Towing a tinny behind a larger boat?

[Richo1]

All good tips above, I prefer to leave the outboard tilted up. Weight in the tinny should be towards the back as this will help it to track straight. If the tinny is trimmed to the bow it will skate all over the place.

Be careful when tying up over night as aluminum tinnys love eating gelcoat!

[Boat Hog]

Thanks for the info guys.

Definitely won't be going fast! I really am not expecting much of a problem at 6 knots (the 38' x18' house boat only has a 60hp motor ).

Jim, I thought about tying up alongside as you describe, and suspect that we will do at times, especially at anchor at night. My main concern with that configuration is that when a big cruiser goes by kicking up a decent wake (plenty in the area), there would be a chance of knocking the boat about a bit even with fenders. What do you think? did you experience that at all?

I decided that on balance that it is likely to be safer towing out the back. We will have the gear with us to do either option now

Tim and Trace.

The biggest thing we experienced on the Murray was other houseboats doing 6 knots. Plenty of wake boats though!

Calm water + quiet backwater areas then alongside would be okay. Open, choppy water + large boat wake areas then out the back with that good looking bit of gear you've got would be the go for piece of mind.

Have a great Houseboat Holiday and may the fish be with you.

[tigermullet]

Tim and Trace, for towing a dinghy by houseboat, go with 'Boathog's' suggestion. We towed our dinghy beside the houseboat every time for over twelve years at the Pin. No problems - and it was out of the way for fishing without having to bother with hauling it in and re-fastening it to the side. Stout ropes, tied front and back and cushioned by correctly placed fenders makes towing easy and comfortable. No chance of reversing over the towing rope either.

[myusernam]

you can trim the motor down to make it tow true. trout boats sometimes tow a tyre behind their dories etc. stops any wandering but they dont have to worry about fuel burn/ aren't going fast. If you can trim the motor up and have it run ok much better. try and get as much weight out of the nose as possible. if you have too much weight in the nose it will knfe around out the back from side to side. I would only let out as much as you need to (I reckon 30ft) if you let out too long you have the possibility of it getting knocked off course and s ing around everywhere like a bitch. likewise with too spogy a rope. you dont wont a lot of give because it encourages the s ing. If you get it balanced right and its calm enough you wont even know it's there in the cat. It might take you a while to build up speed to you're confident. weight down the back - nose out of the water. You can experiment with the rope down low or from the top. - the lowest point is a good place to start.

[Chas & Clarry]

Just back from the houseboat holiday; picture of the bridle in action:

[Chimo]

Looks like it worked OK, I ended up with about 12 ft from the bow of the tinny to the pulley on mine.

C
C

[choppa]

as a late post to the thread,, the FIL gave me a tip years and years ago,, which I still use today

he always had a coil of "braided" rope aboard for the purpose of towing another vessel,,, (also works well in other areas)

by braided,, I mean,,, take a length of rope,, string it out,, and return it back on itself twice,, and braid it,, (like hair)

the benefit of this rope is that it provides "flex/stretch",, whilst under load,,,(so you don't get that "impact" when breaking through wash etc) another benefit is that you don't have to "lock/attach" the towed vessel via a knot,,, you simply pass the towed vessel's tow line through the loops of the braid (dependable on the size of the said tow vessel) and it becomes a secure tow hitch under it's own pressure

what I personally have found with this "accessory" rope on board,, is that you can use it for more than just towing,,, and there is a report here (or two) of me bringing in others who have broken down in the Passage with me in a 12' open tinny, 9HP Johnno,,, and 18' half cabins behind,,

also you don't need to fuss about with untying and retying knots on the tow boat,,, slacken the rope,,, and adjust the "loop" in the braid

this could be a case for MythBusters,,, but it does work,,, I personally would not use it opposed to the other good advice above,,, but if your towing a tinny over short distances,, and need quick "hook" up and release often,,, it works

[Boat Hog]

Just back from the houseboat holiday; picture of the bridle in action:

Jeebus ... I misread that at first.... thought you were showing pictures of the bride in action!

Glad to see your boat bridle gear worked!

Cheers,

[WalrusLike]

Choppa great idea thanks... Any chance of a picky sometime? I can't quite see how you do that.....

Maybe it's because I have short hair??

[Chas & Clarry]

Looks like it worked OK, I ended up with about 12 ft from the bow of the tinny to the pulley on mine.

C
C

Ours is about the same as yours, it just looks longer in the photo.

Tim and Trace

[Chang Jiang]

Great advice from Chimo and the lads, if you are out and the weather is turning nasty ensure you set the length of the rope so that when you are on top of the wave the dinghy is on top of a wave depending on size of swell but i normally set towed vessel to 2 waves so when you are on top of a wave there is one wave between you and the dinghy. This is working on a wave timing between 7-12 seconds

[choppa]

Choppa great idea thanks... Any chance of a picky sometime? I can't quite see how you do that.....

Maybe it's because I have short hair??

Made this up today to give you an idea

rope day 1.jpg rope day 2.jpgrope day 4.jpgrope day 5.jpg

some spare rope i had in the shed,,, used the pin in the drawbar to hold the starting end,,,, gives an idea of length I'm braiding,,,, braid up close


as you can see via the last pic,,, if you need to "attach" another rope,,, instead of tying off,,, you simply pass it through 4-6 loops of the braid,,, once you have the braid under pressure it will never let go,,,, in swell when the tension becomes slack,tight,,,, fold the attached line back onto itself

as mentioned,,, this is not to replace the excellent idea's above,,, just another version

I normally latch this onto a fixed loop/bollard on the boat and make it permanent,,, simply hangs on the side,, comes in handy when your anchoring as well as you can move the achor line to whatever point of the braided rope to fish side on

if you need to shorten the rope,,,, make a loop and pass it through the "loops" of braid etc etc etc

Oh,,, to hold it all together,,,, number of ways,,, after I splice a loop in each individual rope,,,, bind them together with heavy mono,,,or sail thread and tie off

[WalrusLike]

Good stuff Choppa. Now I get it. I can see that being useful in lots of ways as you say. Thanks for the piccies and explanation.

[WalrusLike]

I have a rope I don't like that I was thinking of turning into this jack of all ropes that Choppa has.

I thought to myself that I would be cunning and instead of three ropes use this one long one tripled over. I further thought that I could then use one section at each end to loop back forming a eye for going in cleats.

Laid it out.... Looked at it... Scratched my head... Scratched the dogs neck.... Scratched my head some more.

So now I have a useless tangle of rope on the driveway and fleas in my hair.

It can't be done as one rope.

[choppa]

yes it can,,,, the rope in my pics is one length,,,, the trick is to have someone standing behind you as you plait it,,,, (not shown in pics),,, as you plait,, they reverse plait to keep the 3 lengths from twisting up,,, (a close look at pic 2 shows this,,, theres the "end" of the rope with a loop spliced already,,, the other 2 lengths are doubled over)

adding a cleat is also easy,,,, i leave mine generally "uncleated",,, as I normally fix one end directly to the "U" shaped bollard on the bow via a cheap cable tie,,, and use the rear/aft bollard as per pic 2 above so it's permanent

i didn't do this on this occassion,,,, thinking of upsizing the boat