On Wed, 12 May 2004 17:31:21 -0400, Rodney Myrvaagnes
wrote:



Yes, that is why I said "less likely." I have seen dinghy painters
with a series of floats, that might make it "even less likely."
However, hauling the dinghy up short against the stern before going in
reverse is still a great idea.

I have a rough idea of the distance between my prop and the tender's
D-ring in a straight line, and a tad shorter than that is my standard
"deployment".

If it's choppy, I let off 20 feet or so. If it's light air in a
current, you can sometimes have under sail the slightly humiliating
vista of seeing your tender passing your sailboat. This is your cue to
switch on the motor or retire below for "recreation".

BTW, the fender as shock absorber idea is great. That's why I love NGs
like this...someone's solved problems you've yet to consider or
discover.

R.

I rigged my towline up from a suggestion I received earlier. There are
actually two lines, both three straid laid nylon. I used this for the shock
absorbing characteristics. The first line is about 50', and has a thimble
spliced into both ends. One gets shackled to the dink. Then I have another
line with an eye spliced into one end. I hook this onto my cleat/hawsepipe
on the starboard side, pass the line through the thimble of the tow rope,
then pass it through the cleat/hawsepipe on the port side. This allows me to
adjust the length of the entire assembly to get the dink to where it wants
to run based on the wake and bow wave ( I have a trawler that runs around 7
knots). If I need to cinch it up for docking or whatever, I just pull in the
bitter end of the cleat line until the towline is reachable, then grab it
and pull it up close and cleat it off.

Another suggestion that I haven't done yet is to make a towline that splits
into two, with eyes spliced into two ends to pass over the tubes at the reat
of the dink, then forward to attach to the towline, or spliced together. The
idea behind this is to prevent a towing eye from pulling out of the dink and
losing it.

--


Keith
__
A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative.
"rhys" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 12 May 2004 17:31:21 -0400, Rodney Myrvaagnes
wrote:



Yes, that is why I said "less likely." I have seen dinghy painters
with a series of floats, that might make it "even less likely."
However, hauling the dinghy up short against the stern before going in
reverse is still a great idea.

I have a rough idea of the distance between my prop and the tender's
D-ring in a straight line, and a tad shorter than that is my standard
"deployment".

If it's choppy, I let off 20 feet or so. If it's light air in a
current, you can sometimes have under sail the slightly humiliating
vista of seeing your tender passing your sailboat. This is your cue to
switch on the motor or retire below for "recreation".

BTW, the fender as shock absorber idea is great. That's why I love NGs
like this...someone's solved problems you've yet to consider or
discover.

R.

I think having a tow rope with some stretch is important when for example,
you have a following wind and the dinghy starts sailing from side to side,
not keeping pace with the boat. The boat can actually lag the dinghy at
certain instances, so when it finally exceeds the dinghy speed, there will
be a big tug on that tow line. I think this pull should be dampened with
a stretchable line to reduce loads on whatever the line is tied to on the
boat, and not cause any affects on boat handling. The solution to lines
getting tangled in the prop is to bring up the dingy close to the boat
when anchoring, reversing, etc.

Sherwin D.

DSK wrote:

Rodney Myrvaagnes wrote:
The West catalog has both laid and braided polypro on page 725. No red
thread. I am sure you could find it on their web site if you don't
have a catalog.

I would use this for a dinghy tow line because it floats, making it
less likely to get into your prop in reverse.

"Less likely" is the key phrase. Floating line can still get wrapped in
the prop, ask me how I know.

So far, I don't know of a single way to totally fool-proof any aspect of
sailing or cruising. The best you can hope for is a slight degree of
"fool-resistant."

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Gerald Atkin writes:

What is the best line for towing a dinghy?

Go to K-Mart, buy a water ski tow rope.

It will float, it's cheap, and it does the job.


--
Lew

S/A: Challenge, The Bullet Proof Boat, (Under Construction in the Southland)
Visit: http://home.earthlink.net/~lewhodgett for Pictures

Lucky you! You can find that stuff at Home Depot for next to nothing, since
it's not labeled "marine"!

--


Keith
__
The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts.
"Gerald Atkin" wrote in message
...
What is the best line for towing a dinghy?

I have seen somewhere on the net a multifilament polypropylene dinghy tow
rope that looks a lot like braided line but it is poly and floats. Assume
this would be good. But can't seem to find it. If I recall it was yellow
with a red thread,

Jerry

Depends on what you call a dingy.

For my small inflatable in calm water, I use Poly... easy to splice,
cheap, will last for years if you get it out of the sun after use.

For my tender (18' whaler)in rough water, I use 5/8" nylon with a VERY
long bridle (40') and another 60' of tow line. Great stretch for
rougher seas. I shorten it at the tender end if needed so that the long
bridle stays intact for stabilty and a more straight pull. (Tested to
22 kts in 3-5' seas, 17 kts in 5-7' seas) When pulling into port, we
do shorten it on the tow boat end and go down to towing on the non-slip
side cleat.

My neighbor calls a 31 jupiter his "dingy" He uses a 3/4" Multibraid
with a similar setup to my Whaler.

Funny thing.... the ONLY time I ever got the line caught up in the
wheels was when I was towing the little guy with the floating line.
(had to cut it loose in 1000+ ft of water... you tend to be VERY careful
with heavy diameter nylon...)





Gerald Atkin wrote:
What is the best line for towing a dinghy?

I have seen somewhere on the net a multifilament polypropylene dinghy tow
rope that looks a lot like braided line but it is poly and floats. Assume
this would be good. But can't seem to find it. If I recall it was yellow
with a red thread,

Jerry

I know this is late, but I just got back from a few weeks on the boat.

I have a heavy fibreglass 8' dinghy. I use "Marstron" (brand name, I
assume) - it is the flexible braided polyprop line such as others have
described. Mine has been in use for 15 years and shows no signs of
deteriorating in the sunlight. But I'm replacing it this week with a
new one, just in case.

I use a rubber mooring line snubber (the kind with loops in the ends,
rather than the kind that you twist your mooring line around) in the
towing line right at the dinghy - it takes up the shock loads, and if
it tries to stretch too much, the part of the painter that "bypasses"
the snubber takes the load.

I've also just started playing with a trick I saw on another boat.
There is a short line (with the snubber) from the dinghy to a small
block. This block rides on a piece of line (Marstron) that runs from
the port stern cleat to the startboard. This line is rather short
(barely reaches the water).

When we are towing the dinghy under power, it is up close, and rides
in the center behind the boat, rather than off to one side. The block
lets it easily move around if the wave/wind conditions move it.

Only used it briefly - not sure if it is going to be any better than
just towing close behind. But it LOOKS cool!

Larry Bradley
C&C Corvette 31 "Lady Di"
Kingston, ON, Canada

Gerald Atkin wrote:

What is the best line for towing a dinghy?

I have seen somewhere on the net a multifilament polypropylene dinghy tow
rope that looks a lot like braided line but it is poly and floats. Assume
this would be good. But can't seem to find it. If I recall it was yellow
with a red thread,

Jerry

Larry Bradley VE3CRX
Remove "removeme" from my e-mail address for direct mail
Ottawa, Canada

(use the e-mail address above to send directly to me)

This might be another option.

http://www.shockles.com/usage/dinghy-towing.cfm

"Larry Bradley" wrote in message ...
I know this is late, but I just got back from a few weeks on the boat.

I have a heavy fibreglass 8' dinghy. I use "Marstron" (brand name, I
assume) - it is the flexible braided polyprop line such as others have
described. Mine has been in use for 15 years and shows no signs of
deteriorating in the sunlight. But I'm replacing it this week with a
new one, just in case.

I use a rubber mooring line snubber (the kind with loops in the ends,
rather than the kind that you twist your mooring line around) in the
towing line right at the dinghy - it takes up the shock loads, and if
it tries to stretch too much, the part of the painter that "bypasses"
the snubber takes the load.

I've also just started playing with a trick I saw on another boat.
There is a short line (with the snubber) from the dinghy to a small
block. This block rides on a piece of line (Marstron) that runs from
the port stern cleat to the startboard. This line is rather short
(barely reaches the water).

When we are towing the dinghy under power, it is up close, and rides
in the center behind the boat, rather than off to one side. The block
lets it easily move around if the wave/wind conditions move it.

Only used it briefly - not sure if it is going to be any better than
just towing close behind. But it LOOKS cool!

Larry Bradley
C&C Corvette 31 "Lady Di"
Kingston, ON, Canada

Gerald Atkin wrote:

What is the best line for towing a dinghy?

I have seen somewhere on the net a multifilament polypropylene dinghy tow
rope that looks a lot like braided line but it is poly and floats. Assume
this would be good. But can't seem to find it. If I recall it was yellow
with a red thread,

Jerry

Larry Bradley VE3CRX
Remove "removeme" from my e-mail address for direct mail
Ottawa, Canada

(use the e-mail address above to send directly to me)