Can ayone suggest clever way to handle the dinghy?

[BethandNorm]

we are new ownes of a C&C 25 and have a hard shell dinghy. We keep our boat on a mooring at a club and usually use the launch service to and from the mooring.

My question is, what is the easist/best way to secure the dinghy to the mooring pendant.

Do folks use a short painter and snap schackle, and have a separate long painter for towing?

Is it safe/sane to use a snap schackle to attach the painter to the dinghy for the occasional tow? Is it a good/bad idea to fasten a mooring schackle 3-4 feet from the dinghy's long painter?

maybe I'm making too much out of this, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Norm
"Dorigen"

[CorvetteGuy]

When your tender is at the moring use about 5 feet of line any more and you run the risk of another boat traveling between your moring and the dingy possibly cutting the painter. longer is better when it comes to towing attached to your tow rail or a kleet at the stern.

[deniseO30]

I like to use a bridle type of line.. like a vee from the boat to either side of the dinghy bow and a bout a a foot or more back. On a mooring, I'd make sure there isn't any downward pull from the mooring line.

[InternationalRescueGroup]

Why a snap shackle, when tying a knot takes about 5 seconds?

[seaduced8104]

Bowline, finish off with half hitch. Takes little time to tie, easy to untie and more secure than snap shackle as they rust, freeze up, don't snap etc

Captain Michael

[tomperanteau]

Originally Posted by deniseO30

I like to use a bridle type of line.. like a vee from the boat to either side of the dinghy bow and a bout a a foot or more back. On a mooring, I'd make sure there isn't any downward pull from the mooring line.

I second the use of a bridle when towing. You can put a lot of stress on the bow of your tender if you only tie to her there. When you're pulling your tender tug on the tow line and see how much pressure that is on it.

[CapnBilll]

An idea i've had is to buy two swimming noodles, (cheap, floats). run a 1/2" line through the hole in the center, and tie to form a big triangle. cleat off the base to the stern, and the point to the bow of the dinghy. That keeps it from repeatedly ramming the back of the boat from wakes, and easy to pull up when needed to board.

[LarryandSusanMacDonald]

We have davits now, so we don't tow anymore, but when we did, we used two painters, one as a bridal, and one on the bow. The bridal actually did the pulling. We tied them off to different cleats on the stern so if one failed, we didn't lose the dinghy.

We used to let out enough line so that the dinghy was about one "wave length" away from the stern, so the dinghy would ride up and down with the boat. It worked well, no slamming the boat and no, or at least minimal, tugging.

The reason for two painters? I had a friend who swore his dinghy had been stolen right off the back of his boat. He showed me the remnants of the frayed line which he claimed had obviously been cut. I don't want our dinghy to get stolen in the same manner.

BTW, there is a GREAT deal of drag from towing your dinghy which adds to fuel consumption and considerably slows the boat when sailing. You don't realize just how much drag until you try to pull the dinghy closer to the boat while traveling along at 5 or 6 k.