Correct vessel towing procedures

[Owen]

I went down to Hervey Bay for the long weekend and whilst sitting at the artificial reef I noticed a bloke and his young daughter a few hundred meters away having difficulty starting their motor.
When it was obvious it wasn't going to start no matter how long he pulled I motored over to offer assistance.
Turned out his battery was flat and the 90hp wasn't going anywhere.
I'd only been fishing for 20 mins or so, but offered to tow them back to Urangan anyway as the conditions were pretty ordinary.
His boat was a 4.5m glass cuddy and mine is a 4.5m allow runabout with a 50hp, so he had a bit of weight on me, but as I was the only one around I decided to give hime a hand.
Not long after we began the tow, the water police spotted us and came over to check us out. Bewdy I thought, they're going to take over the tow.
Wrong!!
All they wanted to do was check out safety gear. They made the other guy pull all his out and show it to them. They just asked me if I had all my gear and how old the flares were, taking my word that all was in order.
Then they took off :(
Ok, the guy had an older boat and had broken down, so I suppose a suspicious mind might question whether he'd have the right gear, but they didn't win any fans from the encounter :P

It was a pretty slow trip back to the boat harbour as the conditions were pretty sloppy and as I had no 27meg & he had no VHF we couldn't communicate.

It struck me as I was dragging him in on a trailing sea that I really had no training or tutoring in towing a vessel, or being towed by one. At one point, probably thinking he was doing the right thing, the guy raised his motor which caused his boat to be pushed all over the joint by the trailing sea.

I never felt in danger, but it wasn't fun either. Was pretty hard work on my motor too, pulling about 3,000 rpm to make about 6 knots. Had a fair bit of lock on too as I could only tow him from the corner of my boat.


lots of questions arose in my mind out of it

For example, the stern of my boat was a fair bit lower than the bow of his which meant I was pulling him down into the oncoming waves. To my way of thinking that's not ideal, but probably better than the other way around and having them pull my stern down.
In hindsight I may have been better to try to pass the rope through his tie down eye and then up over the bow so it was hooked up roughly level.
I would have been a bit mor comfortable had he been able to loop the rope around the anchor cleat and hold the free end rather than tying it off, but as he had to crawl through to access the anchor that wasn't a straight forward option. I had my knife handy the whole time in case it turned to shit though;D

So is anyone qualified to do a bit of a tutorial on the correct way to tow and/or be towed at sea?

cheers,
Owen

[Chimo]

Hi Owen

Don't know if this is by the book but from time to time I tow a a12ft tinny behind mine and after a number of trials I have ended up towing the tinny from its bow eye (trailer winch point) and I use a short painter from the bow eye with a pulley block on it thru which I pass a line that runs from the stbd rear bollard / cleat of mine thru the pully block and then back to the the rear port side bollard/ cleat.

With this arrangement I can adjust the distance between the two boats depending on conditions and the speed.

The towed boat sits well if pulled from its bow eye and as you pointed out its not being pulled down into the wake or whatever when towed from this point.

Tried the old water ski bridle arrangement on the towing boat but too hard with propellers and too hard to adjust length which I found I had to do..

What I'm towing is lighter and I have towed at up to 25 knots but I think being able to tow from both sides of the rear as you would with a bridle has suited me better. Also getting the tow rope higher up ie onto the rear bollards of the tow boat keeps them up out of the wake etc so on turns the line doesn't get caught and pulled.

As I said at the start I don't claim this to be the text book method its just what I've come up with for myself after having a few goes and resolving hassles as I went along.

Interested to see what others do.

Cheers

Chimo

[TOPAZ]

Hi Owen,

When towing another vessel, you must use a bridle of some sort or you will not be able to steer your boat. I have a 'heavy duty' bridle made from 12mm nylon line, fitted with a stainless steel Ronstan pulley with an eye to attach the tow line.
The tow line is fitted with strong snap hooks at each end for attachment to the bridle and the vessel being towed.
It is also fitted with a styrene ball float at the end near the bridle, to minimise the chance of fouling your own propeller, but this does not entirely remove the need for care when deploying the rig.
The bridle should be attached to strongly reinforced points on your vessel - usually the ski hooks are O.K., or the rearmost cleat on each side, IF reinforced.

The tow line should be long enough to allow a couple of wave lengths between the boats, and can be weighted in the middle to cause it to sag into the water, to act as a shock absorber.

On trailer boats, the best attachment point is the winch point U-bolt because it is strong, and low down, which minimises the tendency to drag the bow of the towed vessel down into the water.
The outboard of the towed vessel should be left down to assist in keeping the tow straight, and stop it yawing all over the place. In severe cases in a following sea, a drogue or sea-anchor should be trailed from the stern of the vessel being towed.
If towing a yacht, a line passed around the base of the mast then through the bow fairlead, is a good idea, as this is a very strong point.

It is a good idea to keep a very sharp knife handy if towing a vessel likely to sink, as rapid 'disconnection' of the tow may be necessary in an emergency.

It is also a good idea to make the skipper of the vessel being assisted, that you will take all care, but NO RESPONSIBILITY in case of loss or damage to his vessel. In the R.V.C.P, when I was a member, we were advised to not offer a towline from our vessel, but to only accept a towline passed FROM the vessel being towed. (I personally will ONLY use my line, as it has been specifically designed for the purpose, and I KNOW it will do the job.



Richard.

[Owen]

G'day Richard,
Any chance of a photo of your towline?
What you described is pretty much what I would have imagined as a good setup. Trouble is, before the weekend I'd never given much consideration to towing someone else. I had to use what was at hand.

cheers,
Owen

[bootyinblue]

Yea some good points in there, and well some I dont necesarily agree with. I used to teach boating when in NSW and often examined courses where towing, both end to end and side by side was instructed.

Like all things each situation must be taken on its merits. It is not necessarily a must to use a towing bridle if towing a light load, you dont really need to have the towed boats motor left down if your weighted right and I think throwing out a sea anchor to drag along aswell is just over the top.

But basically an end to end tow will involve the towed boat sitting behind the second pressure wave from your stern. Use suitable rope for the purpose, and if that is theres then all the better. Get them to tie off at their end to a point roughly horizontal to where you will be pulling from. You control your end by not tieing it off but rather using a cleat, and have them centre their weight left to right and front to back with back just slightly heavy to stop wandering. Have them raise their motor almost all the way out of the water so only skeg is sitting in the water and is effective for steering, well more precisely staying straight.

Thats about it....

[Jeremy]

best way to tow someone is to - call the local VMR or coastguard to tow them. They have the training and the equipment. There is a cost to the person who gets the tow, but what price for safety. Might provide some added inspiration to keep up with the maintenaince a bit more also.

Jeremy

[Noelm]

the really "proper" way to tow is to have the towing bridle attached to the towing vessel somewhere about midships, not at the stern, as this allows the tow vessel to still be able to steer properly, just look at Tugs, their tow hook is just behind the wheelhouse, but of course you need to make do with what you have, unless you are a dedicated tow boat.

[TOPAZ]

Noelm
You are partially correct in that the best point from which to tow is in the centre line of the vessel, however dedicated tug boats do not use bridles, because they don't have to - their towage point is midships as you point out.
With the exception of dedicated rescue vessels and ski boats, most recreational vessels have no centre tow point strong enough to use, so a proper bridle creates the same effect - force of the tow is taken along the centreline of the tow vessel. If you draw an imaginary line along the tow line and continue it forward over the towing vessel, it will ALWAYS pass through the centre line of the vessel - the forces thus mimic the tugboat scenario.
The moment the force of the tow is the slightest bit off centre, the towboat will be pulled in the direction of that offset, and steerage will be affected, requiring steering input to correct.
When I was Water Safety Officer for the Red Cross Canoe Marathon, I came across a houseboat aground, just near the Goulbourn junction above Echuca.
I attempted to quickly pull him off using a single line to a starboard cleat, which resulted in my boat neatly parking itself alongside the houseboat facing in the opposite direction to that which I wanted to go.
Fitting my tow bridle fixed all that, allowing a straight pull into deeper water.
Interestingly, I and my best mate had to repeat this exercise on Lake Eildon at the weekend - hired houseboat, tied to bank for 3 days, dropping water level, hard aground - he had been trying to get it off (houseboat!) for several hours. It took all the power of my Mercruiser and my mates 115HP Evinrude to get him free.

Richard.

p.s. Owen - haven't got a photo, and don't know how to post, but I will try in the next couple of days - be patient!

R.

[Noelm]

That was what I was aying, don't expect to have a tow hook on my boat, just pointing out that from the very stern is not the best way, but usually the ONLY way in a small boat, I have two bollards about half way along my boat (one on each side) they were not installed for towing, but when I have towed someone, it is amazing how much better it is to use these with a bridle setup, sure it is across the fishing area, but you can steer and maitain course easy as pie, rather than at the stern, I once towd a bigger boat from the shelf (about 25 miles) like this and it was a dream, slow but a dream.

[bootyinblue]

Noel.... If you use a bridle with a free running pulley attached then it will not matter how far forward from the stern the anchor points are on either side. The direction and force of pull would be the same as if your bridle was attached to the stern.

By attaching the towing lines further up along the gunwhales, you have only changed the centre of pull running from bow to stern. An extreme example of this could be with too much weight being towed and too much power being applied, that your boat does a back flip.

Personal preference is to tow from the rear, with or without a bridle as it gets all the towing lines outside of the 'onboard' area of the boat should something go wrong and the ski hooks are dedicated towing points.

[Chine]

That was what I was aying, don't expect to have a tow hook on my boat, just pointing out that from the very stern is not the best way, but usually the ONLY way in a small boat, I have two bollards about half way along my boat (one on each side) they were not installed for towing, but when I have towed someone, it is amazing how much better it is to use these with a bridle setup, sure it is across the fishing area, but you can steer and maitain course easy as pie, rather than at the stern, I once towd a bigger boat from the shelf (about 25 miles) like this and it was a dream, slow but a dream.

Hi Noelm,

Please accept this as constructive input........

Next time you tow with a midships bridle try altering your course radically and note the affect on your boat's stability.

In commercial towage it is termed "girding" and can lead to the total loss of the tug. It is basic beam theory.

A "Z-Pellor" tug will tow from the bow staple with the drives at the back of the tug. A tractor tug (Voith-Schneider etc) will tow from the stern with the drives ahead of the towing staple.

The long and short is bridle at the rear behind engine........safest way to do it.

Rgds

Chine

[Chimo]

Interesting reading all the info on bridlesetc.

So it looks like muggins me has adopted the textbook method except that my bridle pulley (with a float on it) is 15 feet in front of the towed boat and the bridle from the tow boat varies from 5 to 10 m when idling to about 50 m back at speed so the towed tinny sits between the twin wakes off the two motors and their pressure wave. Cool !!!!!!

When are we going to get some southerlies?

Chimo

[rick k]

slightly off topic, but I remember trolling past the camping ground at Poverty Point about 6 years ago, seeing somewhat distressed mum dad and couple of small kids.

Boat gone. SE blowing, tide coming in, scooted up the passage. Found the boat. Anchor on foredeck. Deck full of empty tinnies. Must have been just pulled up on the beach and then drifted. Should have let my deckie drive it back following me but decided to tow, which took a while.

When we got back, noted mum's eye sported a nice shiner. Not that happy about any of it.

Could well be doing the bloke a disservice, as she may have copped it elsewhere, and it may have just been one of those things that the boat was not secured......... but too many empties aboard for me; I am stone cold sober on a boat, and get tiddly at home, log on, and annoy you blokes and blokettes :)

[Fish Guts]

ive pulled a ski hook off before single waterskiing once, i doubt theyd pull a 3 tonne boat. id suggest using the cleats.

[TOPAZ]

FishGuts,
I mentioned in my post above that you need REINFORCED tow points - on my old Swiftcraft, I had replaced the standard backing plates on the ski tow hooks with 150 x 75mm stainless steel plates 6mm thick. I had the stern cleats similarly 'plated' on the inside of the hull.
Some standard cleat fittings only have stainless washers, and in my opinion these are not strong enough for ordinary mooring, let alone towing.


Richard.

[Noelm]

hey chine I know that it is in relation to the diving force (propellor), just sort of making a comparison, I do not tow from amidships (if I tow at all) but from the stern in a small boat does make steering difficult, because when you turn an outboard powered craft, it sort of moves the rear off line in an arc, unlike a car where the wheels are at the front and steer directly (kind of) so when you have weight on the stern (tow line and towed object) and you try to turn, that is swing the stern out, the weight tries to kep it straight, not overly dangerous, but still tricky. and you havent lived untill you have been on a big Trawler with the tow point high on the stern (gallows) and you get hooked up, holy crap, that is exciting!