Yet Another Way to Carry a Dinghy

Great shots and videos. The height of your swim platform, I'd say, is about at the limit for this method. Much higher, and the stern of the dinghy would be too angled for the motor. And in the last video, the dinghy is bouncing around a bit, but it doesn't look too bad. Can you make the lines a little tighter? That might take some of the sway out in the last video. No, now that I looked at the video again, the problem is the turbulence is driving the dinghy forward and up, loosening the lines, and allowing the dinghy to sway. You'd almost need a stop to keep the bow of the dinghy down and from coming forward. Probably not really needed or worth it. I'm going to leave my motor on next time, like you did. That will be a nice improvement.
 
That last video is at a slow, inefficient plane speed. It was the worst case scenario, so I documented it.
 
Maybe it's just me, but that looks like a lot of stress on the dinghy over time.
 
We towed our dinghy about 100 miles this past weekend. On the way out, we had the engine in the cockpit. It towed very, very well as shown in above pictures, but no engine, gas tank, or seat. During day trips and on the way back, we towed it with the engine on the dinghy, but we tied one more line from the engine handle to the transom. Most of the weight of the dinghy was on that line. It towed very, very well in all kinds of seas. In any case, when coming off plane, there is no good way to do it. The dinghy tries to board the swim platform, but doesn't do any damage, just looks clumsy.

I really like this method. One line each from the front/side tow points, the bow of the dinghy, and the engine handle. The side lines go out to the stern cleats. The two center lines go to the transom locker handle. Gas mileage was good too (especially for the dinghy!).
 
John,

That all sounds very good. Wish I had some more results to post. I didn't need the dinghy on our CSR Rendezvous in Georgetown, SC a couple of weeks ago (where I ended up going about 180 miles), so I never got it out. Therefore, I've not tried towing it since I originally posted. But this coming weekend, my wife and daughter are going with me to the boat, and we'll tow the dinghy down south and north of Charleston. I'm going to tow it all the time with the motor. I'll report back how it goes. I'll probably come close to 100 miles.

Have you seen any wear and tear on the dinghy yet?
 
No wear. When the big waves come, the dinghy sits still in that bath tub directly behind the boat. I can't remember if you did this, but I highly recommend tying the engine to the big boat. It held it higher than the normal lock-up does. This reduced drag and added stability. It also stopped from tugging on the glued-on tie down points on the front of the dinghy.

By the way, we leave it there for maneuvering too. We left our pier and went to the fueling wharf (pretty good, huh?). It was tight maneuvering, but the dinghy doesn't move. We left it in place while fishing. Then, as we approached our dock at home, we un-tie the dinghy, throw 3 lines into the dinghy, and tie the 4th onto the forward, starboard cleat which allows me to spin and back into our dock, alongside our floating piers and fingers. Then, we pass the dinghy back and lift it up onto one of our floating fingers for cleaning and storage.

This is a system I can live with. I think you just saved me $1500 and 3 toe stubs.
 
Next, we're going to take turns riding back there! Trouble is, no one else drives my boat. Maybe I can take it out solo and give it a try. : (

Nah, the view won't be any good.
 
That may work but it still just looks CRAZY to do. If the motor is being hit by any of the wash it is going to be under alot of stress. If not I guess its not different than the way I have towed mine. I just feed a line through the D-rings and tie it off both stern cleats. It then follows about 50ft behind the boat. Once it planes it seems to ride fine. Just gotta keep an eye on it!
 
John,

I ran with the dinghy AND motor last weekend. Went about 50 miles with no problems at all. I also learned that it is very easy to take the motor off and haul the dinghy up on the bow just before we went into to forklift area with the boat. This saved having to dock with the dinghy behind me, and put the dinghy up on the bow where it can stay in drystack. Next time, I'll just have to drive the boat away from the marina and let the dinghy down into the water, tie it to the stern, and I'm off. No inflating, no deflating, no davits on the swim platform, and no dinghy blocking the view. Here's a pic of us running with the dinghy and motor at about 27 mph.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Sadlerl...CMn09Izipf7I0gE#slideshow/5358110028195791202
 
Skuza said:
That may work but it still just looks CRAZY to do. If the motor is being hit by any of the wash it is going to be under alot of stress. If not I guess its not different than the way I have towed mine. I just feed a line through the D-rings and tie it off both stern cleats. It then follows about 50ft behind the boat. Once it planes it seems to ride fine. Just gotta keep an eye on it!
Click to expand...

Skuza,

I haven't seen a problem yet. And you never have to keep an eye on anything. Slow down, speed up the dinghy is always right behind you. I watched the motor and dinghy transom carefully this last time, and all looked fine. I'm sure there's a limit on the size of the boat, dinghy and motor that will work like this, but with my set up, it is working very well and is now my standard method.
 
Sadler said:
Skuza,

I haven't seen a problem yet. And you never have to keep an eye on anything. Slow down, speed up the dinghy is always right behind you. I watched the motor and dinghy transom carefully this last time, and all looked fine. I'm sure there's a limit on the size of the boat, dinghy and motor that will work like this, but with my set up, it is working very well and is now my standard method.
Click to expand...


We tried this setup without the motor attached a few weeks ago and it worked fine. Next time out (maybe this weekend I'll try it with the motor (2.5hp 4S Suzuki) if I can figure out why the motor died!! I am going to install a couple of SS rings to tie off to so I don't have to use the transom cleats.

Thanks for the idea,
 
Sadler said:
John,

I ran with the dinghy AND motor last weekend. Went about 50 miles with no problems at all. I also learned that it is very easy to take the motor off and haul the dinghy up on the bow just before we went into to forklift area with the boat. This saved having to dock with the dinghy behind me, and put the dinghy up on the bow where it can stay in drystack. Next time, I'll just have to drive the boat away from the marina and let the dinghy down into the water, tie it to the stern, and I'm off. No inflating, no deflating, no davits on the swim platform, and no dinghy blocking the view. Here's a pic of us running with the dinghy and motor at about 27 mph.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Sadlerl...CMn09Izipf7I0gE#slideshow/5358110028195791202
Click to expand...

Yep. I really like it. Nothing disturbs the dinghy back there except slowing down.
 
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