Which is the best dinghy ?

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Thanks Smitty. You encourage me. Going through all of the gyrations in my head on how to solve this issue has been tiresome....not to mention very expensive. I apid a whopping $7500 for my current Caribe. I say "whopping" sarcastically because it was such an amazing deal. Every single one of my friends say "DO NOT SELL THAT DINGHY....YOU WILL REGRET IT!". They are as impressed with it as I am and I think I stole it. While a 2005, it was VERY well cared for. I bought on principle alone....IOW, I simply could NOT not buy it.

I have a bridle. BUT it only has the UNreinforced center tow eye. My thoughts were to simply reinforce that tow point and like I said, tow it with engine down. I looked into it and it won't harm the engine. Where did you add tow points? Did you add it to the fiberglass or glue on tow rings to the tubes? I think I am past the point of glue on tow rings as I am not sure they are up to the task....maybe I am wrong? Otherwise, I would have to put those new tow points into the hull and reinforce them for more of a sheer load. ANyway, just thinking out loud. It would certainly a LOT cheaper to be able to keep current dinghy....AND not only cheaper, but I really like the damn thing. But I do need a boat that can be my tender and not just a local runabout.


We have even gone so far as to trailer it 200 miles to our destination. Drive home. Drive the boat there. Drive boat home. Go back by car and trailer dinghy home. I have done that once and don't really care to do it again. Our other "normal destination" destination is Galveston and is less than 30 miles by car. Not a huge deal to do the trailer round trip twice there.....but still inconvenient.

My wife made our tow bridles and they are all similar.
- two attach points on each side
- one long main line to reach the back of the second wake wave (about 80')
- the "V" on the dinghy side and the main line are dyneema
- the "V" on the towing side is 3 strand twist
- all rub points on the tow line have chafe guard (at V attach and at hawspipes)
- the dinghy side attaches to both sides with 4" assymetric snap clips for quick attachments/detatch
- the heaviest RIB we towed was about 3,800# when loaded

The "U" bolts we used to attach dinghy
- always attached to stronger points in the RIB Hull near bow
- drilled and bolted to each dighy side lower than bow eye
- common from places like West Marine
- backed up by oversize starboard and SS plates/washers
- spread the load and divide it in two

On some long trips our daughter and a friend or two would take the RIB off the tow and go ahead of us to get there earlier and set up our slip.
I will try and post some pics of the bridle and maybe towing one of the RIBS when I get to another computer that may have the pics.
Hope this helps
 
I had some bridle pictures handy - posting now hope this works...
 

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Thanks Smitty. I will have to put more effort into it. I have a small dinghy, 10 foot tiller steer, that I have towed a lot. But a totally different ballgame with the big one. One driving factor is my lovely lady got thrown out of our small dinghy in relatively mild conditions. After riding in the big one, there ain’t no going back. Anyway, thanks again!!
 
Thanks Smitty. I will have to put more effort into it. I have a small dinghy, 10 foot tiller steer, that I have towed a lot. But a totally different ballgame with the big one. One driving factor is my lovely lady got thrown out of our small dinghy in relatively mild conditions. After riding in the big one, there ain’t no going back. Anyway, thanks again!!

FWIW - here is a picture of us towing a 19' RIB at about 17 knots on a 100 mile leg of a trip with that same bridle setup....
 

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FWIW - here is a picture of us towing a 19' RIB at about 17 knots on a 100 mile leg of a trip with that same bridle setup....

How many dinghies do you need??!!!!????
 
How many dinghies do you need??!!!!????

Over time dinghies made all of our trips so much fun and they really did not cost us that much as they were all bought and sold used. There is no comparison between the utility of the 10-12' RIBS vs the larger ones like you have - all are fun but the larger ones can do so many more things.
The trip above was for two weeks up the Ct river and we used all 3 of the inflatables we had with us at various times.
One more picture from a longer trip to Block Island where we had about 30 boats traveling in the group - our boat is against the dock and you cannot see the 12.5 RIB which came off the boat deck but you can see the larger 24' RIB rafted up off of the other boats to the left.
 

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Well we ended up with a new to us dink. I still like the Ocean tenders, but the wife prefers bumper boats.
Its a 1982, new tubes in 2016, new 60hp in 2011.
All of us and the dogs fit!
I listed the Zodiac Cadet 300 with the 9.9 two stroke, it sold in 10 min. We used it for one season and got what we paid for it, it was super clean.

I was happy with the Zodiac, it was light, we could store it on the bow, on the deck or tow it. The wife wanted a bigger one that she could crab out of with the kids. So ya, we got a new one.
 

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Recognize I'm late to this thread but having owned a 10' Caribe we decided to try something different on our last boat and built a Gig Harbor 10' Navigator. A rowing boat that was fun and with an electric OB would cruise at 4-5 knots for hours. Spent money on the wood trim and it looked great. Rowing was amazing.

John t
 
Recognize I'm late to this thread but having owned a 10' Caribe we decided to try something different on our last boat and built a Gig Harbor 10' Navigator. A rowing boat that was fun and with an electric OB would cruise at 4-5 knots for hours. Spent money on the wood trim and it looked great. Rowing was amazing.

John t



I bought the same boat with the sail rig. Fun to sail. Fun to row, and runs well with the little Torqueedo outboard.

Still getting a new RIB however.
 
Gig Harbor

I bought the same boat with the sail rig. Fun to sail. Fun to row, and runs well with the little Torqueedo outboard.

Still getting a new RIB however.


If you are interested I would like to talk with you about the Navigator and sailing. Interested in a phone call? thanks

John
 
If I were you I'd get one of those hideous rigid inflatables that look like a bathtub toy on your boat, take up a huge amount of space at the dock and with a decent size outboard you can zoom around the harbor with complete abandon. Certainly don't get a nice size row boat that actually rows well, you may accidentally improve your health and improve others enjoyment on the water.
 
Towing a dinghy

Hi all,
Love some input about towing a RIB when offshore out of sight of land.....lake or ocean. I read about boats sinking quickly at times and just wonder if it's just you and your wife, late 60's, with a 11' RIB on the 01 deck, needing a davit to launch, if it's safer to tow when that far out.....

Any thoughts?
PS - we do have a life raft in a mounted case, but still.....

Thanks
John
 
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Hi all,
Love some input about towing a RIB when offshore out of sight of land.....lake or ocean. I read about boats sinking quickly at times and just wonder if it's just you and your wife, late 60's, with a 11' RIB on the 01 deck, needing a davit to launch, if it's safer to tow when that far out.....

Any thoughts?
PS - we do have a life raft in a mounted case, but still.....

This would be a question probably best asked as it's own thread.

Towing it behind you would make it yet another item to monitor. I generally prefer not to add yet another thing to my piloting duties.

My take is if things go wrong you don't have a lot of time to get multiple things dealt with. The raft on its own is probably enough of a challenge. If anything I'd make sure to know how to get THAT deployed quickly and safely FIRST, along with your ditch bag and ID papers. Then I'd have a plan for releasing the dinghy from it's straps but left in place. That way there's a chance it'd float off if the boat sinks.

You need to consider under what scenarios would you be needing to leave the boat. If it's due to bad conditions then taking any steps outside more than necessary would add that much more risk. Don't expect to be clambering around all over the place.
 
When you talk about the life raft, I am hoping you are talking about a self launching life raft.
 
Hi all,
Love some input about towing a RIB when offshore out of sight of land.....lake or ocean. I read about boats sinking quickly at times and just wonder if it's just you and your wife, late 60's, with a 11' RIB on the 01 deck, needing a davit to launch, if it's safer to tow when that far out.....

Any thoughts?
PS - we do have a life raft in a mounted case, but still.....

Thanks
John
Slainte 1
Why would you even consider towing when you can travel with it on your swim platform/marlin board?
Happy to show you how.
Send a private message.
Denis
 
Slainte 1
Why would you even consider towing when you can travel with it on your swim platform/marlin board?

I agree with the above. I had a downeast 26 and had to tow out of necessity. (But i would even haul my 10’ into my cockpit if weather kicked up. You cam do it, but you will constantly be messing with it.

That said:
You need a nice long pointer so you can adjust ro siut your speed and sea state

Attachment points on dinghy need to be right (maybe reinforce depending on RIB

I found mine towed better when attached centerline in stern

DO NOT HAVE AN OUTBOARD ON IT (or anything else you dont want ruined). Inflatable can flip easier than hard bottoms due to wind

ALWAYS PULL THE PLUG on transom or else water will accumulate in weather and water spray. (You sort of have to pull dinghy up and slam plug in when you stop. You will also have to bail an inch or two of water each time you stop


Again, i towed in most any weather except bad sea states and did not like to worry all the time. It really tales some joy out of a trip.

I guess if you think about it, the gains in convenience in towing is pretty outweighed by the time wasted monitoring, and changing pointer/tow bridle, and increased potential to lose the dinghy. Probably puts more risk into your trip, not less
 
Slainte 1
Why would you even consider towing when you can travel with it on your swim platform/marlin board?
Happy to show you how.
Send a private message.
Denis

Morning Denis - thanks for your thoughts!
Our swim platform is not wide enough to handle the RIB - yes, I could try to get into the Weaver system again but I have to admit that on our other boat it was somewhat awkward to get on and off the boat through the transom......

Honestly, it's probably not worth my question given we do have a liferaft in a hydro-canister that would deploy if the boat actually sank......so, I"m kinda re-thinking things......

Thanks again Denis! Have a great summer!
 
This would be a question probably best asked as it's own thread.

Towing it behind you would make it yet another item to monitor. I generally prefer not to add yet another thing to my piloting duties.

My take is if things go wrong you don't have a lot of time to get multiple things dealt with. The raft on its own is probably enough of a challenge. If anything I'd make sure to know how to get THAT deployed quickly and safely FIRST, along with your ditch bag and ID papers. Then I'd have a plan for releasing the dinghy from it's straps but left in place. That way there's a chance it'd float off if the boat sinks.

You need to consider under what scenarios would you be needing to leave the boat. If it's due to bad conditions then taking any steps outside more than necessary would add that much more risk. Don't expect to be clambering around all over the place.

Thanks 99! You make sense! Ditch bags and ID's will be prepared for this trip - for the first time, as the boat is new to us......

Also, I have to say I'm fairly new to this site so don't know how to start a new thread, but will soon! :).

Thanks lots for your input and hope you have a great summer season!

John
 
Also, I have to say I'm fairly new to this site so don't know how to start a new thread, but will soon! :).

Click on Home or Forum at the top right.

Scroll down the thread categories to find the one that best fits your topic, and click on it.

You'll see all the threads in that category and also a button on the top left for "New Thread"
 
Tow line and propellers and rudder do not like each other
 
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The best dingy is like asking, which the best boat.
 
Then ask, which outboard is the best?
 
Define what the dinghy needs to do.

The best dinghy for us is the one that......
Is unaffected by sun
Is unaffected by abrasion - puncture resistance
Can punch through a 20 knot slop for long distances keeping occupants and provisions dry
Can carry a good load
Can be towed without worrying about tearing it apart
Is relatively light given its size
Is stable
And is affordable

The wide bodied aluminium dory ticks all of those boxes
.
 
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