Triton Dinghys

[Zach]

Hi guys,

In need of a dinghy for the Pylasteki, rented a 13 foot two man kayak for a week... side deck totally consumed and jib track is unusable.

What do you guys use for dinghys? I'm thinking a hard dinghy sitting on the cabin top under the boom would be nice, but don't know where to start. Boat is 200 miles away so measuring the space will have to wait a week.

Thanks,

Zach

[jollyboat]

Zach,
For a two hundred mile run I would tow the tender. Some tenders tow better than others in concern to drag and swamping. Usually you can find a good balance between the two. My Triton lives on a mooring so the importance of a proper tender is crucial. If you intend on keeping the boat on a mooring I would suggest at least a 14' tender for lugging all that you need back and forth. Trust me there is no substitute for proper tender when you are on a mooring. The women will thank you too.

[Peter]

I just got plans from Chesapeake Light Craft for their Eastport Pram, written up, with a few others, in Good Old Boat magazine.
It's short enough to fit on my fore deck, but too wide to fit in my Scion :-( so I'll have to buy a roof rack.

The big attraction for me is that it sails, rows, powers, and holds more and weighs less than my present tender. Oh yes, and it's another little project for the winter!

[Tim]

Everyone talks about dinghies on deck, but for most coastal sailing it's common to tow the dink, particularly on a small boat. I can't think of the last time I saw a "normal-sized" coastal-sailing boat around here that wasn't towing her dinghy. (Unless the dinghy was in davits on the stern, that is.) Maybe things are different in other coastal areas.

If you want to carry your dinghy on deck on a Triton, it will necessarily be very small, or else a nesting design. Either way, it will get in the way of something when it's on the deck. If you plan to carry the dink on deck, then don't guess at the size: measure the space you have, and be sure that the dinghy you get will fit there properly. You still need to be able to see, to get around the boat, and to sail when you have the dinghy stored wherever. Some 8' dinghies might fit on a Triton deck, but that wouldn't be ideal either as they'd take up a lot of room on the bow, for example.

Ideally, all dinghies would simply vaporize when you don't need them, and then magically appear, resplendent with room and features, whenever you needed them (sort of like the magical tents in Harry Potter). Unfortunately, this doesn't happen. Towing isn't ideal, but it's often the most practical choice in a small sailboat unless you want (or can live with) a really small dinghy.

When you start talking real ocean passages, that might be another thing entirely. Most of the time, this isn't the case.

[Duncan]

I just got plans from Chesapeake Light Craft for their Eastport Pram

Wow, that's a beautiful tender!

[Figment]

I recently saw an Eastport Pram that was done with laminated knees above the thwarts in place of the thin plywood pieces, and (I think) double or triple-thick edges at the seats. This simple modification did a lot to assuage the "tuck flap A into slot B" look of the kit-boat.

I agree, there is no proper way to take a dinghy of any meaningful size on deck of a Triton. There really isn't that much room on the cabin top, even if you do away with the vang. I built my dinghy specifically to fit on the foredeck, and specifically with a flat bottom so that I can clamber over it for sail and line handling, and still I'll tow it in all but the very worst conditions. The compromised design of the dinghy (low freeboard, flat bottom) leaves a bit to be desired, and I doubt I would go the same route again.

[Zach]

Ocean passages are what I'm thinking... but that is a few years off.

That pram is beautiful, may have to build one just because!

After switching to an outboard I'm not certain how to dock while towing a dinghy. Tow line and prop would be quite close together.

Thanks guys!

Zach

[jollyboat]

Zach,
Tow line and prop is not a problem. You will using a bridle anyway, so simply install a float (lobster pot bouy for example) on the end of the bridle and that will keep the tow line clear of the business end of your outboard. Also, in the event of towing a tender your long distance tow line will be fairly short. You can't have your tender swinging around behind you with a mind of its own. If you are already working with an outboard and are considering a tender for longer passages, consider an inflatable. They are not quite up to the "Harry Potter Magic Tents" standard, but an inflatable can be stowed out of the way with greater ease than a hard shell dingy. If we are talking about TRITONS, please read the multiple TRITON passage stories for more concrete methods in this area. I am pretty sure that none of these passages used a tie down tender for any long range distance. You just have too much going on a smaller boat like the TRITON. Afer you get your boat commissioned, (seaworthy) I suggest that you take a 20 mile sail offshore into the ocean and see how you feel about it - small I think is the word you will be grasping for. If you intend on sailing with another person, make that "even smaller".
Not trying to be a "nay-sayer" here just would like to illuminate some truths and options.

[David VanDenburgh]

Ideally, all dinghies would simply vaporize when you don't need them, and then magically appear, resplendent with room and features, whenever you needed them (sort of like the magical tents in Harry Potter).

In the absence of Potteresque powers, we (my dad and I) decided to stow our inflatable dinghy in its bag on the cabintop. After a month-long cruise, we both agree that it's an ideal arrangement. (The dinghy bag is just visible behind the saloon hatch, just forward of the traveller on the spray hood.)

The location is out of the way and easy to access. Deployment takes about 5 minutes of footpump action and a quick toss (or lift with a halyard) over the side. Initially, we thought it would be a nuisance to inflate and deflate, but, like so many other things aboard a boat, it quickly becomes just part of the routine.

The dinghy itself, however, is a compromise - it's not "resplendent with room and features." It's impossible to row, it's a dog under power, and it's frustrating to tow. But, it does the basic: stows easily and compactly, and gets us and the groceries between boat and shore. If you're cruising to destinations that require anchoring far from shore, then I'd suggest an inflatable with a rigid bottom, perhaps of the inflatable variety.



As much as I love some of the rigid tenders out there, I think this is a simpler solution.

David

[Tim]

I think what we all end up finding is that there are lots of dinghy solutions. Unfortunately, each solution is part of a larger compromise.

True inflatables, like David's, stow well and are easy to pump up and deflate, but they don't row at all, aren't great with engines either, and tend to not be ideal platforms.

RIBs are great dinghies in a lot of ways and take large engines for fast travel and easy cargo carrying ability, but they don't really deflate and stow like an inflatable, and they don't row well either.

Large rigid dinghies are good in many ways and usually row well, but are bulky and don't deflate at all.

Small rigid dinghies stow on deck with relative ease, but are lousy cargo/people carriers, and may be less effective as a true utility boat (which a dinghy ultimately is).

Choose your compromises! Every solution requires some compromise.

[Peter]

My present dinghy has a flat portion of bottom, with twin skegs about butt width apart, complete with cut-out handholds. When it's on deck upside down the skegs act as grabrails, plus it's also an excellent spot to sit on, in front of the mast facing aft, when reefing.

I only have it on deck when I know I'll be travelling all day. It takes about a half knot off boat speed under tow. Getting it in and out of the water is a five minute (max) affair using the spare jib halyard and hoisting it over the rail.

For hold-downs I use the round wooden cleat on the fore deck that fits through a hole in the top of the forward transom, and my jacklines, running inside the twin skegs, hold it down. I know, pictures .. pictures ...

[Zach]

Update:

The doghouse is 6 feet long on the top. That would overlap the sliding hatch to the point the boards would bump the transom. 7 feet and it would be touching my boom vang, which is mounted on a pad on the deck. Moving it to the mast would increase this distance.

The hand rails are separated by 46 inches of oxidized white paint. Absolute max beam, but I would like to pinch them together at the forward end a few inches, for ease of forward movement and grabbing rails while walking through from the head aft.

The boom stands 19 inches off the cabintop at its natural resting height. The black stripe is 37 inches off the deck. Gooseneck is about 8 inches below the black stripe. With a fixed gooseneck and boom gallows she'd be a bit more comfortable at anchor... less ducking around. Under way would provide 28 inches before the dinghy touches the bottom of the boom... I'll add plenty of wiggle room for a reefed sail. Would be a real bummer to snag a sail on a dinghy while tacking.

Raises the center of effort a bit, but I generally run the boom at the stripe anyway. The real bugger will be figuring out what kind of cover to build to keep the dinghy from laying on the control lines that are run aft. (Grin)

[Ganges #363]

When James Baldwin did his trans Atlantic delivery of Goose, he carried a hard dinghy on the foredeck. There are partial pictures of it on his personal site in the picture section of that story.

He has the dinghy's bow against the base of the mast in one shot, riding on the port side of the foredeck in another.

I would assume the dinghy was carried that way on the trip over as well.

-Bill

[Ric in Richmond]

I have a walker bay 8 that sits on the foredeck nicely on the Alberg 35.

Should fit a triton but just barely. I have about 2 feet forward and 8" aft of the dinghy and it almost comes to the mast.

Makes a great windscoop!!!

It is for sale too!!!

With sail kit....

See for sail section or make me an offer.

I am going to start towing my monster 12.5ft dinghy I just bought

[bcooke]

I gave up on the idea of a dinghy on the cabin top for the reasons you mentioned. There just isn't much room there. About the only option would be a small nesting dinghy and I llike my nutshell too much to get another.

The 7'7" nutshell nestles into the foredeck but it is tight. On a boat as small as a Triton I don't think there are any good options. Towing for the coastal stuff and learning to deal with no foredeck space on a passage is about the best I could think of. There aren't too many real passages planned in my future anyway.

Maybe a kayak could be secured to the outside of the stanchions? It would look ugly and would be insecure in bad weather but for coastal stuff it would work. I would love to have a kayak with me on future trips. I wouldn't give up the dinghy though. Getting in and out of a kayak from a sailboat, and loading/unloading is just too awkward for me.

Or... carry an inflatable on passages, and buy a hard dinghy locally when you get there. Or keep the inflatable and use it with the outboard you have for the Triton. (rowing an inflatable is like a being in purgatory IMHO)

-Britton

[Tim]

A Shadow boat is the answer to all your Triton storage problems. Never worry about where to put your dinghy again!

[Noah]

Yeah, I guess you guys don't have an 9ft aft deck to pull the dinghy up on...

Yes I'm being a turd...just imaging how much fun it was to figure out how to cover the thing this winter.

[Zach]

Update (kinda, picture is from last fall...)



Dinky: Mark 1.

She's a modified Phil Bolger Tortoise, from Dynamite Paysons book The New Instant Boats.

I took 4 inches out of her width as I was curious if there was enough room between hand holds.. and two off the length... Used two pieces of 3/4 plywood to hold her together while the glue set up... then cut through the sides of the hull with a pull saw when it cured. Only used two short pieces of wire to keep the sides square... and nailed the bottom to the 3/4 plywood at the ends. I wanted something quick to knock together, so unless I put a lot of glass on it, Dinky's just a prop.

Boom needs to go up a bit, and I'll be building something with a removable transom next... perhaps removable transoms, to get up to the boom vang. (One bummer about a deck pad eye and rope boom vang... takes up a lot of space.

Heard a cool one the other day... build the hand holds on the big boat good and strong, so they nest under the dingy and act as chocks. Then put hand holds on the bottom of the dinghy.

Zach