On the following pages, we’ll examine the fundamentals of towing a boat. Most cruisers, whether power or sail, have a dinghy. If it can’t be carried on deck, that dinghy must be towed, and towing requires a bit of care and understanding or you can end up with it swamped or capsized and lose your nice oars, life jackets, and fuel cans. On the other hand, you might also find yourself having to tow your larger boat. This might be from the dock to the mooring or perhaps from the mooring to the boatyard after an engine failure. You may also come across a fellow mariner needing a tow. Whatever the reason, this is a project that can go very badly if not done right. For one thing, in a crowded anchorage there are plenty of obstacles, some of which are very expensive, and a towed boat doesn’t always follow obediently where you lead it. A boat under tow doesn’t usually stop when you want it to either, but as with most things, a little practice before the skill is needed will help a lot.
This primer on towing should get you across the harbor with a relatively small boat (say, less than 40′ ). If you need to tow a longer distance, or tow a larger boat, you’ll need a good deal more than what we can provide in this space.
Towing a Dinghy
The basic goal of towing any boat is to get more resistance aft than forward so it will follow in a straight line. If there is more resistance forward than aft, the bow of the towed boat (we’ll just call it a dinghy here, but it would apply to any towed object) will “dig in” and cause the dinghy to take a zigzag course. That might be annoying at best, but it could become severe enough to cause the dinghy to swamp or capsize. This is why you must put a tail on a kite to stabilize it. You need drag aft.
How do you get more drag aft? There are many ways, and here are some:
• Any method that will lift the bow out of the water, such as attaching the towline to a fitting near the waterline and pulling the dinghy up close, thereby lifting the bow further out of the water.
• Placing some weight, such as beach stones, in the stern, causing the same result (bow up, stern down).
• If your dinghy has a relatively flat bottom forward and a skeg aft, it should tow fine without modification.
• If you have a sailing dinghy with no skeg, you can secure the rudder amidships. (Leaving it unsecured will actually work, too, but it will work better if secured.) A sailing dinghy should have its centerboard raised; otherwise it will create drag too far forward.
• The same effect can be accomplished in an outboard-powered dinghy by leaving the motor down, though it will create more drag.
For a dinghy to tow gracefully, its forefoot must clear the water and it must have some drag aft and very little forward. While an effectively shaped hull will tow with little modification, tweaks may be made by ballasting the stern with beach stones, by leaving the outboard motor or rudder secured in place, or by dragging a loop of line— a “warp”—aft. A deployed centerboard will introduce too much drag forward, causing the boat to veer off.
With the dinghy properly trimmed for towing, adjust the length of the towline so the boat is riding just up the back side of the stern wave, with the bow over the crest. If the dinghy can slide down the wave’s face, it is likely to sheer off in a direction of its choosing and potentially capsize when the line fetches up.
And finally, if you have a boat in tow that is just plain ornery and doesn’t want to follow along, trail a bight (a loop) of line (dockline or whatever) behind it. In storm sailing this is called “towing a warp,” and is in fact exactly like putting a tail on a kite.
Towing a Boat Across a Harbor
Your first decision should be whether to pull or push. Most tugboat operators will push their tow in confined waters in order to achieve the best maneuverability. They’ll then switch to towing on a short hawser for the run out the channel, then lengthen out to a very long towline for the offshore run. If you are moving your powerless boat across a crowded harbor, you will likewise be better off pushing her, and we’ll get to how to do that shortly. If the harbor is wide open with only a few obstacles, it will be simpler to tow her on a fairly short line. This will allow you some maneuverability, though not enough for close quarters.
Preparing the Towboat
Tugboats have very long, obstacle-free aft decks and their towing bitts are located well forward of the rudder. This allows the tug to turn even when there is a great strain on the towline. If you connect your towline to the stern of your boat (anywhere near or aft of the rudder) you will have difficulty turning, since the towline will restrict your stern from swinging. By towing from well forward of the rudder, the rudder can still swing the towboat’s stern regardless of the direction of pull of the towline. If your towboat has an outboard motor, this may be awkward since the towline must pass above the motor. In that case you can station someone aft to help pass the towline over the motor when necessary. On a small outboard-powered boat or even a rowboat, you can tie the towline to the middle thwart. Get all obstructions clear of the towline and have someone standing by to clear any snags.
Preparing the Boat to Be Towed
Your primary goal is to get the center of drag sufficiently aft, and you can accomplish this by several means. If the center of drag is too far forward, the bow will dig in and the boat will veer from side to side, like the dinghy described on the previous page. If the center of drag is adequately aft, the boat will follow where the tugboat leads it.
No matter what the towing vessel is, if the point of attachment of the towline (×) is well ahead of the rudder, the boat can be steered effectively. In all of the scenarios we see here, if the tow point were moved aft to the location of the rudder, the movement of the stern—and thus the ability of the boat to be steered—would be restricted by the drag of the tow.
If you can, put a person onboard the towed boat to steer. Although the most effective, this solution is not always practical. If you can’t provide a helmsman, you may need to experiment a little. Try towing with the rudder secured amidships, then with it left free, to see which is more effective. In the former case she will tow straighter, in the latter she should be easier to turn. If she’s a centerboarder, raise the board to move the center of drag aft. If she has a deep forefoot and her bow digs in and she veers, there may not be much you can do about it except ballast her down by the stern a bit.
Once underway, take the advice of Capt. Sam Teel, ship-handling instructor at Maine Maritime Academy: “Go slow, think ahead, and be patient.” Those are good rules to tow by. And remember that when you slow down, the towed vessel may catch up to, and even pass you if you’re not careful. Then things can get really ugly—for instance, if the towline becomes fouled around your propeller. If there is current (or wind), it will affect the towed vessel more and more as you slow down. Anticipate.
In the end, if she doesn’t tow well—meaning straight—you should probably abandon this idea and get rigged up for pushing instead.
Towing by Pushing “On the Hip”
The most controllable way to tow another vessel, whether it is a sailboat, motorboat, barge, or floating dock, is to push it. Tugboats do this all the time, and while some are equipped to push their barges directly in front of them, it is more common for them to lash alongside the vessel or object being towed in a configuration referred to as “on the hip.”
Imagine lashing your towboat parallel to the side of another vessel, and picture what would happen when you throttle up (or reverse). You won’t be going anywhere but around in circles. The towed vessel will create enough drag on one side of your towboat to force you to simply pivot around her. The solution is to get yourself way aft on her quarter (near to the stern on either the port or starboard side), and then get your towboat’s bow angled well inward and your stern sticking out. You want your towboat’s centerline at a 10- to 15-degree angle to the centerline of the towed vessel. (This angle may vary depending on how the towed vessel behaves.) Now you are pushing the vessel with her bow crossing your bow. If she is on your port side, her bow will be angled to your starboard, and she will be trying to turn both of you to your starboard. This is good, because if you were parallel to her all you could do is turn to port (given her drag on your port side). Now you can turn her either way. You will be pushing her partially sideways, but at least you have control. In fact, you have so much control that you can maneuver through a crowded mooring field, or land her nicely at almost any dock, given some practice.
In situations that require precise maneuverability, a boat should be hip-towed. The towing vessel should be secured so it does not move relative to the tow, and it should be set at an angle to the tow to compensate for drag.
The trick to making this work is getting the two boats tied up tight. You will do this with three lines: a bow line, a spring line, and a stern line. To secure these, pull up along your chosen side, well aft. How far aft will be determined by the shape of the towed vessel. You’ll need a reasonably flat surface to lie alongside, so don’t get back under an overhanging stern. Place some good fenders between the two vessels.
Run a spring line from well forward on your “tug” to well aft on the “tow.” This line will be taking most of the load, so make sure it goes to a stout cleat or bitt. Try to employ a line with low stretch, like a heavy double braid. Don’t be afraid to oversize this line; the thicker it is, the less stretch it will have.
Now run out a bow line from your tug to the tow, angled slightly forward. Pull this line tight enough so the bow of the tug angles in a little more than the target 10 to 15 degrees, and secure it.
Finally run a line from your stern to the tow’s stern and tension it (your stern may stick out past the stern of the tow, but that’s fine). Put all your weight into this stern line, even using the engine of the tug to help, perhaps. The idea here is to get it as tight as humanly possible, as by doing so you are also tightening the other two lines and compressing the fenders. This should flatten your angle back to the target. When a real tugboat does this, she uses a burst of engine ahead and takes up on an extremely powerful winch aft, making all three lines sound like they are nearing their breaking points. But the more rigid the connection, the better the control you’ll have. The slightest slack will show up immediately when you start to maneuver.
Depending on the exact leads of the three lines, you might choose to add another spring line running opposite to the one described above, to handle the strain of backing down, but in most situations three lines will suffice.
Maneuvering
Once you are securely connected to your “tow,” you’ll need to think of the two boats (tug and tow) as one vessel. If you are pulling your tow off the dock, you may find it is easier to pull her off in reverse than to try to push ahead. To do so, start by leading a spring line aft from the boat’s bow to the dock and giving your towboat a brief kick ahead with your rudder hard over toward the dock. This will swing your stern out into the stream. Then you can back out diagonally until you are far enough away to turn in the direction you want to go. Alternatively, you could hold a forward-leading spring line on the stern and pull on the tow by backing down. This will spring your bow out into the stream and you can steam away ahead.
When approaching a dock, again consider using a spring line to help land. If you gently land her bow and then secure a spring line leading aft to the dock, you can power ahead gently with your rudder hard over away from the dock, which will bring your stern in and alongside. Again, the opposite will also work: After landing the bow, lead a spring line forward from the stern to the dock and then pull gently astern against it, which will pull your stern into the dock.
It is important to remember that you are handling a vessel with the combined length and weight (and thus momentum) of both vessels. This can work for you. When approaching a dock at about a 45-degree angle, you can start backing slowly on your tug, while the momentum of your tow continues forward, causing the combined tug and tow to pivot. Because your propeller is offset so far from the centerline of the tow, you’ll have quite a lot of turning power, so use it sparingly.
You’ll be amazed at how much control you have after you get used to it. Don’t be surprised if you find out right away that you need to tighten that stern line even more than you thought, since all lines stretch and fenders compress. Look at all the lines for chafe or bad leads that might bend a stanchion or scar the varnish. Check for fenders that aren’t doing their job. Vigilance is key. And again: Go slow, think ahead, and be patient.
The Tugboat Hitch
Tugboats typically have a large set of steel bitts at the bow and heavy, long lines for connecting to their tows. This combination makes it difficult to tie conventional knots or belays. The solution is to use what is known as a tugboat hitch, which allows you to secure a large line to a post without having to find the end of the line. It is secure, won’t slip under extreme strain, and is always easy to untie, even with a load on it. It can be tied around a single post (such as a samson post), around a double set of bitts, or around virtually anything else. But its utility is not limited to big commercial work: A recreational sailor can use this knot to secure a line that’s been wound around a winch or windlass drum and hove taut, and it’s very useful for tying a mooring line to your boat or connecting a towline from another.
To describe how to tie any knot, we need a little vocabulary. There will be a standing part, a running part, a bitter end, and a bight. In this case, the standing part will be the part of the line coming from the other boat, approaching the bitt. It may or may not have a strain on it. The running part is the part in your hand that will make the knot. The bitter end is just that—the very end of the line you are working with (as opposed to the end that is aboard the other boat). A bight is formed when you grab a line somewhere in the middle and use it, doubled, as if it were the bitter end. You can tie any knot using a bight instead of the bitter end.
To tie the tugboat hitch, start by (1) taking a few turns around the bitt, post, drum, or whatever you are using. (2) Next, grab a bight of the running part and pass it under the standing part. Take this bight out from under the standing part, form a loop, and drop it over the bitt. Snug it up by pulling on the running part. (3) For more security, repeat this process with a second bight. (4) That’s it. It is simple and secure, and will not jam. The first two (or more) turns around the bitt will enable you to control the line as you undo the hitch under strain.