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I have a waveline 340 inflatable with a 2.8 Hidea engine which I use as a tender for my Bravaria 32.
Can members tell me the best way to tow the tender? Do you always remove the engine , for example? If so what is the best way to get the engine on board?
All tips gratefully received. My depth of inexperience cannot be exaggerated!
Thanks,
David
Hi Dave. to get the outboard-on-board we use the spinnaker halyard. Force 4 do a outboard harness, we then attach the halyard on and winch away. YOU NEED A CREW MEMBER TO JUST PUSH OFF THE OUTBOARD AS IT COMEs PAST THE YACHT, OTHERWISE YOU MAY SCRATCH IT. Likewise you can also do the same method with the tender, then strap it up front. For the tender you may need to make up a harness attached bow and sturn with a lifting eye on the point of centre gravity, then she will come over the side level.
Towing never a good idea with outboard on for a couple reasons, 1st drag off tender and outboard leg. 2nd in a following sea you can get the lot up your (backside) and then lots of snatching before the whole lot departs! and a pain in the ass if you go into a marina with something in tow.
good luck.
rgds Ray
Hi Dave, I only tow my tender when on a long summer cruise. I NEVER though tow it with the outboard in position…. I have seen so many tenders “inverted” on dodgy waves or the outboard simply coming off and going for a drink that I do not feel that it is worth it.
It is a pain towing into a marina berth but I tend to give an inexperienced member of the crew the responsibility for keeping it in tight and out of the way…. win/win as the tender is looked after and everyone despite experience feels that they are carrying out a valuable task.
As for the outboard, another way of launching / recovering is to use the mainsheet off the end of the boom which just happens to be in the right place to lift into and out of our locker!Steve
Make sure you have 2 lines secured to the tender and do not use polyprop as it degrades in the sun as I found out in the caribbean and lost a £1500 dinghy. Somebody in central America got a free tender! Surprisingly the insurance company paid up.
A lot of good advice here. We spent several years cruising the West coast of Scotland in a Seamaster Sailor – a 19 feet 4 berth pocket cabin cruiser, and we always towed our 2.4 metre inflatable. We estimated that we lost about 1/2 a knot off our hullspeed, but the convenience of a ready inflated outboard outweighed that. Anyway, sailing is the art of going to no particular destination slowly!
For us, the best method was to rig a towing bridle with a secondary (loose) safety line JIC the bridle snapped (it never did!) – we didn’t want to gift a free tender like Achilles/Medway! I second not using polyprop, which degrades even in the mythical Scottish sunshine!
We never towed with the outboard in place. We rigged a handy-billy from the backstay to assist lifting the outboard, which then went onto a wooden board clamped to the pushpit. We’ve just bought a Bav 30 (rathera step up!) and use the same setup.
Another tip from the Caribbean to stop thieves.
Make a strong bridle for the dinghy and using a spare main or genoa halyard, lift the dinghy with motor up to the toerail and let it hang. That means the thief has to come on board to get it. It works best with a wood transom or hard bottom dinghy but can be done with a soft dinghy – if it stays pumped up overnight!
Using the same method you can bring the dinghy onto the fordeck and leave it there whilst offshore but tied down well.
Many thanks for all the good advice — it is much appreciated.
David
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