On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 03:21:24PM -0400, [email protected] wrote:
>
> Ahoy Ben,
>
> We tow the dinghy from its (beefed-up) bow u-bolt with two lines. One line
> is the dinghy regular painter with a another line attached with a sheet
> bend to make it longer, and the other line is a hefty hunk of double braid.
>
> We attach each line to one of the corners of the big boat's transom in a V
> configuration where one would put stern dock lines. The two lines are
> about 12 feet from big boat to dink. The dink is so close that we can't
> see it from the helm, only its stern light about four feet off the water.
>
> The transom corners are about 6 feet off the water so the towing lines are
> leading up at a pretty good angle and the dink's motor weights about 130
> lbs. Perhaps these two factors lift the bow and keep the dinghy's stern so
> deep that it acts as a drag. It is also in the prop wash pushing it away
> from the big boat too.
That's pretty similar to what I've been doing: I use a 60' ski towrope
to extend the painter, then pass two 100' polypro (floating) lines
through the bow-eye and aft to the stern u-bolts. I then attach the long
lines to my stern bollards and secure the ski rope to the eye in the
middle of the bog boat's stern. There's enough slack in the long lines
that they don't come under load, so I'm towing the dinghy by the
bow-eye.
In most types of weather, it's just fine. However, when I'm sailing in
relatively light winds and developed following seas, the dinghy surfs
down the wave faces and shoots for the stern, or sheers off sharply and
gets sideways, at which point it gets jerked straight when the tow rope
comes tight. Not a pretty sight. To me, anytime I see gear being racked
and strained like that, there's *something* wrong with the basic
idea/design - but I haven't figured out how to fix that yet.
I've tried towing the dinghy stern-first on a very short lead; again,
any kind of following seas slam it from side to side, and the chafing of
the tubes on the stern sounds terrible. For the moment, towing on a long
lead is about as good as I can find - which, to my mind, isn't very good
at all. Much sloppier than I like my seamanship to be. :((( The only
improvements I can come up with require building either a stern platform
or davits. I like both ideas, but I've got *way* too many projects on
hand right now to add another major one...
> Do you mean the safety line is from each of Penelope's stern quarters to
> Ulysses, or from the Penelope's bow eye to Ulysses' stern quarters?
It's both, actually, and led through the bow-eye with some slack in them.
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