I’m interested in what folks do for a dinghy on a NS30? I’m in the Chesapeake Bay and looking for something to get to shore for our weekend/weeklong excursions. I love the idea that it could deflate, fold up and stow away, and have a solar-powered electric motor for 2. Not sure if that’s reasonable for the right cost.
Do you carry it on deck, on stern rigging, or tow behind? Pros, cons, etc.
What do you do with it at the dock when you’re not using it for a trip?
Thanks -
Bob Gehrman
NS30U # 396
“Quickbeam”
Baltimore, Maryland
The big advantage is it rows great (we usually don’t bother with the motor) and it also has a sailing rig which is a lot of fun.
It’s a two person job to load it on deck though (1 cranking the main halyard, 1 guiding it as it comes up, 2 to flip it over and place it carefully). It’s low enough on deck that it doesn’t interfere with the sail coming across but does reduce visibility somewhat.
I use a force 5 inflatable with an aluminum hull. I used to two it except when the waves prevented it when I would hoisted it on deck. I have an electric windlass so that helps and I can manage it solo with some difficulty. Two years ago I purchased and installed a dingy two. But haven’t been happy with the arrangement. Despite numerous alterations in the dingy water comes into the dingy where the bow tube and hull come together. With a rigid fibreglass dinghy it should work well. Let me know if you’re interested in it.
Our Walker Bay 8 has proven suitable. At 70 odd pounds its easy to move around and hangs easily in the davits. I store it on deck over the winter. I bought a sail kit and she also will accommodate a small outboard (I don’t have). I recently acquired a flotation tank which installs on the perimeter to provide better stability which my wife and I benefit from with our declining balance ability. They show up occasionally second hand for around CAD $500. I paid $600.
I’ve been using an 8 foot Porta Bote since 2001. I tows easily for short trips and I can bring it up on deck myself. Can be folded and stored against the lifelines if you want too
My wife and I used a Dingy tow for our 3000 mile trip to Bahamas from Maryland in our Nonsuch 30. It lifts the stern of the dingy and only the tip of the bow is in the water.
We used a second hand rigid hull inflatable which planed with a 6 horse OB with the two of us (combined weight 270 lb). Could not have been more pleased with it or dinghy tow.
Drop the lines to lower stern into water, get in, unhook, and you’re off. Come back, hook up, get out, climb into stern of Nonsuch, pull stern of dinghy (with OB attached) up, cleat, and take off. One 150 lb weakling did this without straining. Went through some serious wind, weather, and waves and zero problems. No problem docking in a slip stern first.
I actually installed at anchor after we had started trip - not a problem. Must drill holes to attach hardware to dingy stern and stern of Nonsuch. I still have it if you are interested.
The Dinghy tow people told me it would not work with the swim platform on our boat, which is one of the INA ones. That said, I played around with the dimensions of the apparatus and of our transom and platform and I’m not convinced it wouldn’t work. With the international shipping and customs issues involved I decided to pass but I think it could be quite easily modified to work if it didn’t work right out of the box.
The lower end of the tow arms are mounted where the swim platform is mounted. If you mount the arms above the platform attaching the dinghy would be nigh impossible. But perhaps if the platform could be modified to fold up against the stern it would work. But then the arms would be extended when the platform is down and be in the way…
You need to model it in a CAD program to check clearances and mounting locations. But I think is really not feasible.
Folks with platforms often put the nose of the dinghy on the platform and tow it that way.
Found a couple pics online showing platform mounted Dinghy Tows. Never having actually seen even a transom mounted one, I have no idea what the negatives might be but it can be done.
The critical measurement is the location of the tow mounting brackets on the hull vs the tow bar attachment brackets on the dinghy. When the dinghy is in the water the tow bars need to be more of less level.
We struggled with this exact question for a long time. We started with an 8 foot Porta Bote and loved the convenience of being able to store it on the side deck folded up and lashed to the lifelines. Our issue was we couldn’t work out an easy way to assemble it on deck. There have been a lot of wonderful suggestions here on how to pull it off but none worked for us. We ended up towing it when we went somewhere. Here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast it was a wet ride and crowded for us and the two dogs.
We lucked into an 8ft fiberglass inflatable that a boat neighbor was selling cheap (for $100) so we grabbed it up planning to store on deck. We didn’t like that either. Our dogs and us like to lay out in the sun up there. We decided to add davits since we live aboard and figured that would keep it out of the way. So far this has been our best solution. With that said, we don’t sail with it in the davits. It weighs in at 100lbs and even though we installed very sturdy aluminum backing plates I’m not comfortable with the flexing it causes on the stern rail. I think that mostly comes from the split rail for swim ladder.
In the end we’re happy with he inflatable. Plenty of room and our little 2 stroke 6hp will pop it on plane if we distribute our weight right. In the end, we tow when we sail and use the davits like a garage when we’re parked.
