On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 09:04:06PM -0400, Ed Kelly wrote:
> We liked our dinghy tow a lot. If you look at their
> web page at www.dinghy-tow.com there is a lot of
> the physics explained. Ours was used constantly for
> 5 years without failure.
>
> We did install ours ourself and paid attention to the
> details. We also put Boeshield on all parts in contact
> with salt water, and never had any rust.
>
> Its still in great shape. We pulled our dinghy across some
> turbulent seas and in storms with severe weather, without
> a complaint and only compliments... That is why those
> who have used them are generally proponents. But you
> can do as you want and thats the reason everyone
> has their own boat.
>
> By the way, we had read a report of cruisers who had taken
> their dinghy-tow to Europe and reported good luck in a serious
> north sea storm.
> The dinghy is kept almost as secure as it would be on deck, and
> way more secure than it would be in davits.
Ed, there are a lot of folks who like their Dinghy-Tow; fair enough, and
I can understand that being told that something you've paid a lot of
money for isn't perfect can really sting. But to claim that it's more
secure than a good pair of davits isn't reasonable. Of course, if you're
comparing it to a pair of cheap disposable davits of the sort I've seen
here and there, you might have some point - but it doesn't compare to a
well-made set, and never can. E.g., when I finally do get around to
welding mine up, they'll be heavy-wall 2" stainless tubing welded
through my stern rail in line with the stanchions where the rail crosses
them - and when the dinghy is griped in against the pudding and has
_zero_ movement to it, it's essentially an indestructible single unit.
The D-T, by contrast, allows a very large amount of movement, and is
made of skinny little tubes that'll collapse with any significant side
loading. Now, I will admit that I'm just a humble certified welder - not
a welding engineer - but if I was given the job of designing something
that would carry up to 500 lbs of dinghy that was supposed to be
pitching, yawing, sheering, lifting, and all the rest in the seas that
can result in a storm, I would have used something a whole lot beefier
than what the D-T offers. Somebody just _might_ get away with using one
while sailing to Europe - stranger exceptions have been known to happen
- but it certainly isn't something that's going to become regular
practice. On the same level, I saw a video of a Gemini catamaran being
taken across the pond by the owner of the company; at one point, he
looks at the weather to windward, and says something like, "shit, we're
all going to die." He'd been testing, improving, and sailing those boats
for years, but there's nothing quite like the ocean for really putting
the screws to what you think works - especially those cute gadgets that
looked so fine in the calm, flat waters where you "tested" them
originally.
But, as always, that's just my $0.01 x 2. Your mileage may vary.
--
OKOPNIK CONSULTING
Custom Computing Solutions For Your Business
Expert-led Training | Dynamic, vital websites | Custom programming
443-250-7895 http://okopnik.com
_______________________________________________
Liveaboard mailing list
[email protected]
To adjust your membership settings over the web
http://liveaboardonline.com/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.liveaboardonline.com/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
