dinghy technique

I just have come back from a week anchoring out on Bear Lake in Utah. I used a D5 dinghy that I built and am very pleased with it. But... how do you tie it up to the boat at night. I tried several techniques and am not completely satisfied with any of them. I first tried just the painter and letting it drift depending on the wind to keep it behind the boat. Wrong !!! Bump, bump, bump all night. I then tried booming it out with a wisker pole, but sometimes the wave action was too violent and I was afraid the pole would be destroyed. I finally settled on tying up to the bow and stern of the dinghy against fenders along the side of the boat. This worked, but was pretty noisy. Any wisdom and suggestions out there. Thanks,

We usually tie up to a stanchion, or one of the mooring cleats on the stern.

What was causing the sound when it was tied to the stern? You might want to just let out the painter more so it's not touching the boat.

Regarding the dinghy itself - how easy was it to build. Bateau advertises it as their easiest design to build, I believe, and I've been wondering if I should try it...

How deep is the water? Maybe you can throw a small anchor off the dingy to keep it away from your boat.

Thanks for the suggestions. The noise was the dinghy bumping into the boat. The anchor idea is a good one that I will definitely try. I was in about 12-15 feet of water with about 15 feet of painter between the aft stbd cleat and the dinghy. It was like there was a magnet in the boat that attracted the dinghy. I will also change to a floating painter to avoid entanglement in the prop.

Hi,
This is my first reply to owners questions, mainly because I forgot my password a couple of years ago, and this is the first time I might have something usefull to say. Anyway, over the years I've owned several hard dinks, and after trying all sorts of ways of keeping it from banging into the boat all night, I found a method that really works. Hang a bucket off the transom of the dink making it a displacement vessel just like your sailboat, and they will both swing the same way, try it, it really works. You just have to remember to remove the bucket when you are bragging about how well your boat sails with your new spinaker. (I did that, but only once.)

Good Luck
Bob Garabedian
Ericson 35 III

If you get really desperate you can hoist your dink on a spare halyard, so that it rests against the topsides just below the rail, near the chainplates. Tie off the painter to a deck cleat.

Thanks Bob!
I would have never thought of that bucket idea.

Best,
Loren

Bear Lake sailing??

How was the lake for sailing? Where did you launch? How do think the lake is for a destination for trailer sailors? I have read some about the lake on the BLYC web site. Ryan

My hard dink technique has settled on bow tie to the miship mooring cleat, and a stanchion tie (towards the stern of the boat) for the stern of the dink. I drop a couple regular fenders over the side and adjust them to the right height.

Adjusting the line length is important for this technique because too short a tie will cause jerking and bumping on the fenders, caused by the little wavelets and wakes that pass by. I haven't found a way to silence the clucking on the dink hull from the wavelets, but by now that's a nice background noise rather than an annoyance. We sleep in the bow, which separates us from the dink.

Good luck - lots of ideas here that I've not thought of.