Dingies & Tenders

C

c-the-light

New member
We have been enjoying the heck out of our 2007 25' C-Dory, mostly at Lake Tahoe. Now we are looking at a boat we can use as a towable tender. Research seems to suggest a hard bottom inflatable. Anyone out there have any suggestions...what works, what doesn't, and why? We were about to winterize but realized there's lots of winter fishing available, at least for a while longer so we've put it off for now.
 
I've been looking for a tender for my new 22. I've talked to several dealers of inflatables and I've discovered it isn't practical to tow a dinghy at planning speeds. I've been told that towable means sailboat speeds, i.e. 5-6 knots maximum.

Right now I have an inflatable kayak I'll try using. This suits my interests in exploring shorelines (I already kayak) and it doesn't require an outboard. Its size, shape and weight make it easy to launch and recover.

By next summer I may need a conventional inflatable dinghy and if so I'll be looking at relatively small fully inflatable models with high pressure floors that I can carry on the cabin top or deflated in a storage bag.
 
hate to disagree but I see many many boats towing dingys around here. My family had a 28 chris on the chessapeke bay in the 70s and we towed our dingy everywhere. the key to towing a dingy is to have it back far enough that it does not inter act withyour wake. give enough rope to place your dingy 10 to 20 ft pass the v of your wake then dont turn fast. We never hauled our dingy on the boat. As for what type of dingy I cant say. I have not tried it with a c-dory but see no reason it would not work. if we go on a long trip again this summer ,say for two weeks I would like to have a dingy with a motor and would not bother pulling it out everyday unless I was tarveling thru a area with bad rapides and then would just go at slack any way,
 
We are at the point of being almost sure we are going with the SOAR inflatable. The problem is we are going on very little info and a lot of gut feeling. We could test it this spring at SOAR's Healdsburg headquarters but hope to need it this winter, which means buying sight unseen. We would be interested in any insights. We are struggling with the 12' vs 14' foot decision. !2' is probably good enough for our basic needs, but we hope to use it for play also. Does anybody have any experiences with the SOAR?

Greg
 
I suppose you CAN tow a dinghy as Tom describes, but I don't understand why that is an attractive alternative to an inflatable such as an Alaska Series and a 2 hp motor. Dinghy goes easily on top of the 25, get the leverage thingee down and it takes only a couple of minutes. Only reason I could think of is that you need an outboard that is too big or heavy to easily go on and off the dinghy. These days I am just as inclined to row the dinghy anyway - and I will put in a plug for the Alaska Series tender - it is a great rowing inflatable! Did have a fun time playing with the inflatable kayaks in the Gulf Islands, but with the way we use the dinghy to ferry two teenage boys to shore the Alaska Series is about perfect (as was the prior Mercury inflatable). If you can't tell, after one year, we are happy as a clam with the Alaska Series!
 
We are at the point of being almost sure we are going with the SOAR inflatable. The problem is we are going on very little info and a lot of gut feeling. We could test it this spring at SOAR's Healdsburg headquarters but hope to need it this winter, which means buying sight unseen. We would be interested in any insights. We are struggling with the 12' vs 14' foot decision. !2' is probably good enough for our basic needs, but we hope to use it for play also. Does anybody have any experiences with the SOAR?

Greg
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We've had our 14ft Soar for two years now. It works very well as a dingy. It paddles much better and faster than our 8'6" Zodiak rowed. It carries a huge load and is quite stable. It does not paddle as well as a hard canoe but that is to be expected. You need to be a competent paddler to handle an inflatable canoe. Its neccesary to know how to do a J-stroke well. Wind effects the Soar more than it would a hard canoe. I can paddle the Soar by myself with no problem until the wind comes up and then it requires two people to maintain a straight course. Paddling with a Kyak paddle works well but you will get a lot of water from the paddle dripping in the boat and on you. Not a problem in the sunny south, but in northern climes and off season its a pain. For this reason we use the canoe paddles almost exclusively. The 14 over hangs the cabin top in both the front and back by over a foot. It weighs about 65lb so you will most likely need two people to get it to the cabin roof. My wife and I do it fairly easily and I have done it by myself on occasion to see if I still can. If it is primarily to be used as a a dingy for short trips to shore and for occasional around the anchorage paddles I would probably choose the 12ft. The 12ft would easily hold two people and a dog or kid, it would fit better on the roof and is lighter. I think the Soar makes a great non powered dingy and also will allow you to use it for other things, like running rivers and fishing if you want.
Ron
 
Take a look at the Power Drifter (http://www.riverwire.com/cgi-bin/item/PACPWR). While I haven't used it the rowing frame is supposed to be pretty good and you use a small outboard. I use kayak paddles and made some wooden seats to span the tubes. Two people fit in nicely with gear going to the beach and its not that heavy. Even has a high pressure floor so you stand up in it (if you have good balance).

Tom
 
Like any boat, the type of dinghy you buy is totally dependent on your uses you intend for the dinghy.

We don't have a dog (or teen-age boys) to take ashore (so don't need a large or solid bottomed dinghy), we use our C-Dory to explore the shallows and side channels (so don't need a dinghy with a motor)for "exploring", we don't like to lift heavy weight out of the water to store on the cabin roof (so use a very light-weight dinghy), we don't care to tow the dinghy since it is one more 'thing' to keep an eye on when manuevering in tight spots or coming into a marina, and we buy Timex rather than Rolex (with the idea we might need to replace more often, but in the long run probably be more economical and we're sure not trying to impress anyone).

So, we bought a little Sevlor (often on sale at West Marine or any larger 'camping' store). We have several small inflatable Sevlor inflatable kayaks we use for running white water rivers. But, for the C-Dory we use an inexpensive Sevlor dink inflatable we carry on the cabin roof when we want a 'life raft' and or a means to get to shore easily in areas with high tides. It is very light, inexpensive, and we have yet to punch a hole in any of our Sevlors -- and our teenage kids love to jump in and row around fishing or 'messing around.' It doesn't row as straight or easily as solid floor dinks but that makes it more fun for the g'kids and we don't mind since we don't use it often. And, it stores in the back seat of our truck in a relatively light-weight, small bag between times when we have it on the boat.
 
starcrafttom":328pbu6t said:
hate to disagree but I see many many boats towing dingys around here. My family had a 28 chris on the chessapeke bay in the 70s and we towed our dingy everywhere. the key to towing a dingy is to have it back far enough that it does not inter act withyour wake. give enough rope to place your dingy 10 to 20 ft pass the v of your wake then dont turn fast. We never hauled our dingy on the boat. As for what type of dingy I cant say. I have not tried it with a c-dory but see no reason it would not work. if we go on a long trip again this summer ,say for two weeks I would like to have a dingy with a motor and would not bother pulling it out everyday unless I was tarveling thru a area with bad rapides and then would just go at slack any way,
Click to expand...

I agree with Tom on this.
I have a 9'6" Aqualine that I towed on our 11 day cruise of the San Juans Islands two years ago. I tow this inflatable back and forth to Catalina Island and around our local Channel Islands. It does not slow me down- I cruise at 16-17 knots and have the dinghy back about 70 feet behind the boat. I use a bridle front and back on the tow line and it tracks straight and true. If you have the dinghy too close it will be in the V of the wake and will search back and forth from one side to the other in the wake.
 
Yep Fishtales is right-on... I usually deflate my Avon...and just keep it aboard while moving...but Roger towed back from Catalina and I had the Avon aboard and I could not see any difference in fuel used or speed...

I highly recommend going to the Seattle Boat Show with us to pick yours out...that way you will see ALL the boats...and even get a deal if you buy at the show... I bought my boat from ELCO marine....used to be a C-Dory dealer...but mainly sells inflatables....and this year I plan on buying a Yamaha 4 hp motor from them. The discount us usually something like 10%

Joel
SEA3PO
 
I have seen too many folks loose towed dinghies, capsize towed dinghies or swamp towed dinghies, to want to do that on a regular basis. I have owned several RIB's--but don't consider them a viable alternative for a C Dory. We have a 6'7" Zodiac--with a few plywood slats, which weighs about 35 lbs and fits on top of any of the 22 on up C Dory cabins. We have a 9'4"Avon (Hyplon) high pressure air floor and will take up to 8 hp, allowing it to plane. We also have a 10' 6" Avon (Hypalon) with roll up vinly slatted floor--weight close to 100 lbs and takes up to 15 hp. Any of these boats can be used on the CD 25 or T C 255--and the first two work fine on the CD 22.

We just got our second Garhauer davit (30" arm) and are in the proces of having a mount made which will allow this davit to put an inflatble on the roof of the TC or CD--This mount will fit on the cabin side (either side) and will allow the hoist to put the dinghy on the roof, pick up a person over board and put them in the cockpit and pick any item up from the dock into the cockpit or cabin top.

We have towed "dinghies" as big as a 22 foot Grady White, behind a trawler--and a 12 foot skiff behind a the Grady White. When you are moving at planning speeds, there is always risks of wind getting under the dinghy and flipping it--So we just don't do it at any speed unless we have no other choice.
 
thataway":139uy2mv said:
We just got our second Garhauer davit (30" arm) and are in the proces of having a mount made which will allow this davit to put an inflatble on the roof of the TC or CD--This mount will fit on the cabin side (either side) and will allow the hoist to put the dinghy on the roof, pick up a person over board and put them in the cockpit and pick any item up from the dock into the cockpit or cabin top.
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Great minds think alike, Bob! What are the details of your custom mount? I was just today talking to Les at EQ about having him do the same thing so we could benefit from your insights.

Thanks,
Warren
 
Basically we are going to use a SS plate which has four countersunk holes, one in each corner. There are two parallel slots where the 1/8" plate is pressed out, and allows another 8" plate to slip between these two plates. (I'' try and get a photo in the album tomarrow). This basically is a fishing rod holder base (beefed up probably). The fishing rod holder can fit in this, or we are fabicating a SS plate, with a brace which will hold the "ball" at the bottom of the davit in place. (there will be a "T" brace to take the downward thrust). The upper ring for the davit, will be secured to the lip of the top which turns down. There will be a SS plate to distribute the load, and there will be SS bolts which will hold this in place. Both the base ball and the upper ring, can be easily removed in about a minute. there will only be the SS plate on the side of the cabin house. The newest davit has two ways that the hoisting line is secured--the upper is like the older davits and is a double cam cleat on the inboard end of the lifing arm. The second way is another sheeve on the upper part of the round part of the arm, with a jam cleat below it--so that you can hoist with your hands at the level of the top of the davit, or from the water or a dock--and secure the line--again photos in the AM. There will be no obstruction when you go to walk around or docking.
 
Thanks for everyone's input on our dingy questions. We forgot to mention that we already carry 2 14' or 2 17' kayaks on the roof...beautifully finished wood kayaks , however, do not make good doggie transports to the beach. After a lot of research from Seattle to San Francisco and the Coast Guard, we found that it's OK to tow a hard bottom inflatable...we most likely will never tow more than 15-16 knots. Our research on hard botom inflatables fount that the Walker Bay 8'10" Genesis seems to best fit our needs. When deflated it will easily fit on the rear cockpit. Regarding tghe motor the best air cooled, lightest (27#) was the Honda 2hp. Talked to lots about reliability--rave reviews from everyone. One guy has 2000 hr pushing a 12' dingy!
To the owners of the Nan-C..I believe we bought our boats from the same dealer in Oakland at about the same time. Yours is green? Ours is the blue one! Give us a call sometime..775-882-2535, Carson City, Nv time!
 
c-the-light: You must have been right behind us in Oakland. Choosing between the green and the blue boats was a tough call for us. In fact, we chose the blue early on and switched. I trust your experience with the Outboard Motor Shop was as pleasant as ours. Craig seems to be the kind of owner I would want to work for and the kind of fair and honest businessman I want to buy from. Bill is absolutely the kind of low key salesman who is a joy to work with. A genuinely nice guy. He does not hesitate to go the extra mile -- or two -- to take care of the details that turn the buyers' wishes for their new boat into reality. And Javier! What a neat young man. Fun to work with. Knowledgeable. And incredibly conscientious. I should do a testimonial for them. Oh, I just did. :D

Tahoe is one of our favorite places -- and so far, for one day, the lone bright spot in an otherwise bleak boating season for us. We did have some stressful moments pulling up to North Tahoe from I-80 on our trip back to Iowa. We towed from Oakland to Iowa with a Chevy short bed 1500 with the 5.3. Most of the time we were OK, if slow. But up that two lane to North Tahoe we often dropped to 15MPH in low. I honestly thought we were going to come to a full stop at virtually full power a couple of times. I have to admit thinking about the long trip ahead of us took a little of the edge off our day on the lake. A Chevy 2500 Duramax -- that was definitely not in the budget -- now sits in the driveway waiting for us to finally go boating. It sounds as if your post-purchase boating season went a bit better than ours.

Hope to see you on the lake.

Greg
 
Nan-C":25tht8df said:
... A Chevy 2500 Duramax -- that was definitely not in the budget -- now sits in the driveway waiting for us to finally go boating. ...Greg
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Hi Greg,

We have the GMC 2500 Duramax and have found it to be a great match for towing the CD-25. That Allison 6 speed transmission is a real joy! Hope you are able to tow to lots of great boating adventures.

Best wishes,
Jim B. (besides the CD-25, a WM/Zodiac RU-260, slat floor inflatable dinghy... no kayaks on top, so that's where the dinghy goes)
 
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