On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 15:07:08 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

What is a good dinghy tow rope and painter? Should float well enough
that it doesn't get sucked into the prop but still pleasant to handle
and hold knots well.

I use braided polypropylene in a two-point bridle off the
stern-quarter extrusions, and I put a lot of extra hitches in the
knots. I also use the usual three-braid (non-floating) painter as a
back-up, but it's paid out mostly as a shock absorber and is never
slack enough under way to foul the rudder or the prop. If I'm backing
down, I use a boat hook to keep it out of harm's way.

One comment: Having a 10 foot RIB with a 9.9 four-stroke *does* have
one not-so-obvious advantage in that if your engine hits a spot of
trouble and the wind's dead, you can get home using the RIB to tow the
boat at the hip.

I did this at 4 knots for about 10 nm when I had an engine overheat on
my 33 foot sailboat, and we got home fine. I tied the RIB off,
gradually tweaked the throttle and the direction for "least resistance
dead ahead" and then got back on the sailboat at the rail and had my
wife at the tiller. Thus an empty but closely observed tender "towed"
us back to dock.

The only tricky part was going through our seawall with the
unaccustomed beam and keeping enough way on to dock with the Zodiac
hauling us to starboard.

Mainly, I use it as a toy on windless summer nights. I didn't even
bring it when we went for a week's cruising to Belleville in October,
as we had dockage everywhere.

R.