We are going to show you how we tow our dingy, a Boston Whaler, through the Ballard Locks. There was a sharp eyed viewer that noticed that we had a Boston Whaler 1300 tied to the back of the boat and wanted to know how we towed it through the Ballard Locks. So in this episode we are going to show you how we Lock through towing a dingy. We basically tow it long side on the stern of the boat through Ship Canal since it has such a flat bottom. When we have it tied to the stern of the boat we keep the motor up so it doesn't act as a rudder. Once we are in the locks we put the motor down so it doesn't cause any damage to another vessel or the motor against the wall of the locks. We tie it up well and fender it up. The beam of our boat is 15 feet and the Whaler is 14 feet and change so we have to be very precise on how we tie it up. First of all it won't fit on the top of the upper deck where we keep our dinghy. The davit isn't strong enough and the upper deck isn't structurally strong enough. The upper deck can handle about 800 pounds and with the Whaler with fuel is about 1500 pounds. We are going to be up in the San Juan's for 2-3 weeks and we want to do some crabbing and run from Island to Island and the rib just can't go that fast or handle all that. Getting this through the locks is a little tricky. There are two ways to do this we can side tide or stern most of the time it is a starboard tie going out of the locks but they can change that at the last minute so if you are side tied you are going to get a little jammed up. With the stern tie it gives us more options. We are about 5 1/2 feet longer with it tied and need to let the lock masters know when they ask us how long we are. We are cruising about 7 knots which is about as fast as you want to go when you are towing it on the stern. When we get into the locks we will put the motor down so we don't cause harm to the motor or any other vessel. the only other thing we do is put a couple of fender on the bow of the dinghy to protect it. Is it the perfect way to do it? No but boating is all about trade offs, the perfect way would be to have it on the upper deck. We lash both the stern and bow line to the staples on the back of the swim step. The reason you can't see the bow line is because it is attached to the tow eye on the under part of the bow. Now we are just waiting to go through the locks and the questions of the day is it going to be the small locks or the big locks. Well, we got into the small locks and are on a port side tie so as soon as we got in we lowered the motor so it wouldn't hit the concrete wall and do damage to the engine. Once we are through the locks we use one of two harnesses fo the whaler we have a 35 foot with a locking carabiner that is a 2500 carabinger with a snap ring that attaches to the tow eye. We then have a 70 foot harness that attaches to the two cleats on the port and starboard side that will tow the whaler behind the second swell that the boat creates. The short harness is good for short runs in good weather the long harness is good for long runs and in questionable weather. And that is how we tow our whaler on the Elli-Yacht!
0:00 Intro 1:15 Prepping the Dingy to tow 1:47 Why do we tow Vs using our Davit? 2:30 Why end tie Vs side tie? 3:12 Entering the lock preperation 4:23 Line and fender configuration 4:48 Upper perspective of the dingy being towed stern tied 5:12 Locking through 5:53 Tow harnesses 9:30 Wrap up
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By: Elli-Yacht Title: Towing a Dingy through the Locks Sourced From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrHSnUmXoPo
