Dinghy bridle

[jmauld]

For those of you that pull a dinghy, can you show me what your bridle looks like?

How far behind the boat do you tow, and do you pull the dinghy from the center of the boat or from one of the cleats on the side?

 

[Thornton69]

I received quite a bit of good advice on this topic last year. We pack our 9' tender on the roof but have pulled our 14' inflatable jet boat multiple times now. It weighs in at just under 500 lbs. I made up a custom 3 point harness for it and grabbed a 125' tow bridle and 20' stern with chafe guard from Top Knot. Probably could have gone with a 100' but seems to work well for us. It rides about 30' behind the second wake at cruise speeds.

 

[Pirate Lady]

What inflatable? I was told a sib is a big no no for towing but a rib is ok.
Not tried myself, but I’ve seen an X works. port rear from boat to right front starboard on zodiac and vice versa.

 

[jmauld]

A SIB is a soft hull?
I should say that I only intend to tow to the local hang out spot. Farthest one is 8 miles away. And I will not pull more than 10 knots. Any farther and I’ll deflate it.

 

[Pirate Lady]

Ya, it’s a new term I just learned hanging out on Zodiac owner site. RIB is rigid hard fiberglass bottom. SIB is soft. flat bottom roll up or blowup air floor. Learn something new every day. My roll up, been told can tow but don’t go above 1200 rpm, basically a little above idle maybe 4mph. For real short distance maybe a mile. Anything longer, pull zodiac bow onto swim platform and keep at 6 to 8 mph. Any real distance, bring into cockpit.

 

[Hoplite808]

This is the way I set up from my boat to tow anything including my dinghy. It’s not just a bridal for the front of the inflatable to spread the load but also a bridal off the stern cleats to center the load to eliminate drag on only one side which will effect handling characteristics of the boat doing the towing.