I've got to chime in on this one............................. Towing a dink just does not make any sense, in any kind of condition. Its a very risky practice and one that almost cost the life of the Captain on a boat we were buddying with, in the Gulf Stream.
Many years ago we had just finished up one of our winter Bahamas visits and were headed North to return to Lake Ontario and our summer cruising grounds. While crossing the bank we had anchored near a fellow cruiser and had had a couple of sundowners with them. During the sundowners we discovered we had a similar sailing plan and decided to buddy boat together for the next few days. During the evening we hauled our dink aboard and stowed it for offshore. The other captain commented he always towed his dink as an emergency backup in case of trouble. I strongly expressed my opinions about how unsafe it would be, but he decided to tow his dink. As a "buddy boater" his decision made me feel uneasy, but each Captain makes his own decisions and a fellow sailor has to respect him or her for that decision. A little after dawn we left the Bahamas astern, on a good forecast and headed out into the Stream bound for the best run North we could make. The day went well and we made great time. I had a wonderful star filled night watch but as morning dawned an unforecasted and unexpected strong Northerner blew up and it wasn't long before the square waves began to build. Since the other boat was larger and made better time we were following a few miles behind him when, a few hours after dawn, he comes up on the VHF declaring his windvane had been ripped off the stern of his boat and was dangling by only a couple of bolts. Seems his dink had been swamped in a freak wave and in the process the painter had become fouled in his windvane. Before he could slow his boat down and clear the painter, the weight of the dink had ripped his windvane partially off and the whole shebang was beating a new AHole in his stern. We immediately altered course and powered up to them with the iron genny. As we got close to him, we could see the windvane gouging an ever larger hole in his stern, as the painter went bar tight, on each swell. Evidently he had cut or disconnected the painter from the cleat, but it was still fouled on the windvane and he couldn't reach far enough down below his stern to cut it. He was afraid to start his engine in fear he would foul his prop (the painter wasn't a floating one, another topic of our discussion the night before) so he was basically two blocked. There wasn't much we could do either, but stand by and watch. For over an hour the vane and dink combo pounded his boat. In addition the sunken dink acted as a sea anchor allowing some queer waves to board over his stern pooping his cockpit. Fortunately the new Ahole was high enough that he wasn't taking on a lot of water through it, but it made a gut wrenching scene to watch the whole mess smash into his boat with each swell. After several hours of dashing about, pumping his bilge and climbing over the stern pulpit to try and cut the painter, a large wave just tore the whole mass away. Luck was on his side that he didn't get swept overboard himself. Shaken and exhausted he and his crewman were in sad shape. We stood by for the rest of the day while they made repairs and eventually headed into the FL coast. All we could do was shake our heads and be thankful we didn't have to rescue them or possibly a body. We never did hear if they made it, even after they had promised to call our cellphone once reaching land. The lesson is clear and simple......A towed dink is just a naughty puppy waiting to take a dump on you, when you least expect it. I'm sure his poor judgment cost him thousands and thousands of dollars, but more importantly it almost cost him his life and his boat, not to mention the life of an innocent crewmember. Rit No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.21.6/1317 - Release Date: 3/7/2008 8:15 AM _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
