Tender Outboard - tow with motor on, or lower with davit arm etc.

[gcafaro33]

Hi All - We just purchased a dinghy for our CP-25 to use in anchorage and I've seen varied opinions of towing with/without the outboard attached to the tender on other blogs and understand both sides of the argument.  Ideally, no one wants to lose the engine to a flip etc., so it would be great to store it on-board.  Curious to know if others in the CP family have specific set ups they love/hate and otherwise based off the rails on the 25/27.  Ideally do not want to go out and purchase a davit arm for another $700, but if it comes down to that being the best option, so be it...  We sail in a fairly calm bay most of the time hence our thoughts on towing with the motor on, but do encounter some sizable wakes from time to time and would prefer to not have that 'oh sh..' moment seeing the dinghy flip and lose the motor...  Thanks!

[Reighnman]

Sent you an email as it's a pain to resize photos. I lost about .5mph towing a 79lb dingy with the motor off.

[gcafaro33]

Thanks, Reighnman - much appreciated.

[deisher6]

Hey gcafaro33:
We had a small Boston Whaler that we towed behind our C-27.  It slowed us down about .5 knots.  We have always used oars on all of our dinks.  When our daughters were young they enjoyed rowing around and exploring.

Good luck.

regards charlie

[gcafaro33]

thank you, Charlie

[curtisv]

I gave away the 2HP dinghy motor more than a decade ago and used oars ever since then.  I very rarely used the motor and only used it when I was doing multiple trips to ferry people out to the boat.  I've flipped the dinghy a number of times so I don't store oars or anything else when towing.  No room on a CP23 to store the dinghy.

Most people who bring along a small motor with integral gas tank build a mount for it that fits on the stern pulpit.  This keeps gas out of the bilge.

Today the torqueedo are starting to become more popular for dinghy motors since you can safely put the whole thing in a cockpit locker.  You probably want to lock it to your boat while at the dinghy dock since its a theft target.

Take two thick boards and screw or bolt them together.  10x10 might do it.  Then drill holes where the stern pulpit rails would go.  Plan to mount it on a T in the stern pulpit with straight tubing in the area you'll be mounting.  A drill press is probably necessary but you might get by with a hand drill and a good eye.  You could also do this with a round router bit making two half pipes but that might be harder to get right.  You can go slightly oversized and use 1/8" closed cell polyurathane (plan to compress to 1/16) to be really gentle on the tubing.

They might sell something like this to fit on a T on the stern rail but made of plastic.  Check the usual places or search for "stern rail motor mount".  Or make one.

Curtis

[gcafaro33]

Thanks, Curtis - much appreciated.