Bev, I work for a rope manufacturer and we get asked about tow bridles quite often. The only time I recommend a tow line to be longer than 25’ or so is when the dinghy is being towed by a boat that is fast enough to generate a sizeable secondary wave behind the stern. In most boats that would be well in excess of 10kts which few of our boats would be capable of maintaining over any period of time.
And if the wind is blowing hard enough to make any C&C sail over 10kts, I’m sure enough not towing a dinghy in those conditions! One of the more reasonable tow line constructions is to create a “bridle” or “Y” shaped construction that would allow the dinghy to self-center on a line that attaches to two points on the transom. On the single leg of the “Y”, there is a Schaefer (Antal, Harken, you name it) friction ring spliced to the end, allowing the bridle portion of the tow line to pass through the ring and then attach to the starboard and port transom cleats. This creates the self centering action as the single leg can slide back and forth on the bridle. On the bitter end of the single leg is a stainless snap hook or carabiner that can clip to the bow eye of the dinghy. I like the single fixed length leg to be no more than 8’ or so, and the distance from the tow vessel to the single leg to be adjustable by simply shortening up on the two legs that attach to the stern cleat. I like to put a spliced eye on each end of the line that connects to the tow vessel, just for additional safety and security. There are some hard dinghies that really like the bow to ride high in the water, in which case, a single line with the dinghy almost up against the transom would be best. All this said, my wife told me she wanted dinghy davits for our boat this last Mother’s Day and I was all too happy to oblige. We don’t worry about towing the boat in rough seas anymore. For the money, the Forespar Nova Davits are a great addition to the boat for cruising, allowing us to sail faster and with additional piece of mind. Chuck Gilchrest S/V Half Magic 1983 Landfall 35 Padanaram, MA From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Bev Parslow via CnC-List Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2016 12:17 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Bev Parslow <bparslo...@yahoo.ca> Subject: Stus-List Dinghy towing length We have a hard shell dinghy. How long should the tow line be? We had one incident when it turned over.
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