Life Tender

[tager]

The Pardey's suggest that you make your tender double as a lifeboat. Part of this plan is to permanently attach a few large fenders along the gunwales.

This is fine and well... but how do you deploy such a tender when the time comes? Usually when your boat is capsized you do not have much time to be fumbling around with lines and davits etc.

Any creative ideas?

[xort]

I suspect they would have the inflatable lashed to the fordeck. You could tie the fenders to the inflatable in such a way they would sit on the inside while stored and be flipped to the outside if deployed.
Relatively easy to deal with in benign conditions. Anything will be a wresling match in severe conditions. I suspect they are more worried about getting holed by a container as opposed to getting beat up in a hurricane.

[WanderingStar]

I don't think they meant an inflatable. A hard dinghy with good seakeeping qualities like a dory skiff or peapod would make a great lifeboat. If I wanted my tender to double as lifeboat, I'd build plenty of flotation into it. If you have room for it on deck, you could attach it with a hydrostatic release. I don't have room for a big enough tender to do double duty. I have a liferaft now, but in the past I just used a good rowboat as a tender for coastal cruising. Had I needed to, I'd have used it as lifeboat.