Dinghy painter

[johnman135]

I'm headed to Block island for the week and plan on towing ( outboard removed ) a 10' zodiac behind my tartan 30. Any suggestions on the best set up for a dinghy painter?

[Ric in Richmond]

I want to know too!

What I do now is take some polypropylene (actually and old life sling line) and tie it to the bow ring on my dinghy with a bowline. The bowline has a long tail that I then take to a thwart on the dinghy.

I then take the dinghies painter and tie it to the tow line with a rolling hitch.

I keep an eye on all of it for chafe, but I am still paranoid about losing the dink.

What do you all do?

BTW this is on the Dyer I got last year and that boat tows SWEET. Nice full bow pops up over the wave. Never a drop in her at the end of the day.

[CharlieJ]

When I was towing an inflatable regularly, I made up a tow bridle with large loops at each end. Those loops had plastic hose on them for chafe protection. The loops fit around the stern of the dinghy where the tubes extended past the transom. The lines then ran alongside the dinghy and through the bow handle ending in a lashed loop. The actual painter was tied into that loop. The lines along each side were held up out of the water with light lashings to the hand grab lines on each side.

That way the force of towing was transferred to the body of the dinghy itself, and didn't come just on the handle. The towing bridle stayed on the boat all the time. This is the only picture I have of that dinghy under tow behind our tri. The dinghy is a 12 foot Achilles.

Picture taken in the Elizabeth River, Norfolk, November, 1983. We had just come off the Chesapeake from a 3 month cruise there.

[meubcr]

When sailing in Maine, towing an inflatable, we came up with the following:

1. Tied a line between two points on the bow of the dinghy, with an eye on the bight.

2. Tied a line to the eye on the dinghy line, with two eyes on the bight, and the other end cleated to the boat.

3. Tied a length of stiff shock cord/bungee cord between the two eyes on the line between the dinghy and cleat, such that the bungeee cord is shorter than the length of line between the two eyes.

This arrangement reduced the stress on the dinghy's eyes as the dinghy was dragged up a wave, and surfed down a wave. When out at see, the dignghy was 15'+ astern.

I hope this helps.

[Hirilondë]

I'm headed to Block island for the week.....

I just got back from Block this afternoon, maybe I'll see you there another time. I tow a hard dinghy, a totally different animal, but bridals are key for inflatables. They have quite a bit of drag compared to most hard dinghies and attachments to the soft parts are subject to tear out.