Towing a Tender vs. Carrying it on the Fore-Deck?

[Wind Chime]

What is everyone's thoughts on Towing a Tender verses Carrying it on the Foredeck?

We prefer to drag our tender as apposed to lifting it on the foredeck, but we are not sure if this convenience is seriously hampering our fuel performance on longer legs.

We drag an 8 foot Walker Bay, on a 50 foot tow line, with a mooring line Snubber to take-up the shock, and a custom Sunbrella cover so we do not collect green water. In the Walker Bay we carry 2 oars, a small Bruce anchor on a 100 feet of rode, and a Minn Kota electric motor (in the boat not on the transom).

[David Mellon]

I use a zodiak inflatable, I keep it in the V Berth, starboard side. When I motor it is either at wakeless speed or WOT. At Wide Open Throttle towing an inflatable deck dink would cause a huge amount of drag. The rule I learned was don't try to tow a dink any faster than it's hull speed. Since the dink weighs about 30 lb's I just toss it on the foredeck if it is already inflated. I chose not to get a fiberglass hull dink because the Yam is just too small to carry one easily and, so far, I haven't seen a davit mod. This begs the question...who has installed davits?

[James V]

I tow my portland Pudgy all the time, Plastic, 138 pounds. Poly line, watch the line when backing. Snug the dinghy against the side when fueling.

50 feet out in open water but close when on the ICW.

To heavy to take on and off the deck and I cannot see well enough over it. Never had realy bad weather but I would not like to take it off in really bad winds to save me and the boat. Just cut the line and REPORT.

Dont leave the motor on incase of flip or heavy seas in any long or openwater passages.

[Kelly Hanson East]

I tow a Watertender 10 foot hard tender being my

At 10 mph you adjust the tow line until it rides in a constant position so that it doesnt 'hunt' and abrade the tow line

In heavy seas, you have to go slower, and also watch for collecting water which will overload your line of course. I want to make a custom cover for it to avoid this (also lets you store stuff in it as well) but thats a todo at the moment.

Chip has written about towing dinks in heavy seas and the upside of being able to put your dink on top of the boat - a 10 foot 100 lb boat is basically not going on top of a Mac, of course. Having towed in 8 footers I appreciate how difficult it would be to go back and get it if something went wrong.

[tangentair]

I tow a Watertender 10 foot hard tender being my ....- a 10 foot 100 lb boat is basically not going on top of a Mac, of course. Having towed in 8 footers I appreciate how difficult it would be to go back and get it if something went wrong.

I do not tow yet with the Mac - the tender has a hole in the plastic bottom -but we used a combination of the spare spin/jib or the main halyard with the whisper pole to get it high enough to muscle on to the foredeck of our old Morgan. But being plastic or rather high density polyprophlene it was not 100 lbs more like 60. It also wasn't 10 ft I would think if you were going to store 10 ft of anything on deck it would have to be aft of the mast. Have you considered down grading to a lighter smaller dingy?

[Andy26M]

I've shifted to one of these, at least for warm weather:

http://www.aquaglide.net/multisport_features.cfm

I got the older model and it came with both the sail and kayak accessories. Very sturdy. It can be towed behind at any speed, tossed on deck, tied alongside at anchor to act as a swim platform, and of course either paddled or sailed from the mooring to the beach. Easy to inflate or deflate, very rigid when fully inflated.

I saw a few of the older models at my local Dick's Sporting Goods on clearance for $199 not too long ago.

- Andy

[Kelly Hanson East]

Have you considered down grading to a lighter smaller dingy?

Two adults, two 10 year-olds growing like weeds, and 2 dogs, 35 pounds each.

No.

[Kelly Hanson East]

PS - forgot to answer OP other question

I have never noticed a difference in fuel consumption towing/not-towing. I dont think its right to talk about a dink hull speed since they usually arent true displacement hulls.

[davidbagnall]

I also use the aquaglide as a tender with great success. Also the kids have a hoot on it when we setup the sail or tow them behind.

[Chinook]

A 10 foot Porta-bote serves as our tender, and we usually trail it while cruising in relatively sheltered waters. Oars, anchor and line, foam life jackets and a few other light items are usually stowed in the dinghy while underway. The 3.5 hp kicker is always clamped to the retractable kicker mount on the transom of the X while we're underway. I have rigged a bridle tow line which keeps the dinghy from sashaying back and forth under most conditions. My tow line is long enough to extend to the second wake wave on those rare occasions when we run at full throttle. I shorten the line when cruising at slower speeds, either sail or motoring. The dinghy generally behaves well, but can get into trouble in a following sea. The square stern of the Porta-bote seems to get kicked around by trailing seas, and can be a cause for worry if they're steep faced and more than 3 feet. It did completely swamp under those conditions once, while crossing from the tip of Florida to the Keys. It was a real mess to bail out and wrestle up on deck for stowage. I've since come up with a method of raising it up on deck by using the mast raising pole, mounted about 5 feet up on the mast. The block and tackle rigged to the pole makes raising the 90 pounds of weight a manageable task from the foredeck. We stow the collapsed Porta-bote on the foredeck for all open water crossings.

[Wind Chime]

I should have posted these photos in my OP.

We had the cover for the Walker Bay custom made from black Sunbrella for about $200. It fits tight with a bungee cord inseam, and stays put in high wind and speed. No bailing required

We have lashed the tender to the foredeck only once, in a bad storm. After that we bought the cover. The tender was 1/3 full of water and very difficult to get on deck, and then no way to get to the anchor locker in case of emergency. (Which is why it was on deck in the first place) But ... none of this would be an issue if every trip was only blue skies

We always tow, and it does not seem like we are losing any noticable fuel economy ... but can never hurt to see what everyone else it doing.

[NiceAft]

I have a 9' Achilles inflatable with a 6hp Mercury on it. I only tow it since I believe it would be too much work to get it on board. I don't take long cruises though, only day trips.

The major disadvantage to towing in my situation is getting the tow line caught in the prop when maneuvering near a dock. It happened once, and was very embarrassing

Towing on the open water has never been a problem. either under power, or under sail, the inflatable was very stable. I have never checked to see what effect towing had on fuel consumption.



Ray

[Kelly Hanson East]

Ray - are you towing with the tender motor attached??? That looks like pretty rough seas (and pictures always make seas look calmer than they are in my experience)

I think the overwhelming practice is to remove tender motors when towing

Sorry for the alarmism

[Oskar 26M]

I stow my 2.4m Silver Marine inflatable on the foredeck (upright for short term stowage, flipped for longer periods to keep rain and spray out).

I usually deflate the dinghy's "keel" to make it more stable to walk on and it as far aft as possible to give access to the anchor locker (it covers the forward hatch).

Because it weighs about 32 kg, I use a davit to hoist it on board

[DaveB]

Use a bridle so the tender stays inside wake, attach a line to Starboard and Port cleat and put a loop in the bridle. Let the line aft so it rides 10-20 ft. past the engine pulse wave.
Use floatable line or use small egg floats on your line to keep it afloat backing down.
Best is useing this floating line.
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... &id=912433
Dave