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