On Sat, 07 Jan 2006 23:03:08 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:39:49 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I would have an inflatable myself if there wasn't a way to carry it on
deck for times like that or when the psychological effect of 1/8 knot
on a long beat feels burdensome out of proportion to the actual time
lost.

When racing a sailboat, 1/8th of a knot feels like a 100 mph speed
difference. We used to participate in a lot of race/cruise events
where we needed the dinghy at night. If we couldn't get someone not
racing to tow it for us, we would deflate it and roll it up every
morning. That's a major pain of course but there was no way to race
competetively while towing.

I raced in a week-long point to point regatta this summer that
included multiple nights at anchor. They allowed a handicap adjustment
of around 15 s/mile for towing a dinghy. We rolled and stowed ours
while our closest competitor towed. I'd like to argue that the
adjustment was too big, but it wasn't far off. Tight finishes just
about all week in good wind. As you say:

1/10th of a knot in boat speed equates to
about 12 seconds per mile and most serious racers would kill for a 3
seconds per mile advantage,

I wouldn't bother deflating the dinghy for cruising speed.

Ryk