Towing a hard Skiff

Thanks again. Based on all this input, I am thinking I will move forward with purchasing a 18' Key West, but only to tow to the Bahamas and < 200 miles on the ICW. (not longer distances). Will be purchasing a bridle set up using a floating line like Amsteel with say 80 feet? of line to catch the second wave and tow with the skeg wet, prop on. Will practice a few times before leaving for the Berry's this Dec. Any recommendations on who to purchase the tow set up from?
Dougcole, looks like we have the same Mainship. What is your tow setup?
Thanks again all!!
John R

Mainship400 said:

Thanks again. Based on all this input, I am thinking I will move forward with purchasing a 18' Key West, but only to tow to the Bahamas and < 200 miles on the ICW. (not longer distances). Will be purchasing a bridle set up using a floating line like Amsteel with say 80 feet? of line to catch the second wave and tow with the skeg wet, prop on. Will practice a few times before leaving for the Berry's this Dec. Any recommendations on who to purchase the tow set up from?
Dougcole, looks like we have the same Mainship. What is your tow setup?
Thanks again all!!
John R

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You may want to be able to slide some weight down that Amsteel for catenary while in open water and bad conditions...or be able to add around 10p feet of nylon in there for stretch.

If you can't keep the towline tight ALL the time, the the shock loads will be disconcerting without some way of dampening them.

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We make our own bridles with Amsteel and large "Y"s on both ends. The towed boat ends are handled with an Amsteel "Y" and snap clips. The towing boat end has a very large 'Y' made with 3 strand nylon and anti-chafe so we can use both rear
cleats. These pictures are of the heavier bridle we used for our 19' and 24' inflatables and is about 90' when completely deployed.


Hope this helps

Mainship400 said:

Thanks again. Based on all this input, I am thinking I will move forward with purchasing a 18' Key West, but only to tow to the Bahamas and < 200 miles on the ICW. (not longer distances). Will be purchasing a bridle set up using a floating line like Amsteel with say 80 feet? of line to catch the second wave and tow with the skeg wet, prop on. Will practice a few times before leaving for the Berry's this Dec. Any recommendations on who to purchase the tow set up from?
Dougcole, looks like we have the same Mainship. What is your tow setup?
Thanks again all!!
John R

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Rope Inc of Fort Lauderdale or Miami Cordage make a great towing rig. Pricey but will last you forever according to those that have used them, (I am sure Capt Bill will chime on, he's one of "those". At least, if you are DIY oriented look at thier sites and see how they do it:

Rope Inc. Catalog Mighty Tow Yacht Tender Towing Rig

Miami Cordage » Tow Bridles

Mainship400 said:

Would you stick with the tow behind or go back to a smaller hypalon RIB that can be hung off a davit on the transom?

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(Edit: After posting this I see you want an 18' boat. A little hard to pull up onto the transom!)

You can keep a hard shell on the transom with the right davits. We have a 11'4" Boston Whaler for a dinghy and we typically pull it up (manually!) onto the transom davits. The only time we don't is if we have a short run to another anchorage and the water is flat calm. Going into a marina or dock we always pull the dink up.

We use Weaver Davits: DHS Davit Heads for Weaver Davits - Weaver Industries | Fisheries Supply

The davits are elegantly simple and quite robust. Not sure how much the Whaler weighs, but my wife can also pull it up with the block and tackle system.

What's the biggest boat I could safely tow to the Bahamas with my little 110hp Yanmar. Like the idea of having a nice center console to run around the Bahamas/ and leave the "big" boat as a home base.

Wonder how a 17' Carolina Skiff would work in the Bahamas? Flat bottom might suck.

caltexflanc said:

Rope Inc of Fort Lauderdale or Miami Cordage make a great towing rig. Pricey but will last you forever according to those that have used them, (I am sure Capt Bill will chime on, he's one of "those". At least, if you are DIY oriented look at thier sites and see how they do it:

Rope Inc. Catalog Mighty Tow Yacht Tender Towing Rig

Miami Cordage » Tow Bridles

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What George said. Of course you can make your own tow rig if you're handy with a fid and can sew a bit.

I'd add, don't use metal thimbles where the bridle lines come together with the tow line at the Y. Use synthetic anti-chafe covers on all the loops. And you can clip on a small ball fender/float at the Y to keep the nylon bridle lines from dragging down and sinking the bridle and tow line when you stop. That can help keep the line out of your prop if you have to stop suddenly and/or back down.

You need to make sure the bow eye on the boat you want to tow is properly reinforced for towing. I'd make the main tow line at least 100' long. And the bridle lines 25-30' or so.

Also you want to use a painter coming off your tender (which can be nylon for a little more shock absorption) that you attach the tow line to (instead of directly to the bow eye.) with one of these:

We must tow a dinghy behind our Albin-25 because I won't use an inflatable in order to get the dog ashore. A hard dinghy is too large to hang from davits behind our little Albin, and there is insufficient deck space forward. The only issue with towing a CLC Eastport Pram is shipping water through the dagger board slot at cruising speed. We have a dummy dagger board (lower end flush with bottom) which is only about 70% effective. I have an idea for a molded silicone rubber "cork" held down by a plywood backer panel which we will try next season.

In tight quarters we tie the dinghy alongside, or tow on a very short line. If towing, use a LARGE DIA braided line that absolutely, positively floats. Getting an "iffy" floating line tangled up in our prop was not fun to deal with. I really dislike that yellow twist poly pro line. It is difficult to tie a secure knot with it.

cardude01 said:

What's the biggest boat I could safely tow to the Bahamas with my little 110hp Yanmar. Like the idea of having a nice center console to run around the Bahamas/ and leave the "big" boat as a home base.

Wonder how a 17' Carolina Skiff would work in the Bahamas? Flat bottom might suck.

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You see a fair amount of Carolina Skiffs in the Bahamas. They make good tenders as far as price, room, draft and ease of towing go. But they don't have the best ride in a chop.

As to what you can tow, I towed a 27' twin engine Contender to and from the Bahamas once. In fact while in the Bahamas on that trip I was towing the Contender with a 13' Whaler behind it and had a 10' inflatable behind the Whaler all at the same time behind my 42' GB.

Looked like the Beverly Hillbillies of the Bahamas for a few days.

I'd say you could tow anything up to around 20' if you really wanted to. And the tender towed well.

Capt.Bill11 said:

You see a fair amount of Carolina Skiffs in the Bahamas. They make good tenders as far as price, room, draft and ease of towing go. But they don't have the best ride in a chop.



As to what you can tow, I towed a 27' twin engine Contender to and from the Bahamas once. In fact while in the Bahamas on that trip I was towing the Contender with a 13' Whaler behind it and had a 10' inflatable behind the Whaler all at the same time behind my 42' GB.



Looked like the Beverly Hillbillies of the Bahamas for a few days.



I'd say you could tow anything up to around 20' if you really wanted to. And the tender towed well.

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That dingy train does sound pretty redneck. I like it. ???

I just think it would be nice to leave the big boat moored at say, Hopetown, and then visit the other spots from there. I've only been to the Abacos so don't know if that translates to other parts of the Bahamas. I would only go to the trouble of pulling a big dink if cruising for a month or so I think.

But it would suck to get caught out in a storm in a 17' Carolina Skiff. Something with a decent V would be better. I had a CSkiff 21 DLX (also flat bottom) but it was OK in chop because of the length, but that that seems pretty big to tow with my dinky Yanmar.

cardude01 said:

That dingy train does sound pretty redneck. I like it. ???

I just think it would be nice to leave the big boat moored at say, Hopetown, and then visit the other spots from there. I've only been to the Abacos so don't know if that translates to other parts of the Bahamas. I would only go to the trouble of pulling a big dink if cruising for a month or so I think.

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That's why you see so many boats now, both large and small, towing larger tenders in the Bahamas these day. Opens up a whole new world of fun and exploration.

Towing a 19' Inflatable about 16 knots and 90' off the stern - self bailing hull with the motor tilted up (115 Yamaha) tracks well in all kinds of weather.

We may try towing our Carolina Skiff 19 DLV. It's self-bailing and the hull is an improvement over the original semi-V while the draft is still measured in inches.

I have not tried towing my flat's boat (it's an 18' action craft with with a 115 hp etec, weighs about 1,500 lbs) at fast cruise with the mainship which is 15 knots, but I have towed it quite a bit with our old boat at around 8 knots. Most of the time, even in 2 to 4 the decks of the skiff wouldn't even get wet.

What I do at that speed is use two 5/8 polypro lines with thimbles spliced into one end. I use carabiners to connect the end of one tow line to the bow eye and the end of the other towline to the bow cleat on the skiff. I tie the other end of each tow line to each stern cleat on the big boat. I like the redundancy of the two lines with two attachment points in case one fails. The two lines also allow some lateral adjustment while underway.

There has been some discussion on here that the lines would bind on the stern cleats of the big boat using this technique, but I have not had a problem with that. I can see how it could possibly be an issue at higher speeds or with a heavier boat. I tow about 35' back.

I'm planning a Bahamas trip towing the skiff in the spring with the mainship, and I plan to run at higher speeds some, so I guess I will find out how it works. I'm planning on beefing up the bow eye on the skiff.

"There has been some discussion on here that thelines would bind on the stern cleats of the big boat using this technique, butI have not had a problem with that. I can see how it could possibly be an issueat higher speeds or with a heavier boat. I tow about 35' back."
Hello Doug,
The 19' inflatable Nautica in the above picture was nevera problem and was above your 1500#'s without fuel - and we often had near 65gallons of fuel on board as well. I do believe any reasonably well chosen towbridle will be just fine at the cleats as we towed often at 16-17 knots and ashigh as 20 for brief periods of time.
One of the keys was to tow behind the 2nd wave and for usthat is a bit over 90'.
If that is not enough to make you more comfortable wealso towed a 24' RibCat that weighed in at about 3,200#'s with very similar results- the boat was more steady at the stern in poor weather.
One thing not mentioned here yet is that we did prop fortowing as well as heavy loads so the boat would still pull the required WOTrating +3-5% when towing.
In each case we made sure of the following:
- Towed boat had two well affixed and backed tow points
- Tow line was 3X working strength of estimated load
- Tow line had chafe attached at each joint and as necessary
- Tow line had a method for easy attach and removal
- Tow line floated and was easily coiled (amsteel)
- Floats attached where necessary
- Line at towing boat was very easy to attach to cleats
Here is a pic of the 24 under tow at about 16-17 knots...

With your small transom length, you will be limited in the size of dinghy that you can hoist across the transom on davits, and the size of the outboard. You won't get a dinghy that will give you true freedom, by allowing you a dry ride at 20mph or so. To get that, you will need to tow. I often tow my Caribe 12' with 40 hp, so I get the freedom and although I carry my dinghy on transom mounted davits, I know what hassles there are to towing. I once towed a 19' outdrive Hard speedboat. I only did it once, as the mass of that boat, at 1500 lb or more, turned it into a projectile when I slowed the big boat, requiring a dedicated crew member to keep it under control while maneuvering. Towing the 12' RIB, which weighs 750 lb, is much less hassle. It is its own fender, so I don't need to be concerned about damage caused by allowing it to romp around behind me. I keep it close at all speeds, on a painter that can't reach to the props, so I never need to even know where it is until I get where it could get between the big boat and its dock, and then it is easy to move. I always keep the outboard tilted up. I have never been in conditions where it could flip, and if you are in the San Juans and travel to the Broughtons, you never will.

Great discussion here.

One thing I will note: do not assume that because your tow line floats, it cannot get sucked into the prop when you go in reverse. As the old saying goes, don't ask me how I know this.

If you want to tow close but maintain a set distance, use a poly rope pulled through a 1 1/4 PVC electrical conduit. This is a great way to keep it off your swim platform, and the rope out of the prop.

If you want stiffer setup, use two conduits in a Vee, one from each side of the swim platform. it will always keep the bow centered with your boat...

next question is day shapes... do you hoist the towing / under tow day shapes

Stu

Observed this today:

stubones99 said:

If you want to tow close but maintain a set distance, use a poly rope pulled through a 1 1/4 PVC electrical conduit. This is a great way to keep it off your swim platform, and the rope out of the prop.

If you want stiffer setup, use two conduits in a Vee, one from each side of the swim platform. it will always keep the bow centered with your boat...

next question is day shapes... do you hoist the towing / under tow day shapes

Stu

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Since my tow lines have never exceeded 200 meters, I've never displayed a day shape.

I have installed tow lights in most cases. I also install a light with a photo cell on it to mark my tows at night.