At a time when expensive davits, cranes and other dinghy systems are increasingly popular, we seem to be moving in a different direction. Our 40-foot Trans Eagle Pilothouse Trawler came with a davit system installed on the transom. One of the first things we did was remove it.
After living aboard Sea Foam for two years and traveling more than 600 nautical miles, we have become devoted fans of towing the tender. Prior to the Sea Foam, Rick towed a Zodiac behind a 34’ Californian for 13 years. It increases storage onboard, limits obstructions on deck and accommodates easy access both in an emergency and for routine chores. It is also a simple system – easy to manipulate and repair – and it is inexpensive.
We have limited deck space on our Eagle. The upper deck could accommodate the tender, but we would not be able to use our four fiberglass deck boxes or have space to sit and relax at anchor. We could not put it on the bow either because of the raised pilot house. Even if we had a flat bow, as we did on our Californian, it would obscure the view, totally consume the space and add extra weight. Storing the dinghy on the swim platform eliminates that area for swimming – and fishing, exiting and storage (we carry our gas cans and crab traps back there when not in open water). The obvious solution was to tow.
Photo by Rick LeBlancThe authors say there is a strong case for towing the tender, including improved safety.HEAVY LIFTING
Another major reason was the weight of our tender. We are SCUBA divers and need a substantial boat to get us to the dive spots. Our RIB (rigid inflatable boat) is a 12-foot Polaris Spirit in bright red, appropriately called Catch-Up. The boat is made of inflatable chambers attached to a one-piece V-bottom and transom unit made of aluminum, which provides the strength and rigidity to handle our 50 hp Mercury outboard. The tradeoff is that the boat and motor weight roughly 1,000 pounds.
Weight like that might tax a davit system – the one that came with our boat would have been challenged – but in tow it presents few problems. Some people choose not to tow their boats because of the extra drag, and it’s true that you might want the dinghy onboard at planing speeds. But at our cruising speed of 7 to 11 knots, it works well. And think about deploying a tender in an emergency situation. How easy is it to climb to the upper deck or out on the swim platform and negotiate a davit system, all while working against a rough sea?
Of course, like all systems, towing is not perfect. Hauling the boat in and out can be labor intensive. We have also wrapped the tow line in the prop once, and we had one major incident. Several years ago, while towing a similar inflatable behind our 34-foot Californian, in 12-foot seas, the metal hook that attached the bow line to the boat bent open and the tender was lost in the storm. We found it the next day in pieces along the shoreline. But done correctly, towing is rarely problematic.
TOWING HARNESS
Rick made a harness of ½-inch double braid nylon rope attached with a knot at port and starboard side to the old davit mounting brackets on the transom just above the swim grid. There is a centre loop in the nylon rope that the tow line is attached to using a bowline knot. If one side of the harness should break off, the tow line won’t slide off. Also, the center loop prevents the tow line sliding back and forth along the harness. The tow line is floating polyethylene 5/8-inch, and about 100 feet long.
