Outfitting the Tender

I was walking through the local West Marine about two weeks ago and I walked down the "anchor aisle." "Awww, look at these cute little anchors...."

And I realized I hadn't given any thought to outfitting the tender (Walker Bay Generation 400).

Does everyone have an anchor and some (probably) nylon rode in their tender? Seems like you'd want it in case the motor conks out?

Besides everyone in a PFD and a handheld VHF, maybe some basic binocs, what do you have in your tender/dinghy? I will probably go with a very basic Garmin chartplotter/depthfinder, the dash has room.

JustBob
M/V Mahalo - Blog

I have a plastic coated 8 lb mushroom anchor and about 20 ft of 1/4 nylon attached to it.
Oars are carried inside with factory straps to keep them out f the way.
PFDs when we use the dinghy, and maybe a bucket for treasures or to hold the extra beer, registration, noise making device (whistle), and a tiller extension.
If doing some exploration to new areas I may take the portable hummingbird.
Wife usually has her phone, sometimes I take mine.
This is an "open" 10.4 Achilles RIB.

In my 9.5 ft Achilles, I carry a foot pump, small folding anchor in a bag, tiller extension, cellphone, VHF, PFDs, nav light and a multi-purpose tool. For extended trips, I add a portable charting GPS and a small cooler for drinks/sunscreen.

My devices go into a water tight bag. I have a bench cushion storage bag like this that holds most of the stuff.

You definitely want a setting anchor if you are going to be anchoring out a lot. When you go to the beach or sandbar you are going to want to throw an anchor on to the sand or just off the beach.

There was a great article in a past PassageMaker about preparing your tender to cover times when you get caught out (outboard dies, left stranded by a low tide, etc. Will try and find it.

I believe in MA all motor boats are required to have signaling devices, visual distress signal, fire ext. anchor and manual bailer.

Benthic2 said:

I believe in MA all motor boats are required to have signaling devices, visual distress signal, fire ext. anchor and manual bailer.

Click to expand...

Yup though you don't need a fire extinguisher on a very small boat without a gas engine or without a built in fuel tank.

In my dinghy I carry a mushroom anchor and 50' of 1/4 line, oars, manual bilge pump, life jackets, a type 4 throwable which is required, foot pump inflator.

There is a comprehensive discussion on this topic here: http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/list-things-you-need-bring-your-dinghy-36516-2.html

we have a pretty large "tender", a 12' livingston, for a 40' boat. It is used for longer day trips as it's equipped with a 20 hp and can go almost triple the mother-ship's speed. We keep:
a tiny danforth with ~30' of....."line"
5 gal bucket
hand pump
garmin handheld gps
clamp-on, battery powered nav lights
life jackets for everyone
anywhere from (1) 3 gallon gas tank to 17 gallons of gas in 3 tanks (we've gone over 50 miles in 1 day in the small boat!!!)
it's got a bimini
1/2 gal or so of two stroke oil
paperwork and cellphones go in a plastic, waterproof, safety orange ammo box
I've mounted a small humminbird side scan transducer on the stern. the head unit and a small motor cycle battery are kept in a kitty litter box along with a lot of the smaller items above for theft-prevention(easily brought inside)
theres also a spare adjustable wrench, flathead, phillips, bait knife, batteries for gps, spark plugs, and a few miscellaneous fishing lures/ hooks/ weights bouncing around the bottom of the kitty litter box.


whew...I think thats everything....

Oh wait, sometimes we also throw the following in there (trip specific)
a small cooler full of.....ice.....
fishing rods
tackle box
net
camp chairs
umbrella
beach toys (volly ball, squirt guns)
dog
a friend or two


aaaannnddd......


yep, thats it...

We've always carried two anchors and rodes on the Whaler as one of its primary missions has been going to the beach. Stern anchor to the beach, preventing current from swinging the boat into deep water or neighboring boats.

I have a 14' AB aly RIB, with a 40 HP Honda. It is setup as an independent boat rather than as a tender, and is separately registered. The latter is required here if you are more than 3 nm from the mothership. I think this approach makes sense for a large boat. Of course you might also want a micro dingy as well for simple shore visits, which I don't have.

So my RIB has flares, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, EPIRB, spare fuel container, danforth with 150' rode, mushroom with 50' rode, Simrad NSS8 chartplotter, 6 PFD, VHF, foot pump, nav/anchor lights. I've just fitted a folding boarding ladder on the transom as well. I sometimes use it as a 'dive boat'.

When going far on your dinghy, consider taking the ditch bag from the mothership.

I have a WB Generations 340. Insurance company considers it a boat. I have added the proper safety equipment, Fire Extinguisher, flares, VHF, PFDs, paddle, pump and air horn. I’ve also added fenders, anchor/rode, dock lines and a chart plotter. The boat has quite a large storage space.

Insequent said:

I have a 14' AB aly RIB, with a 40 HP Honda. It is setup as an independent boat rather than as a tender, and is separately registered. The latter is required here if you are more than 3 nm from the mothership. I think this approach makes sense for a large boat. Of course you might also want a micro dingy as well for simple shore visits, which I don't have.

So my RIB has flares, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, EPIRB, spare fuel container, danforth with 150' rode, mushroom with 50' rode, Simrad NSS8 chartplotter, 6 PFD, VHF, foot pump, nav/anchor lights. I've just fitted a folding boarding ladder on the transom as well. I sometimes use it as a 'dive boat'.

Click to expand...

That's a big-ass dink! I grew up on much smaller fishing boats! In High School, a green 5HP Johnson SeaHorse was all I needed to have fun on the water. (I see these motors in maritime museums today! )

Today, my 9.5 Achilles with a choice of Honda 2HP 4-stroke or 15HP 2-stroke is what I enjoy for that personal experience in the friendly waters of the SF Bay and CA Delta.

I just picked up this dink float that seems to fit my dink perfectly. I just pull up onto the lift, step forward then onto the dock, and the dink and motor float clear of the water. It fits perfectly in my double slip.

If I want, I can safely run an hour up the Napa River to downtown Napa! I'm starting to formulate a plan...

We have a 13' Whaler with a 40hp Merc 4-stroke that we use as its own boat most of the time. It has two 6 gallon gas tanks (10+ mpg), a cooler for a 2nd seat, fire extinguisher, 2 paddles, small first aid kit, inflatable pfd's for the two of us and extras are always available. No flares or other signals on board. It does have built in nav lights and also a Garmin DownVu Sonar/GPS/Plotter and a hand held VHF. There's a bow compartment that holds a fluke anchor with 20' of chain and 150' of 3/8" rode on a spool. (It's overkill but we anchor in the river where there's often a 2.5-4kt current.)


We also have an older 13' Whaler in AZ with a 40hp 2-stroke Evinrude. It's similarly equipped except for the oversize anchor. It's a more "normal" size anchor with about 6' of chain and 50' of 3/8" rode because we only use it on lakes..

For our 13' RIB center console, one of the best things we've found is Anchor Buddy

Anchor Buddy

Max Simmons said:

For our 13' RIB center console, one of the best things we've found is Anchor Buddy

Anchor Buddy

Click to expand...

Over our way,across "The Ditch"(aka the Tasman Sea), this is an "Anchor Buddy". Anchor Buddy - anchor weights made in New Zealand A proven anchor sentinel / kellet anchoring system.

BruceK said:

Over our way,across "The Ditch"(aka the Tasman Sea), this is an "Anchor Buddy". Anchor Buddy - anchor weights made in New Zealand A proven anchor sentinel / kellet anchoring system.

Click to expand...

That's a whole different Anchor Buddy.

I'd call that an Anchor Mate...you know what I mean, Mate?

We have a Highfield Aluminum hull RIB with 40hp Yamaha. Dinghy carries a Mantus dinghy anchor (https://www.mantusmarine.com/product/2-5-lbs-lbs-stainless-steel-mantus-dinghy-anchor/) with 100’ rope rode, flares, air horn, sunscreen, inflatable PFDs and towels. When we’re on the dinghy, we bring a handheld VHF and an iPad with Garmin Bluechart. If we might be out after dark, we bring a strong LED flashlight.

FlyWright said:

That's a whole different Anchor Buddy.

I'd call that an Anchor Mate...you know what I mean, Mate?

Click to expand...

I see it sells in North America as a "Kiwi Anchor Rider". Yahoo!! Likely the other product already registered the name.
There was one( the NZ kind) on my boat when I bought it,but the Aussie Sarca is so good I don`t bother with it.
BTW,in NZ,they use "bro", instead of "mate".

We're using the Anchor Buddy bungee in the Bahamas after having seen a cruising pal's in action. It's terrific! It holds the dink off the beach and keeps it from washing up. Our 10-6" Caribe RIB is heavy enough that beaching it creates potential back-wrenching effort trying to liberate it. The anchor buddy is perfect since it allows us to use a long line to shore that we can pull the dink in close to board. It stows well and is not prone to tangling, just stow it on a pile and go. Our sand spike is great for securing the shore end of the line without the hassle of stowing another anchor. There's already plenty of stuff on board! The bright color of the anchor buddy adds visibility when holding the stern off a dock as is SOP here. Big improvement in our dinghy trips!

We have one of these:

https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|2276108|2276109|2936271&id=3907943

We have a soft-bottom dinghy, so we don't beach it. We anchor it all the time. It's great at the beach. Anchor in waist deep water and use the dinghy like a giant coffee table. No need to move the cooler or pick up your junk when you're done.

" Anchor in waist deep water and use the dinghy like a giant coffee table"

BRRRR in early or late season cruising.

I carry this stuff in a waterproof bag in my dinghy at all times:

handheld strobelight
Flashlight / Compass / Whistle
Glowstick
handheld VHF

sm duct tape
Swiss Army knife, whistle on lanyard
2 x mylar blankets
Storm matches

Hand wipes
sm TP, kleenex
Green bag pooper

sm first aid kit

2 x 12oz water

2 x Power Bar

30wt sunscreen

Plus:
sm anchor
100' line
anchor buddy
spare prop, nut, wrench
extra fuel

###

BruceK said:

Over our way,across "The Ditch"(aka the Tasman Sea), this is an "Anchor Buddy". Anchor Buddy - anchor weights made in New Zealand A proven anchor sentinel / kellet anchoring system.

Click to expand...

Ironically, I used one of those for awhile as the stern anchor for our tender. A friend gave it to me for use with our secondary anchor on the big boat. I finally wised up and bought a cheap little Danforth style anchor for the stern anchor which works much better and doesn't hurt as much when I drop it on my foot.
Tested the anchor kellet once on the secondary set up just for drill. Traded it to a sailor friend for a bottle of scotch.

Waterford said:

I carry this stuff in a waterproof bag in my dinghy at all times:

handheld strobelight
Flashlight / Compass / Whistle
Glowstick
handheld VHF

sm duct tape
Swiss Army knife, whistle on lanyard
2 x mylar blankets
Storm matches

Hand wipes
sm TP, kleenex
Green bag pooper

sm first aid kit

2 x 12oz water

2 x Power Bar

30wt sunscreen

Plus:
sm anchor
100' line
anchor buddy
spare prop, nut, wrench
extra fuel

###

Click to expand...

Wow!! And I thought we were over-equipped.

Waterford said:

I carry this stuff in a waterproof bag in my dinghy at all times:

handheld strobelight
Flashlight / Compass / Whistle
Glowstick
handheld VHF

sm duct tape
Swiss Army knife, whistle on lanyard
2 x mylar blankets
Storm matches

Hand wipes
sm TP, kleenex
Green bag pooper

sm first aid kit

2 x 12oz water

2 x Power Bar

30wt sunscreen

Plus:
sm anchor
100' line
anchor buddy
spare prop, nut, wrench
extra fuel

###

Click to expand...

"Storm matches" as if you're going to be marooned? However, I don't see a white all-around light or running lights?

We travel in remote areas of British Columbia and use the dinghy to travel among islands and inlets. We've been in some locations where we've had a few days without seeing another boat. So, yes, I want to be prepared for an overnight should weather, current or breakdown leave us someplace we'd rather not be. Your dinghy bag should reflect the "worst case" based on the kind of use you give your dinghy.

Even if it's not required, I treat ours like any other boat and equip it with the basic safety gear like PFDs, nav lights, signaling devices, anchor, oars, etc.

I'm not sure anyone mentioned a boarding ladder, which is actually quite important. Jump in for a swim, and you might be quite surprised by the results. There are models available that hang over the tubes on a rib.

Above and beyond we have a small chart plotter and fish finder which is helpful when you go off exploring, or want to check depths in an area.

I used to carry a handheld VHF, but had no good place to keep it when underway, and couldn't hear it very well with the motor running, so I installed a simple fixed mount VHF.

We recently added an anchor buddy with a second small anchor. Great for beach or other tidal landings if you dink weighs more than maybe 200 lbs. Ours is 700 lbs with gear, and there is no way you can drag it back to water. But much of this depends on the size and weight of the dink.

Our new to us dinghy came with the below boarding ladder. We are looking forward to trying it out.

Armstrong Nautical Products RIB Boarding Ladders

Model not included.

The issue with boarding ladders is making sure you can deploy it when you are in water too deep to stand in. Something permanently attached to the transom is my preference.