# Dinghys and where to put them?



## Duckwheat (May 6, 2008)

I got a couple of questions for off shore sailors.

I have seen the dinghy(D) hanging from arches from the rear of the boat. Some without motors, and some with. 

How much wind is that D going to catch? 

Is it realistic to keep the motor on the D?

Put the motor on the rail?

In another post I read where someone was told they had a 2 year D vs what a real cruisers buy which is a quality D that will last indefinitely.

What are some of the quality D?

Inflatable vs Solid Design?

I have seen some fiberglass cats, any opinions?

Thanks for your thoughts.

DW


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Offshore? Hell, in Lake Ontario in five foot seas, I had a davit crack with a Zodiac 310 (10' 2") on the back. No engine. 

After the Chinese fire drill wrapped up, I started my research. My conclusions? One 88 lb. nesting dinghy with oars/sail gear, and one 55 lb. 10 foot Portabote with 2 HP Honda (28 lbs.). Both on the foredeck.

My kid has his own "sailboat", and it's the "people mover" and the Portabote is for "cargo". I have versatility, capacity and a way to get separate trips done while at anchor.

What did I give up? The hassle of getting a 120 lb. RIB on deck that is a total wind scoop. The hassle of getting a 9.9 hp motor on and off its stern. The hassle of having the bloody pontoons ruin my forward view from the pilothouse.

RIBs are great for diving, hitting the softer sort of beach and going up windless rivers. But for our plans, they weren't ideal, and splitting one tender into two made sense.

Your mileage may vary.


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## camaraderie (May 22, 2002)

OK...you said offshore sailors so I will assume the questions do NOT pertain to Idaho! 
1. It would catch a little wind but not much. Biggest danger is from waves and breaking seas and the forces exterted on the davit mounts. 
2. The motor should never be left on. It is hung on the stern rail on a bracket.
3. Davits should NEVER be used at sea. The dinghy belongs on the foredeck tied down. Davits are used at anchor and on calm coastal sailing days. 

A quality INFLATABLE dinghy will be well made by a recognized mfr. and use hypalon for resistance to the damage of the sun. Recognized quality brands include: Avon, Caribe, Zodiac, Achilles, Walker Bay, AB, and probably a few others I've failed to remember at the moment. 
Beyond inflatable you also need to choose capacity, wood or aluminum floor, no floor, air floor or RIB and the size motor required for that dinghy and what you want to do with it. 

Then there are hard dinghys, nesting dinghies and portaboats, kayaks etc. that serve as dinghies. I'll leave those to others as I am a confitmed RIB fan. 
RIB= Rigid Inflatable Boat= fiberglass bottom and inflatable tubes. 
They are much less tippy and hold more weight and stand up to groundings better especially in coral areas. They go fast too which is important when you travel long distances in them to fish or hit the reefs for some diving...or when there is a squall coming and you have just barely enough time to make it back to the boat! 

The downside is that they are expensive and heavier than the pure inflatables and require enough room on deck to tore the rigid part and can't be rolled up an stashed for storage like other inflatables.


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## Omatako (Sep 14, 2003)

Yep, I'm with Cam. RIB for me and stowed on the foredeck while sailing.

We have a bigger than necessary RIB but find it useful when fetching water and fuel (heavy) and also as Cam says, when four of us want to go for a fish, the space is worth the hassle of managing a bigger boat.

I just wish I could find an outboard motor that will start to my schedule not to it's own :-(


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

One other point to add to cam's good summary. 

You should avoid tying things to the stanchions. I've seen kayaks and such tied to them, and it really isn't a wise idea. If you have water breaking over the deck, anything large, like a kayak, tied to the stanchions will help the wave rip the stanchions from the deck. If that happens you may end up with no lifelines and a large series of holes in the deck that are letting water down below in storm conditions...which you will not like. 

Saw the results of having a kayak tied to the stanchions about 10 years ago when a sailboat limped into New Bedford Harbor with the lifelines and stanchions on one side missing and the crew and captain looked pretty beat up... and it had only happened on their last day at sea... I'd hate to think what they'd look like if it had happened in the middle of their passage up from Bermuda.


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## Ilenart (Jul 23, 2007)

I would also add Aquapro to Cam's list. The RIB's now have an aluminum hull which work fine.

Here is an interesting way to keep the RIB on davits, upside down. The guy had the fittings welded onto the bottom of the aluminum hull. Apparently the only problem is when dragging up the beach the fittings sometimes snag seaweed and other crap.

YouTube - The drogue saves the day

Ilenart


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## speciald (Mar 27, 2007)

Off-shore - on deck, inverted, and strongly tied down or stowed below. Short trips - tow behind with or without motor like the charterers. At night - hoisted out of the water by halyard or davits to prevent theft. Dingy should never be carried on stern davits when on an offshore passage. Should a following sea poop the dinghy, the load on those davits may exceed their capacity.


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## joethecobbler (Apr 10, 2007)

I have a very large wide flat stern w/ a full width swim platform. It is nice when boarding from a dingy . when sailing I either tow it or stand it up on its stern on the swim platform. It seem to work out . it is a 8 1/2' hard dink.I keep the motor on the stern rail of the mainship. 
we sailed from St. Pete,Fl. to upstate NY last year and it went well and was lot of fun.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

sailingdog said:


> One other point to add to cam's good summary.
> 
> You should avoid tying things to the stanchions.


This is good advice. I tend to forgot that having welded 1 1/2" Schedule 40 pipe for rails instead of lifelines allows me to do things that would be half arsed on the more typical boat.

I should have qualified this by saying that the Portabote would be laid down flat on deck at the first sign of weather. My foredeck is broad enough to do this and not have it restrict movement much.

In a perfect world, I would love to retube my Zodiac RIB in Hypalon (it's PVC and fading fast), but everything aboard is predicated on the strength and physics of my 110-lb. wife and young son being able to physically move everything aboard. Getting the RIB on and off the deck using a halyard (and over those high rails) simply didn't seem feasible for her to handle solo, whereas she can handle the other, lighter, less wind-catching tenders capably.

Moving a 9.9 HP out of the forepeak (I don't like them on the rail) would be even harder.


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## Stryker72 (Jun 6, 2007)

Valiente said:


> Offshore? Hell, in Lake Ontario in five foot seas, I had a davit crack with a Zodiac 310 (10' 2") on the back. No engine.
> 
> After the Chinese fire drill wrapped up, I started my research. My conclusions? One 88 lb. nesting dinghy with oars/sail gear, and one 55 lb. 10 foot Portabote with 2 HP Honda (28 lbs.). Both on the foredeck.
> 
> ...


Val, What kind of nesting dinghy?


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## camaraderie (May 22, 2002)

Ilenart said:


> I would also add Aquapro to Cam's list. The RIB's now have an aluminum hull which work fine.
> 
> Ilenart


Consider it added...I like them too!


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## Duckwheat (May 6, 2008)

*Dinghy..*

Excellent replies. Just what I was looking for.

Thanks,

DW


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## NauticalFishwife (Dec 12, 2007)

To add to Cam... I love my RIB and chose an aluminum bottom one because it's much easier for me to haul up, turn over and stow on the deck than a fiberglass one.


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## edstill (May 4, 2007)

Seems like a good chance to ask:

Does anyone have any experience with / opinions on the 'folding transom' RIBs? they sound like a good balance of performance and portability/stow-ability.


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## tausap (Apr 7, 2008)

I have Atkins & Hoyle Davits and bent the 2" diameter vertical support when I had the Dinghy and engine hanging on the davits during a rough day on the Chesapeake. Of course I had just bought the boat and was new to having a boat big enough to transport a dinghy. I was caught off guard by how much stress it put on the davits. 

I am wondering what others use to lift the engine on and off the dinghy transom and how they lift the dinghy onto the foredeck. I don't want to buy a separate motor lift, but I sure as hell don't want to drop the outboard in the water


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

camaraderie said:


> Consider it added...I like them too!


I'll third that. Prior to deciding against bringing a RIB voyaging, I checked them out and thought them a great and lighter alternative to F/G hulls on RIBs. The only issue I thought might be with stray currents in marinas where they would be used as tenders to moorings and perhaps would be on a charger. But that's a consideration with any aluminum hulled craft.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

tausap said:


> I have Atkins & Hoyle Davits and bent the 2" diameter vertical support when I had the Dinghy and engine hanging on the davits during a rough day on the Chesapeake. Of course I had just bought the boat and was new to having a boat big enough to transport a dinghy. I was caught off guard by how much stress it put on the davits.
> 
> I am wondering what others use to lift the engine on and off the dinghy transom and how they lift the dinghy onto the foredeck. I don't want to buy a separate motor lift, but I sure as hell don't want to drop the outboard in the water


Yes, the davit failure appalled me as well, given that the seas were just five feet or so. We were on a 15 degree heel, and the twist revealed a casting failure. The davits were rated for 400 lbs, and were carrying 125 lbs., max.

A&H davits, along with Kato, are generally considered top-end. Certainly I can't say enough good things about the quality of their hatches and portlights (except for the ridiculous cost of replacement gaskets!), so I would have been surprised as well. Let's say it's another argument against davit use other than as a "temporary parking place" at anchor or in calm motoring conditions.

I used a deck crane atop a strut-mounted weldment to lift my 9.9 aboard, and the spare foresail halyard to bring the RIB vertically aboard the foredeck. I would let the pontoons take the weight aft and then lower it whatever way it wanted to go down to the deck. Mostly, this means inverted (saving me further work), but if it was windy, I paid off the line quickly as a bucking RIB can do damage.

The new Honda 2 is handled with a light line lashed to its tender until it is off the transom, and then is just handed up. Even my five foot tall wife can one-arm it. At sea, I would rig a sling to the deck crane or to the boom, just for absolute safety should the tender and the main boat slam or otherwise do something unwelcome.

I will bring aboard both tenders in slings or four-point shackles using the main boom, using the mainsheet tackle, a separate end-boom tackle, and the topping lift (1/2 inch on my boat and obviously reeved for this sort of thing), as even their weight is tough to bring manuallly aboard over the rails, although I've done it a few times by hand, and it's tough, but possible to just physically haul either tender aboard with brute strength, but on a sailboat you are surrounded by lever arms and mechanical advantage...might as well use 'em.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Depends on the dinghy motor... mine's a 3.5 HP Tohatsu, about 36 lbs...no lift required.


tausap said:


> I am wondering what others use to lift the engine on and off the dinghy transom and how they lift the dinghy onto the foredeck. I don't want to buy a separate motor lift, but I sure as hell don't want to drop the outboard in the water


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## funsailthekeys (May 15, 2008)

*dingy placement*

You can see in my photo gallery that I keep mine on the foredeck. It's 10' but still lots of room.


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## eryka (Mar 16, 2006)

*no muscles required!*

After removing the engine, we use the windlass to get our 10-ft BRIG RIB dinghy aboard the foredeck:
(1) move dinghy alongside the boat just fwd of the mast
(2) put a snatch block on a spare spinn halyard
(3) run a line from the dinghy, up thru the snatch block, and down to the windlass
(4) raise the spinn halyard so the block is about 12' above the deck
(5) step on the "up" button on the windlass, and tail. The dinghy will raise and center neatly above the foredeck.
(6) lower the spinn halyard

Then we deflate the tubes for better visibility, and off we go!


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## tausap (Apr 7, 2008)

eryka said:


> After removing the engine, we use the windlass to get our 10-ft BRIG RIB dinghy aboard the foredeck:
> (1) move dinghy alongside the boat just fwd of the mast
> (2) put a snatch block on a spare spinn halyard
> (3) run a line from the dinghy, up thru the snatch block, and down to the windlass
> ...


Neat trick, once I get around to installing my windlass I will try it.


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## labatt (Jul 31, 2006)

I was talking to a couple of cruising families at the Annapolis show and they recommended skipping davits and just locking up the dinghy, in the water, with a long looped cable at night. Their point was that, in most cases, if someone else's dinghy is easier to get than yours... For long passages, we'd stick the dinghy on the foredeck, but I'd like to skip getting davits. Thoughts?


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## camaraderie (May 22, 2002)

Labatt...down bahamas & south...leaving the dink in the water in SOME places even with a cable lock is not a great idea. BUT you do not need davits. A dingy lifting harness will get it out of the water with your halyard where it can be kept more safely overnight. 








You don't need the whisker pole if you are content to allow the dink to rest on the hull a couple of feet up.


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