flip ours across the stern and towing isn't really considered. It's only worthwhile for me when moving a few hundred metres and outboard already padlocked on the dinghy.