Towing a 13' whaler or 10 RIB

We also tow a 13' Whaler, with a 40 hp motor.

We tow it on an nylon bridle and a 5/8" polypropylene line 75' long. We have had no issues towing it although we nave not experienced this in challenging weather.

For anchoring and tying side-to a dock we tie up the Whaler "on the hip" as shown in the photographs below. Tied-up in this fashion allows to travel at idle speed and manoeuvre without issue.

We also board and un-board from the tender in that position via the mother ship's swim platform.

Gilberto, I see you have the same model of Whaler we do.

One thing I don't recall mentioning in my posts on this thread is that we found it helpful to lower the motor's skeg into the water just a bit, but not enough to submerge a part of the propellor; this helps tracking a lot.

At anchor we let the small boat out well behind the swim platform as otherwise it tended to bang into the big boat in certain conditions. Since the two boats were never in synch with each other in reaction to waves, no combination of fenders we came up with could prevent this.

By the way there are pads in the port and starboard forward corners on which you can mount cleats, which we did and find them very handy. The diagram for the spots of the deck that had backing pads used to be available online. I think I may have a copy somewhere in the cyber archives.

I tow a 10 foot RIB at on plane at 18kts. It just glides happily along. It is a West Marine 310 using a West Marine Bridle....so Bridle was made for that boat.

Group9 said:

Nice boat! That's the thing. Once you get out there and start towing it, you figure out ways to make it work!

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Thanks!
We boat a large inland lake, and go in and out of lots of marinas, and long, narrow coves... some that go back a mile plus. Having the ability to do 360 deg. twists, back up, etc... without worrying about the tow is SO nice!

I first came up with this general rigging idea back in the early 90' when I was wanting to tow a jet ski by 26' ski boat long distances without it bouncing/submarine-ing all over the place. It worked great, but I was only using pvc sched. 40 pipe. But the proof-of-concept was there.

Most here are talking about towing at greater speed than I expect from your boat. You are most likely going to cruise at 7 to 8 knots, so won't be making the wave that would have you tow with a long painter. A short painter is so much less trouble. Your short painter should never be long enough to reach from the bow of the tow to your props and back up to the stern cleat on the big boat. At that length, controlling the position of the tow while docking will consist of changing its painter from the stern cleat to midships and tying off the stern of the tow to the stern of the big boat. This positioning also works for anchoring (see my avatar) and for boarding from the swimgrid. If your painter is measured correctly, all you need to do for either fastening position is to properly attach the eye of the painter and the bow of the tow will behave.

Some hang short chain from the transom of the tender during towing to track better.

I towed a RIB behind a 40' sailboat all over the Eastern Caribbean. Here's what I learned:

It takes some experimenting to get the tow line the right length. Easier in a powerboat because you have a typical cruising speed, where the stern wave is consistent.

I used an oversized poly line...it floats and isn't likely to foul your prop.

Coming into a marina, I just went into neutral and hauled the tender in to the "hip" of the big boat. Which side depended on how the harbormaster wanted me tied to the pier.

The advantage was that if we pulled into a cove, we could jump in the tender and go snorkle, run to shore, etc. very easily. If I were doing a two-day run or perhaps from Ft Lauderdale to Bahamas, I'd prefer it on deck but it wouldn't be that big a deal to tow it. Never lost it or had weather issues.

Thank you

Thank you all for the insightful feedback!
We are going to try towing this weekend. I have prepared a tow bridle and make all the necessary adjustments. I will post an update with photos of the adventure.

rgano said:

Friends who ventured off into the South Pacific aboard their ketch were towing their inflatable one time and one day found an inch or two perfectly circular hole in it.



Give up?



Cookie cutter shark. True story.

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Just looked up cookie cutter sharks. NASTY little buggers! Looks like they’re the deep-ocean equivalent of horse flies (on steroids).

One experience that taught me to keep the 13’ Whaler tied alongside the boat while at anchor, and not parallel to the swim step. The event occurred a couple of years ago while at anchor near Hardy Island, B.C. The anchor dragged around 10 pm during a bit of a blow. I started the engines, hauled it in to reset and heard someone yell that I was headed toward a reef. Naturally I stopped the boat and began to back down, assuming the Whaler would handle being pushed sideways for a bit. Not so. The low freeboard and pressure from being pushed sideways while tied parallel to the stern promptly flipped it upside down. And of course the deck lines fouled one prop on the main boat in the pitch black night. The damn things do float as advertised, even upside down. Of course Merc 40s don’t care for being submerged in salt water.
Boat was a total loss. Now I always tie the (new) Whaler to the side of the boat when anchoring in case I need to move out in a hurry.

Sorry for your troubles. Consider securing the bow to the midship cleat on the big boat with a about 8-10 feet of painter and then stern to stern. If the need comes to maneuver the big boat, immediately release the Whaler's stern. Now you are free to back or surge forward as fast as you please.

We tie-up our 13' Whaler to the mother ship with forward-leading and backward-leading springs attached to the bow rail of the dink. By pulling from the corner rather than the center of the bow the Whaler seems to separate more from the mother boat.

We also use a stern line attached to the opposite corner of the stern of the mother ship.

We place three large fenders between the boats as well.

This system has worked well for us for docking, anchoring and low-speed manoeuvring.

Below is a link to a video of the set-up in particularly choppy conditions. While the Whaler jumps around a lot, it tends to stay away from the mother ship and only occasionally touches the fenders.

https://youtu.be/D0RrpceUlFw

A few years ago we were coming back from Barkly Sound to Victoria in rough but no big deal for us, weather and we overheard a conversation on channel 16 between a boat a few miles behind us, and the Coast Guard regarding an something on the order of an overturned 14' RIB with a 60hp motor. As soon as they ascertained that nobody was in danger, the Coast Guard were not interested in coming out to help. It was too heavy for the owners to get upright, and they were out in the Pacific with probably 30-4o miles to the closest harbor. There was no Sea tow available. The owners of the RIB did not sound happy on the VHF. We never found out what they did in the end, but if I were going to tow something expensive I would be sure to have a good understanding on what insurance would cover in the event of a disaster.