MacGregorSailors.com

Lets raise the bar and ask ? How do you transport your dink, when your gone and on the water for days or weeks at a time???
I drag mine. I did it for 5 weeks. At best .... it was a nuisance.. it slowed me down under sail considerably! Once in a bad storm I even considered CUTTING It Free, and maybe trying to find it later.. I have tried no less than a dozen configurations for towing..
Please dont suggest I deflate it.. Mine , though Like New..has the dreaded Plywood Floor! It came off a much bigger sailboat.. David Copperfield tried to install the 3 floor sections and it took HIM 20 minutes hahaha!!!
Magilla Gorilla did it in 7 but in the end, his was ruined.. Another issue I have is.... I have a 6 HP 2 smoke on the back.. heavy and awkward and I have already dropped it into the " Ocean " Once already Is there a remedy? Has anyone tried using those Stiff Arms off the back between the transom and the dink? Am I just configuring it wrong?

Crossing a large body of water in heavy seas towing a dinghy is a no-no. We've all tried it, and there's a good reason to get your dinghy up and out. I have a smaller dinghy that I am now going to deflate - when I HAVE to do so- and throw on the top lashed to the pulpit. But even my small 3 person dinghy is very heavy to lift up and out. So I put off taking out the dinghy, until it's too late.

Phil M

Do you tow it with the motor on? What overall size is it and what kind of speed reduction for you report?
Not sure about the arms you mentioned, but I'm thinking some kind of rods like dock moorers (?) attached directly would be better than any loose lines, if you can't bring it aboard.

Ross

Are you thinking about Davits ?

These are mentioned a few times if you do a search. Here is one link I found just now:

http://macgregorsailors.com/modt/index.php?view=1425

Happy Mod-ing ,

Immo

Yep seen those davits and though they are among the better looking ones on this board .. Our Boats are already transom heavy.. Our boats are small to moderate at best and those over power the aesthetics a lot.. IF that ends up being my only alternative.. what the heck I'll even mount solar panel theres.. I just dont want that on the back of my boat..
Crickey : lost anywhere from 1 to 3 knots.. dragging that bad girl with her motor tilted up .. Needless to say I lost the most in the lightest winds..
Not a big deal .. " That Humming you here is me lowing my 50 horse back into the water.." OK Class....Can You Say power sailing Hey at least I was doing what love and just above a bare idle.... that Merc is pretty darn quiet..
To Me?? Those Davits all look like a Continental Kit on the back of a Camaro
I agree Phil but mine is a 9.9 ft and my 6 HP 2 smoke is a pain to install and remove and install and the dang boats wont rock in unison hahahaha

I think you are doomed to continue towing myself. Even though there are some alternative options that have been bantered about on this forum many times, they seem to me to be too convoluted or expensive and too much trouble to implement given the few times I go on trips and require my dinghy. The return on investment of time trouble and expense relative to use is simply not there for me. My wife and I are marina rats for the most part and do not require a shore service dinghy while at marinas. We do occasionally anchor and so we tow the dinghy behind us and will also have it with us at the marina when there are anchor nights combined with marina nights. We have a big 9'9" Titan/Maxxon dinghy with 17" tubes, looks like something the military would use. With inflatable air floor and air keel it tows impressively well and I tow it with the 60# 5hp honda attached to the transom. The engine is too awkward and heavy to remove for towing every time so it stays on all summer. I have towed through some prettyy big rip tides and not lost my dinghy. That said, I absolutely dispise having to tow that big heavy beast around with me. It takes an extra 300 rpm of power to maintain the same speed as with not towing and sailing with it is a lost cause, far too much drag and in light air forget about it. Still, I do take it with me and despite my hate for towing it, once I get to a destination (even marinas) it is fun to have along because I use it to explore or just scoot around on. It is a bit of a love/hate relationship I have with it but life is always a compromise. I take my chances and tow the dink and engine combined and I have been getting away with it for 7 seasons now. Oh yea, one more thing, it is a great place to throw your garbage bags into while travelling, you don't have to have garbage on board and you can get rid of the garbage at the next marina. Just like towing a dumpster around with you.

Divecoz, I have to agree with the other members in thinking there are truly no other alternatives to your dilemma short of getting a lighter newer gen model. I'm like you in that you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, and make the best of what you have. While the davits are bound to present an interesting picture with a monster like that swinging in the air I still wonder if you could haul it with the tail attached, and raised and the resulting hull friction more than halved - esthetics be damned! 1 to 3 knots is a lot of penalty and must mean the drag is very high due to the bottom type.
I haven't jumped yet, but looked at a nice (smaller) unit at our boat show last winter. It's inflatable bottom made it very light and easy to deflate and stow. Perhaps next year......

At least if your admiral kicks you out for the night you'd have a nice big floating couch to sleep on

Ross

Richard

I think this is a very nice option & would think its something that is very easy to make
http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... 15#p131495

J

Food for thought...

I think this would work just fine in light airs, or in medium seas. I'm trying to picture towing this downwind in heavy seas when the dinghy fills with water.

Phil M

We use the swim ladder....



....as a tow bar...



...on every trip...



...and so far haven't had a problem. Going across Florida Bay for a while we had some fairly large following seas with some waves around 4 feet and the dinghy didn't take on any measurable water. Just remove the diagonal brace, only takes seconds, and you have the ladder back in use. The tow bar keeps the dinghy from slamming into the back of the boat and keeps the dinghy and tow line from getting into the prop or rudder.

We try an pay attention to the weather and try to avoid being on the go during extreme weather and stay anchored. If the worst happened I'd cut it loose. I think I'd rather take that chance and have it in the water just in case something real bad happened to the Mac and we had to leave her. Ours also has the plywood floor, so having it on board and then trying to set it up in a desperate situation probably wouldn't happen. For that reason the next one will have an air floor similar to what Mike uses. Then setup would be easier and quicker.

Here is a link to the build....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-17.html

We also usually always take the outboard off towing and is the reason we went from the 60 lb. 5 HP Nissan to the 40 lb. 3 1/2 HP long shaft Tohatsu.

The swim ladder out parallel in our case also makes a handy platform to board the dinghy from, gives me a place to stand to take the dinghy outboard off the stern mount and really came in handy in the keys when grass wrapped around the prop to the point I had to stand back there and unwrap it.

In the pictures above you can see also how I now pull the dinghy from its transom with the wide flat strap. That even works better than using the front bridle. It holds the dinghy flatter in the water and takes the strain off of the front of the dinghy,

Sum

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

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I like your method of towing your dinghy. It solves some of the problems of too much movement.

I would think a breaking 4 foot wave might poop a dinghy, but then again it might not.

Phil M

Phil M wrote:I like your method of towing your dinghy. It solves some of the problems of too much movement.

I would think a breaking 4 foot wave might poop a dinghy, but then again it might not.

Phil M

I think we would of been in trouble with 4 foot waves that would of been breaking like a waterfall, but they weren't. They were breaking at their crests and we did get some wind blown water into the Mac and the dinghy on a couple different occaions.

I also don't try an figure out how high a wave is anymore, they can all look big to me at times .

NOAA said the seas were 2-3 feet that day and a couple others that we were out. I believe that if they forcast say 3 foot seas then 2/3's of them might be in the 3 foot or less range, but a few could be 6 foot and more in the 4-5 foot range...

http://www.mxak.org/weather/pdfs/waves.pdf

I tried to downplay that at times with Ruth. It was better to say 2 foot seas today, not that occasionally there might be a 4 footer. As the trip went on she became very casual and unconcerned about the whole deal vs. a bunch of "oh, oh, oh" that would of been the words of choice a year ago . I just couldn't ask for a better partner on these trips!

We were out in some rough water on the last trip, but still the waves on the ocean that we have encountered so far are not as steep and as close together as on some of the larger lakes we have been on. At the end of the trip we had 2 days with wind on the nose where we had to make some distance. It was around 18-20 mph constant and we had to motor and got a lot of spray coming in. The Mac never once seemed to be in trouble and we just got use to it. The last day was when we had the largest following waves and it was really uncomfortable going across the bottom of Barnes Sound south of Miami with the waves coming in from astern and they would lift the boat way up and then drop it down. Ruth was starting to feel queasy and I wondered about myself.

Still no waves that broke all the way over into the dinghy. If it would of been much worst we would of just gone and anchored,

Sum

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

We've been talking about the same thing, how to tow the dingy. Our dingy is 9' x 4' with inflatable keel and no wood bottom. We also just use the oars, and have no engine/trolling motor mounted. However there is a mount we can install if we decide to put a trolling motor on.

Since it is extremely light, we don't see a problem towing. Our only concern would be the line fowling the engine or rudders. And we back into our slip, which also makes it difficult. Any ideas on this issue?

Robert

We have an oval SeaEagle SE-8 dinghy and a SeaEagle 370 kayak. When I started towing them, I held the tow line and used my arm-scale to judge the drag. I found that by raising the bow out of the water the drag was decreased a bunch. Now, if I'm into serious towing I snub the bow right up to the port aft cleat, just letting the stern of whatever I'm towing drag in the water. I cannot really tell then that I'm towing anything. This works in bad weather or high speed. For just putzing around, I tow 20-30 feet behind and go with it. Just what works for me.

I also tow with a floating tow line to avoid any prop difficulties.

Ken