Annapolis Yacht Sales Newsletter

Spring 2006

Choosing a Cruising Dinghy and Motor combination   

This was written on  Sunday morning 15 January and we are snugly moored to the dock in Conch Harbor Marina inside Marsh Harbor on the Sea of Abaco . Yesterday a strong cold front swept across the Abacos with winds up to 50 knots and we were glad to be tied to a dock, as those on anchor had a terrible time with boats dragging, sails unfurling and tearing and canvas blowing all over the ocean. The cruising community is a very tight group and any boat in trouble soon had 3 or 4 dinghies arrive to give help.

On the cruisers net, (which is held on Channel 68 VHF), the morning after the big blow one of the boats that had dragged anchor came on the radio to thank all the boats and people who had helped him re-anchor. While on the radio he asked if any body had seen some of his canvas that had blown off while he was turning the boat around. Immediately several boats came on the radio, one had his canvas cover, another had a lifejacket, another had his foul weather gear and all arranged to get the gear back to him. The cruiser net is invaluable in this regard.

What I wanted to talk about in this article are Dinghies and Outboard Motors, their choices and uses. Like everything in yachting there are a number of compromises to be made, and they are important decisions, because your dinghy will become your car, and your yacht your home. I read in one of the cruising guides that you should take the biggest dinghy possible and this is good advice, because there are times when you are motoring back to the boat loaded with groceries and the wind is blowing when the bigger dinghy really helps. Also when you are a mile away from your home, motoring around some coral reefs looking for a place to dive with waves breaking on the reef, size does count. However what you have to consider is what do you do with the dinghy when you are sailing. Most tow their dinghies behind, and while this works well it slows your yacht down. If you enjoy sailing as much as I do this is not for me. Several times in the Abacos Sue and I have sailed past yachts that are motoring along and at times like this we really appreciate the good sailing ability of our Beneteau 423. To make this work we store the dinghy upside down on the foredeck for any trips over a few hours, but I will get back to that in a minute.   Obviously Davits on the transom are a great choice, but you are not advised to sail in the ocean with a dinghy on davits because of the danger of a wave breaking into the dinghy and damaging the davits or worse the transom of the yacht. This means that if you are going to sail in the ocean, (and I include crossing the Gulf Stream from Florida to the Bahamas in that equation), you need to either deflate the dinghy and put it in a locker or store it on deck. Here comes the next compromise, a bigger dinghy or a hard bottom semi rigid dinghy is both harder to hoist aboard and harder to stow.   This was our solution and I have to admit that after 6 weeks cruising I would not do it any differently. We chose a 9 ft 6 in inflatable that was big enough for the 2 of us and any gear we might take. We bought the Achilles SPD because it had the bigger diameter tubes which are a must as they get you up higher out of the water. We did not choose the inflatable floor on advice from others who felt these were very temperature sensitive,  If you inflate them hard on a cold day they become over inflated on a hot day, but rather chose the wooden floors which come covered in a great nonskid rubber covering. When we are underway for more than a couple of hours, or when we want to sail more efficiently we remove the motor, and using two short lines attached to the two forward side eyes we hoist the dinghy with the Spinnaker halyard vertically over the lifelines and lower it upside down on the foredeck. This is where the size of the dinghy and the layout of the foredeck will differ from one model to another, but on the 423 we do not have a baby stay, rather we have two forward lower stays that allow the dinghy transom to snuggle back in front of the mast. The whole dinghy fits on the coach roof allowing you to walk around the dinghy along the sidedecks with no problems. Also the genoa sheets don’t get caught on the back of the dinghy because the lower stays are ahead and deflect them over the top. A big side benefit of this stowage is the ability to open the foredeck hatch when it is raining and get a good breeze into the forepeak. There are two pad eyes on the coach roof forward which allowed us to secure the front of the dinghy and we lashed the back down between the lower stay rigging screws. When on short trips we tow the dinghy without the motor using a floating polypropylene rope so that it can’t get caught in the prop and we adjust the length so that the dinghy tows in the trough between 2 waves which reduces the load considerably.

Now let’s talk about motors, which may be a more difficult decision than the dinghy. First you have to choose the horsepower, 2 stroke or 4, which manufacturer and integral or separate fuel tank. Starting with size; it has been my conclusion that to plane a 9 ft 6 in dinghy with two or more people you will need at least 8 horsepower, 6 will plane happily with one person and maybe two small people. We have found that most of the time with 2 of us onboard we do not want to plane when going ashore because either we are in an anchorage close to other boats or we don’t want to get wet. The other compromise is that at about 6HP the motors get too big to lift easily onto the back of the boat without a motor lift of some sort.   The 2 stroke versus 4 stroke argument has been made much easier in the last few years. In the past 4 strokes were much heavier than their 2 stroke counterparts, but the new small 4 stroke motors with single cylinders are much lighter and their significantly reduced fuel consumption, quite, easy starting, smooth idling and much lower emissions, make them a natural choice. An interesting aside is that most of them are built by Tohatsu and badge engineered by Mercury, Johnson, Yamaha and Nissen. The 4, 5 and 6 HP motors are all identical except for the size of the carburetor, so they all weigh the same. That made the 6 HP an obvious choice. We have only used a third of our 3 gal gas tank in the first 4 weeks of cruising, yes they are that economical and there is no mixing of oil. There is as always a down side and that is because they are single cylinders, they vibrate more than an equivalent 2 cylinder 2 stroke, but not much at lower RPM’s. I am able to lift the 6HP off the dinghy by hand and stow it on the back of the yacht if the water is calm, and Sue and I can do it easily even in rougher weather, always with a safety line from the yacht to the motor. One of the local inflatable experts in Annapolis pointed out that although the integral fuel tank gave you more room in the dinghy, because of its size you would now have to carry an extra fuel tank with the problems of stowing it on the yacht.     So our choice of a 9 ft 6 in inflatable with wooden floors and a 6 HP Mecury 4 stroke has worked out great for us and I wouldn’t make any changes if I did this again.   Another good tip for those of you that are traveling to areas where theft is a problem, someone advised us not to put the name of the mother ship on the dinghy,( such as T/T Thekwini), because then when your dinghy is sitting on the beach, they know that nobody is onboard that yacht. Rather just put the registration numbers on the dinghy.   I hope this throws some light on the interesting and challenging decision, please call me at Annapolis Yacht sales 410 267-8181 X 209 or email me at garth @ annapolisyachtsales.com if you have any questions.   Thanks, Garth Hichens, President Annapolis Yacht Sales