R i b

Tow it or stow it on board? Need input on best way to do this. It's an Aquapro 9'. 2.3 Honda.

In making your decision you should be aware of whether your insurance policy covers a dinghy while it is towed. Some policies do not.

Towing is done all the time by sailboats and there are stories of dinghies lost while towed.

This is my choice. I may be biased though.

I like things on boats to do double duty. In this case triple duty. The davits hold the solar panels, the kayak, and the RIB.

READY2GO said:

This is my choice. I may be biased though.

I like things on boats to do double duty. In this case triple duty. The davits hold the solar panels, the kayak, and the RIB.

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...and it makes a great sunshade for the swimstep!

FlyWright said:

...and it makes a great sunshade for the swimstep!

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The other thing I like about the setup is that the RIB has a drain in the transom so no having to bail out the dingy.

That's really a neat set-up, Mike, but going stern-in at the Marina must be something you have to watch, otherwise, your dinghy and davits are over the dock, no?

healhustler said:

That's really a neat set-up, Mike, but going stern-in at the Marina must be something you have to watch, otherwise, your dinghy and davits are over the dock, no?

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True, but that is not really a problem for us as 99% of the time we are on a mooring or anchor. The one year that we did spend a lot of time at a marina we would always pull bow in so when setting on the flybridge we were looking out away from the dock. Our biggest problem with marinas other than the cost is the lack of privacy. Pulling bow in helps a little with the privacy issue. At least it did at that marina since we were on the last dock towards the mangroves. The view from the flybridge was mangroves rather than more boats.

Mike's arrangement is very common among sailboats in the Eastern Caribbean. Expense comes to play when the boat is stored as the additional 5-6 feet adds to the storage charge. Some arrange their davits so that for storage they can be swung inward, the dinghy stored elsewhere and the solar panels dropped or removed.

Hank, I also think it has alot to do with what is your plans, going out to a local cove nice and easy, then towing is fine, plan on heading out in a little more open water, stow it, we like the Weaver davits.

Hank:

9' Aquapro doesn't weigh enough to deter getting it aboard, and also doesn't weigh enough to be stable under tow. It is much more likely to flip or fill with water than a heavier, more stable RIB would be, so towing in anything but flat calm would always be a worry. I have seen many of these hoisted on flimsy davits, or laying inverted on foredecks. Then, when you need to use it, it can easily be tossed into the water and the little outboard dropped from its rail mount, again, not weighing anything makes it easy.

Fortunely we have not been charged for the length of the davits, but we always ask first how the charges are calculated. If a marina or yard wants to charge extra we keep looking. So far not a problem, but I imagine in some areas that it could be.

We did tow a dink for 2100 miles with our previous boat. It can be done but does have definite drawbacks. I do not like doing that and that is why we put the davits on this boat.

As far as towing an inflatable and getting in to some rough water, as long as you do not have the motor on it and nothing inside of it I don't think it would matter much if it got flipped over. It should be about as happy upside down as right side up. That is one advantage to an inflatable as oposed to a hard dink.

To me the biggest disadvantage to towing is not open water, it is when you get into confined quarters and then have to worry about fouling the prop with the line. Been there done that. In 2100 miles it only happened twice but it was not fun either time.