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wrote:

On my boat (28' S2), I carry my dinghy on deck and its sorta hard to
see over, but........

My original backstay had a piece of wire cable spliced into it about 6'
off the transom with a stainless clip on it. I am not really sure what
it was for , maybe in lieu of a topping lift to hold the end of the
boom up. When I had a new backstay made, they copied the old one
exactly so I still have it. So........I want to make a chair suspended
from this attachment allowing me to sit in comfort, high enough to see
over the dinghy, steering with teh tiller extension. The chair would
rock with the boat. Any thoughts on how to do this?

I don't think this is a good idea. There was a sailboat slightly
ahead of us in the ICW and the lady was in a hammock that was set up
on the stern. Power boaters passed on both sides of us (one on the
port and one on the starboard) giving maximum waking. The other boat
saw the boat that passed on the same side they were on, but not the
one that was on the other side of us, and the resulting wake dumped
the lady out of the hammock. Not that they could have done anything
about it anyway except hold on a bit better.

We don't carry our inflatable dinghy on deck partly because I can't
see over it unless I stand up. We also have a portaboat that we
either lash to the cabin top or put along the lifelines. Much easier
to row than the inflatable too. Acquaintances of ours used to put
their hard dingy on the aft cabin top (center cockpit boat). I've
also seen people that sit up on the aft cabin top and steer with their
feet. I've seen dinghies towed also or stowed up against the stern
covering the name.

My first question though would be - where are you going to be doing
this sailing. If offshore, then I wouldn't tow the dinghy, but OTOH
you really don't need to see right close to the boat then either. You
can stand up for the time that you need to get in to port.

We've got a foam seat that we put on top of the helmsman seat which
puts me up high enough that I can see. Got it at the boat show. I've
also seen swivel pedestal seats which can be removed if necessary.

grandma Rosalie