What type of tender?

Ross D

Ross D

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We are currently considering buying a new tender, our old one is too small (about a 6'6" inflatable with transom), only just big enough for two of us with little freeboard. We now have a 14 month old addition to our sailing family, with another on the way and need a more sensible tender.

What type of tender do people use and why?

We have a 28' Albin Vega and our thoughts are:

An inflatable canoe.

An inflatable tender, towed most of the time but deflated for passages.

A small rigid plastic boat, towed, but stowed on the foredeck for passages.

Many thanks

Ross
 
A tatty old plastic dinghy. 9-10ft and stable. Use it to and fro the mooring but leave it there when you go off.
PLUS
An inflatable to carry with you. 8ft big enough to begin with but with 4 up you'll need a bit bigger.

Moi: just knocked something up out of a couple of sheets of ply. Big enough for me and one teenager. Light enough to lift on to roof of car single handed

 
I think that only you can decide as it's all a matter of compromise between convenience of carrying/towing and capacity. Our current solution is a Bombard AX2 which is stored below the cockpit floor and used to get ashore from any anchorage but only a very few times per season plus an 8 ft. GRP tender which is used to get to and fro' between our Club tender park and our two swinging moorings [29 ft. cruiser and 18ft. dayboat]. The GRP tender accomodates up to 4 but the AX2 only holds 2 but then we mainly cruise with only 2 aboard. Before we bought an inflatable we towed the GRP tender without any great problems.
 
Thanks for the replies, I should have mentioned at the moment we have an alongside mudberth so no need to get to and from moorings, it is purely for when we are away.
 
I think the main considerations with small children are: stability, ease of boarding and ability to do all you need in one trip. I think you need a big dinghy that will take 4 and a load of gear from shore to boat. You then need to decide if you will be a one dinghy boat or have a second for use when cruising so you can leave one on the mooring. Hard transomed inflatable dinghies take up a lot of room, round tails are more compact but have the shortfalls you would expect. I think you need a 4 man boat whatever else, so stowage space onboard will be a critical factor. I also think an old scruffy dinghy is less of a target for thieves when left ashore durring the week.

Yoda
 
I use a smallish wooden transom rubber duck. Easy enough to pull aboard on my own. Small enough to stow across the aft cabin (or behind the mast if deflated). If I have 4 or more to ferry ashore I simply make 2 trips, much safer than overloading.

DO NOT TOW in winds of F5 or above there is a significant risk of it flipping - and you do not want that, the dink stops dead & the yot carries on usually pulling the fitting off the bow of the dink.

Hard dinks large enough for 4 will generally be too heavy, or too fragile for the knocks they get, although I do have a 9'6" ply pram sailing dink that I used for a while, the benefits of sailing around tend to be undermined by teh hassle of stowing & towing.

Do not think that an inflatable canoe is either stable or dry - lots of fun, but not a safe tender.
 
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I tow a 7'6" GRP pram behind Jumblie. Because she is pointy at both ends and has a quarterberth, there is only one significant cockpit locker, and even a very small inflatable would completely fill it. I also prefer to have a rowing tender for simplicity.

Because Jumblie has fairly traditional lines, I wanted a fairly traditional dinghy, and the one I have appeared on eBay. It needed a bit of work - the main thwart had never been fixed in place and I added a good strong towing eye and a protective strip along its little skeggy thing at the back.

Towing it around for a season has been fine - it has always behaved very well, including a couple of bouncy F6/7 trips. Of course there is a small speed penalty, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as people fear.

If I had the locker space I'd probably do as VicS suggests and have a rubber dinghy as well, but that would be for longer trips only. For most purposes I would still prefer a rigid dinghy.
 
For the early years with our two boys we used an Avon Redstart (8 ft?) which folds fairly small (we didn't have floorboards) but is very stable. Not the best dinghy to row but we never found it a real problem. Once the boys were older we started towing a Bobbin stem dinghy (9 ft) because we could rig it for sailing and teach the boys. Now the 'boys' are men, we still tow the Bobbin behind our 28 ft cruiser because I can't be a***d blowing up tenders any more plus it's far easier to row or motor than an inflateable.
 
Personally I'm very against towing a dinghy of any kind, if the weather comes up it's an awkward and dangerous job getting it aboard and deflating ( forget rigid dinghies for this reason ).

I've used a Zodiac 240 round tail for over 20 years, initially expensive but well worth it.It has an outbard bracket ( most round tails do ) and importantly the tubes are large diameter so it's very safe, and being a round tail with small floor slats it folds up quite small; when I briefly tried a hard transom inflatable, I couldn't stow it even though the tube diamaeter was about half that of the Zodiac.

The majority of inflatables have small diameter tubes, so looking at this in the spec' is the key to finding a safe, usable tender; there are large tube dinghies around, without having to go to the high price of a Zodiac.
 
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I prefer the cat hull tenders, lots of space, good carrying capacity and much shorter than a standard tender of the same capacity; Very stable to.

I use closed cell foam to form the desired shape and size then glass over and finish with flow coat.

A nice project for anyone wanting to have a go.

You can build in things like anchor stowage, dry locker, closed seating (for extra buoyancy) a simply treated ply transom for the outboard. What ever you want really.

No special plans of fancy calculations apart from a simple displacement sum to ensure the she will float with the centre out of the water.
 
Seajet said:
Personally I'm very against towing a dinghy of any kind, if the weather comes up it's an awkward and dangerous job getting it aboard and deflating ( forget rigid dinghies for this reason ).
Click to expand...

The only time I have ever had a problem towing a rigid dinghy was when once, in a fit of youthful enthusiasm, I took the Oa a bit close in my Jouster (no reasonable offer refused). She has a 7'6" Jack Holt "Dittyboat" GRP stem dinghy, which behaves impeccably under tow. That did not stop nasty little overfalls from falling into it and filling it up, and towing half a ton of seawater doesn't half slow you down.

The solution was straightforward if, as I was singlehanded, a little time consuming. I towed the dinghy alongside instead, which worked fine. The slow bit was swapping it from side to side when I went about, but with a second painter rigged and a little ingenuity that wasn't too bad either.

Otherwise my advice for towing a rigid dinghy in bad weather is to use a good long painter with a bit of stretch too it. I occasionally used 30m of braided nylon.
 
I went through a similar dilemma 8 months ago and finally settled on a small inflatable (same size as your current one) and I am very pleased I did. For the number of times it has been used anything larger would have simply been additional weight and bulk to have on the foredeck where it spends most of its time in its bag. When needed, it is a quick and easy inflation, throw on the o/b and off we go ashore - If two runs are required, then I'm never short of willing, young volunteers to buzz between beach and boat to collect those left behind. For me, any slight inconvenience there is far outweighed by not having to negiotiate the pitfalls of towing something that is too large to be accomadated on the foredeck where everybody wants to sit/lay when underway.
I suspect I would feel differently if I had to negiotaite swinging moorings, but as I use a marina i'm very happy with my choice.
 
Simply go for as large as you can with these things in mind.

Big enough for Mum to feel it is safe enough to carry baby.
Capable of being stood on, probably on one side whilst you pass baby to Mum.
Sufficient diameter tubes to land when small waves are breaking on the beach.
Big enough to carry outboard and be able to change the shear pin, (I have had to do this).

Limits on size would be:
Capable of launching over the side.
Space to pump up, but I used to partially inflate and then sit it across the stantion/lifelines and finish pumping it up then when I had a little 1/4 tonner (Before Children).
Dragging up the beach.

My choice was nearly the cheapest on ebay 2.9M long with an inflatable floor but cannot find it on there now but similiar to the wetline models. I think it weighs about nearly 60kgs and is just about as much as I can lift. This dinghy is kept at home in the garage and taken on top of the car (about 1.5 miles) when we go out as a family (2 daughter, 2 and 6) and is either towed behind for coastal passages up to 30 miles or on the fordeck inflated for cross channel. Otherwise I have an old avon rolled up on deck for general use when away with mates and a hard 10' pram for getting out to the boat.

I think if you are really unsure find a place where dinghies are kept and have a good close look at what is available. It is a really important decision for you as a dinghy is crucil for family fun.
 
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Like the OP, I have a Vega. Most of the larger tenders would not be practical for this size of boat.
I already had an old Redcrest before I bought the Vega; I inherited an AX2 with the Vega. In practise I use the Avon the most, because it has much better rowlocks. Even on short trips I very rarely tow it due to the drag. I have developed a system for getting it on and off deck, by bringing it along to the bows, slacking off a genoa sheet to keep it out of the way, and then using the pole uphaul to hoist it aboard so that it sits on its side on the sidedeck. From there it is deflated, rolled, and lashed forward of the mast. To inflate it, I do the exact opposite, in the same position- unless the wind is very strong. A £5 electric pump allows me to hold onto the dinghy with one hand and keep both feet on the deck, and cuts the time at least by half.
The Bombard is certainly a nice neat dinghy, but only suitable for two. If I had an outboard I would possibly use this dinghy instead as it would be easier to stow. It is also much easier to stow the Bombard on deck inflated, as the different shape allows the rear parts of the sponsons to fit either side of the mast. The Avon doesn't really fit properly on deck fully inflated like this.
 
We found the Avon redstart too small and too wet.

The Redcrest at 9' is the right size and stable enough for her, small enough to store in our Pageant, but still wet.

Shore to mooring. After a capsize in a rigid, is now an old Avon 310 rib, dry feet, as it has a bilge, not towed this yet but think it would tow in a straight line because of it's underwater profile.

Avons do tend to be pricey, but if you don't mind 2nd hand, and buying at this time of year,
can soften the blow.
 
I bit the bullet and bought a Walker Bay 8 with tubes (Yes!, New! at LIBS! two years ago).

Launches and tows OK, but I'll leave it on the swinging mooring if I don't think I'll need it when we get to our destination. (Sail kit is a bit of fun).

Yes, it was expensive, but if it was stolen I'd buy another one.
 
I have an 8' grp dinghy for going to my mooring - it's about 10 minutes each way. Also used on short local trips when we want to get ashore. On longer trips I have a Seago 2.3m transom inflatable which is normally stowed aboard in a locker and used on longer trips. It's fine for two adults + one child and the grandchildren like messing about in it.
 
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