Love me Tender.....

[chall03]

Im am curious to find out what everyone actually does with their tenders/dinghies while cruising and how well it works for you on your particular vessel in your particular situation.

To tow or not to tow???? Are Davits the answer??

If not, how do you store/lash or overwise deal with that little boat that get you on and off the big boat?

Our scenario is far less than perfect.

We have an 2.4m inflatable and on our 27ft boat there is no ideal spot to lash it on decks, nor does it fit anywhere on the boat particularly well when deflated and tucked away in it's bag.

In order to inflate it, one must first dismantle half the cockpit. My wife then takes down the port lifelines while I extract the pump from a locker somewhere. We both then assume cirque du soleil style acrobatic poses, and 20 minutes later after much contortionism and prodding and pumping(calm down guys.... minds out of the gutter) we unglamorsishly push the whole wretched thing out of the cockpit and over the side.....it is then shortly followed by moi with a smelly outboard under my arm.

This arrangement is arguably tolerable for the few days we spend cruising at a time at the moment, although it does very much discourage spontaneous onshore adventures after you drop anchor.

A more cruiserly and much more dignified long term solution has to be found!

[St Anna]

Hiya mate

My thoughts.

Ok - davits are fine within Moreton Bay or Sandy Straits or Whitsundays even - but; upside down, lashed on deck (which also protects a hatch) when on passage.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P8190021.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P8190025.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...tanna/a004.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...uencies147.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...2ndhalf014.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P8230012.jpg
A dinghy on a davit can easily enough fill up with water and you can lose dinghy, davits, and everything else on the davits - bimini, solar, antenae etc.

Towing - I would also forget unless in smoothish water.

If we are in an anchorage - I always bring the dinghy up on the davits each night as things change in the middle of the night (murhy's law) and you have to move. You dont have to think about the dinghy.

FOr you, I guess, on passage - stow it. When cruising around - tow it ( with 2nd floating painter.

When and where are you off to?
cheers

[sailingdog]

I second what St. Anna said about how to treat a dinghy on passage. Also, hoisting the dinghy at night makes it less vulnerable to theft.

I cheat... I usually stow the inflatable dinghy, fully inflated, on the starboard ama deck. It tucks up under the main hull and is pretty much completely protected and out of the way. Much easier than towing it, deflating it, or trying to stow it on the cabintop. However, this isn't an option for monohullers.

[chall03]

Thanks guys. Pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking....(Yes SD I noticed the multi-hull plug cleverly veiled )

Unfortunately not off anywhere remarkable just yet St Anna, we are still 'boat shopping' for the next boat, with the plan still being head north mid next year and see where we end up! For the moment we are kitty filling mode......

We are however being a little more ambitious with the current boat, trying to get out of Broken Bay as much as possible, and push ourselves a bit. On our boat there is precious little on deck room to put the the damn dinghy, so last weekend the thing kept getting inflated and deflated and it was umm less than ideal.

Also one of the boats we are currently looking at does have decent Davits, the broker is of course very quick to sing their praise, while I have been pondering just how absolutely necessary or wonderful they are.

[St Anna]

Hey,
some people pull them up over the transom and they sit vertically - wont hold much water and easily dropped into the wet stuff.

Our davits are rather lightweight - and we are used to bringing dinghy up or out at night anyway. The davits are wonderful when we are ( were!!) staying some time in one general location - like Whitsundays or Sandy Straits.

Its really just a mindset - I've seen people who just use the davits. However, it will catch up. Imagine crossing a bar with the thing on davits- Anyway - enjoy that G&T, pick the right cruiser and well see you up here next year!!

[Mimsy]

I'm interested inhearing from those who've cruised a bit but skipped the davits. We are thinking of trying to manage without davits if possible. The funds could be better used elsewhere and davits do change the appearance of the boat- not necessarily for the better. I think it would be easier if our boat had a sugar scoop of some sort, but we have a flat transom.

I suppose we shall find out soon enough.

[Cruisingdad]

Originally Posted by Mimsy

I'm interested inhearing from those who've cruised a bit but skipped the davits. We are thinking of trying to manage without davits if possible. The funds could be better used elsewhere and davits do change the appearance of the boat- not necessarily for the better. I think it would be easier if our boat had a sugar scoop of some sort, but we have a flat transom.

I suppose we shall find out soon enough.

I would not cruise without davits. My personal opinion. It is not neccessarily beacuse you have to have a place to hoist the tender, but because of teh adage, "Lock it or lose it."

To answer Chall's question, How WE do it, not to influence how others should do it, is that when on short jaunts, we tow the tender. If we think there will be a lot of seas, we may pull the plug, I have towed the tender offshore in a storm, and we kept it... but that may not be the best decision for everyone. If you get pooped with her on davits, you may very well be in trouble.

For longer runs, we do put her on davits. Realize that you will lose about a knot towing that tender... especially if you have as much junk in her as we do. For really long runs, I would suggest tossing her on the deck or deflating if you can. It is jsut a ral pain in teh butt and those things are rally heavy.

I think davits are a great investment... but I think a large arch is a better investment. Solar has made our lives considerably more enjoyable and you can easily have an arch built to take both.

My opinions only...

Brian

[funjohnson]

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

I think davits are a great investment... but I think a large arch is a better investment. Solar has made our lives considerably more enjoyable and you can easily have an arch built to take both.

My opinions only...

Brian

We have solar on our davits that works great. We were going to just pull the dinghy on deck each night with a spare halyard, but we needed a good place to mount the solar.

Now, using this setup, I would have saved the money and mounted the panels on the bimini... just pulled the dinghy on deck.

[killarney_sailor]

It is not a simple answer (or question). You have to consider a lot of things including:
- where are you going (near shore, somewhat protected (eg most of Bahamas) or offshore
- what kind of dinghy do you want and how big an OB (this choice alone could require you to have davits)
- if you are doing serious cruising, will you have vane steering; what we saw in the Eastern Caribbean was that boat had davits or vane steering - saw no boats with both, don't even know if it is possible

We have a 10' air floor Walker Bay with a 6 hp motor. We have a dedicated motor hoist mounted to our wind gen post at the transom and use a spinnaker halyard to life the boat (works great). We either 1) tow with motor on for short distances in very protected conditions. 2) Tow with motor off (and everything out of the dink - even between islands (~40 nm) in open ocean with normal conditions )~5-7 foot swells - it tows beautifully in such conditions and does not even pick up much spray. 3) Stow dinghy upside down on foredeck inflated (get in way of inner stay though and we can only leave one side open to access bow area. 4) Deflate dinghy and rollup and store just in front of mast (former liferaft went here and there is the bracket for it.

Motor up or down takes ~5 minutes including tank, oars etc for 2 people (we have done it enough to have a good system). Hoisting and tying the dink is about 10 minutes or so. Deflating or reinflating is slow for sure - perhaps we need a better pump, even a taller version of the one we have would be better.

[T37Chef]

Um, wouldn't davits on a 27' boat be a little much? I would think it would really make the boat squat in the stern? I would think you would be better off for the amount that you intend to use either towing it or getting something like the photo below or laying it horizontal like describe already. I've also seen something that hangs from the stern rail looking like the tubes rest on it, but cant find a photo.