390MY owner that is pulling a new Boston Whaler as our tender with a quick question

[FalconFlyer]

Hello everyone,

I am a 390MY owner... and yes I love the darn boat. In fact my wife and I were thinking of going bigger only to realize that we needed to go all the way up to a 56 foot something to get the same room... but that is a discussion for another day..

Anyhow, we just purchased a new Boston Whaler 150 Super Sport to tow behind the 390MY as our tender. I went the correct route, and had a company that specifically makes tow cables make up all the rigging (this was required by my insurance company anyhow) and in addition to this, the 390MY's aft cleats all had to be reinforced as well as a massive tow eye installed on the Boston.

Anyhow, the insurance company says I have to keep the Boston Whaler's engine in the water when I tow, however Mercury says I can't do that because water might get into the heads... etc... etc ... etc. I wanted to see if anyone had experience with this. I went out this weekend and put just a little part of the motor in the water and it did just fine... but I still think

Thoughts anyone

 

[fwebster]

Re: 390MY owner that is pulling a new Boston Whaler as our tender with a quick questi

I think I would ask the insurance underwriter if they are going to accept and pay the claims you submit for hydrolocking the Whaler engine by following their towing instructions.

 

[FalconFlyer]

Re: 390MY owner that is pulling a new Boston Whaler as our tender with a quick questi

Thanks Frank... but I was looking for opinions of people who have towed other boats. I have run into a few large yacht Captains who pull Boston Whalers and they put the engine in the water... but I was not up to speed on how outboards work to find out if they did anything special....

 

[FalconFlyer]

Re: 390MY owner that is pulling a new Boston Whaler as our tender with a quick questi

Quick update for everyone.

After talking further with Mercury, you can tow a boat with the engine in the water and it will not void any warranty nor do any damage to the engine. We got this in writing from Mercury as well. The only harm would come if you end up towing the boat backward with the engine in the water (not like anyone would do that).

The insurance companies want the engine in the water and so do I when I tow it, to make the boat I am towing much more stable. So there ya have it.. .in case anyone is interested.

On a side note, per my insurance company I had to have a professional reinforce my cleats in the back, and the tow eye for my Boston Whaler had to be completely changed and reinforced as well. Finally I had to purchase a certified tow rope from a company with all the necessary hardware to make things good as well. All in all, about 3.5k spent.

I thought about doing on the cheap, however a friend of mine just had a horrible experience trying to do it cheap. He just used a normal 5/8 line and made a tow line himself. Another boat cut between his boat and the boat he was towing. This caused the boat that cut between the two's motor to be rip off his boat when his prop got tangled in the tow line. This then tore his cleat off his boat, and ended up sinking the boat he was towing (the engine from the boat that cut between the two went to the bottom with the tow line still attached to the towing boat). All in all, when his insurance company found out, refused to cover anything... on both boats or the one that cut in-between them. So it is a mess.....

Moral of the story, if you are going to do it, do it right!

 

[dcharna]

Re: 390MY owner that is pulling a new Boston Whaler as our tender with a quick questi

If you have any pictures, I would be interested in what you did to reinforce the cleats etc... This seems like a great solution considering the small swim platform and the cost of a hydraulic lift.

Dan

 

[FalconFlyer]

Re: 390MY owner that is pulling a new Boston Whaler as our tender with a quick questi

Hey Dan,

What was done, the two rear cleats were removed. The one on the starboard side bolts can be easily removed by the access behind the master head, just open up the door and look up. The other one required the swim platform shower had to be removed. 1 foot by 6 inch steel plates were cut and hold drilled to match the cleats. So basically it goes cleat, boat, new metal plate, existing metal plate, bolts. All of this has to be performed by authorized shops, such as MarineMax, etc. (this was per the insurance company)

Then you have to go to toweye.com, they make the necessary hardware and ropes to do this safety. On the tender, there is a 10 foot line that is connected to the front tow eye with a bolt and nut. At the end of the 10 foot line is a quick dis-connet.

What we do is attached the rope to the back of the 390, making sure they are even on each side. I then go 15 feet from the quick disconnect end and attach that again to one of the cleats (the reason why we do this will be apparent in a bit). We then back up to another slip where our tender is waiting and have one of the dock hands, hand us the 10 foot line with the quick disconnect and connect it up. Now the tender is only 25 feet behind our big boat for right now (390 my + 15 feet then quick disconnect + 10 feet). This way I keep it close until we get it out into open water. Once we are in open water, you release the boat back to 150-200 feet. You need it that far back in order to stay out of your wake. The reason we pull it close, while I am doing close quarter maneuvering I don't want the boat that far back. My wife stays on the swim platform and we wear 2 way communication while we are coming into our dock.

Sounds complicated.. but it is really easy. Coming back in... we just stop the boat at some point and pull the tender close.

The deals they have on these Boston Whalers are ridiculous, we got ours, which is a 15 foot, 60 hp, with a full 5 year warranty for $17,600.

If you want to know more, feel free to PM me.

 

[dcharna]

Re: 390MY owner that is pulling a new Boston Whaler as our tender with a quick questi

Thanks for the info. Right now we are using a small dingy and if we ever want to go on a long trip, I will look back at this thread for the info.

Dan