Towing a tender. Your thoughts?

Hi,

This might be of interest to some.

http://thetriton.com/article/2010/10/mentor’s-minute-safe-towing-includes-shackle-setup-and-lighting

i would tow a 13 whaler behing a 35 Viking..
whaler was ok up to about 20 kts then it would get a little wild back there,
it seemed to be fine at 17-19kts

Using 100' of 7/8" poly and a bridle I have towed three different center consoles I have owned over the years with my Hatteras.A 22' Aquasport,a17' Mako and now a 20' Aquasport.Although I have never pulled any of them in any sea over 4' they all towed very well at 17knots which is my normal cruise speed.All were or are equipped with proper tow eyes and some of the trips were over 200 miles and never had an issue.

Oops....I take that back! We did have a close one years back crossing Buzzards Bay in zero/zero at 8knots when a large blip appeared on the radar bearing down on us off our beam very quickly.After sounding the fog horn many times and adjusting to avoid the target out of the fog at full cruise astern of the CC comes a large Bay/Ray like there is nothing going on.Some people don't belong on the water.

We have a choice of boats that we tow at 20 kts behind a 92' motoryacht. I use 170' of 5/8" plasma with a bridle for a 32' intrepid. With the engines out of the water, I use a drag line behind the intrepid ensure it tracks correct, especially at slow speeds. We also have a 25' seacat we tow with the same plasma line. With the cat, the engines have to be partially in the water or it will be all over the place. With a head sea, the cat is terrible, You cant go slow enough.

I've found that if you want some resistance but want the outboards up. I use about 20' of 1" (or larger) chain, connect that to around 15'-20 of 3/8" 3 strand (so it could breakaway if need be) and cleat it off to the stern of the tender. The tender will track true and straight and it also helps it slow down a little faster than without it, if the bigger boat slows down.

One inch chain "link stock diameter" is pretty darn heavy and twenty feet of it must be quite a job to lift,but I'm sure it gives plenty of resistance.

You can go smaller too depending on the boat, but if you're towing say a 37' Intrepid at 30 knots, you'll want that much so it doesn't skip and jump on the water.......tow a 20' at 20 knots and you can get away with 3/8" chain.