If your engine fails to start, being able to berth your boat using the tender is an extremely useful skill, as Ben Meakins demonstrates
Boat towing and berthing by tender
That heart-sinking moment when you press the engine starter to hear nothing but a ‘click’ is one of those situations when you have to weigh up whether to call for a tow or attempt to ‘self-rescue’ and make it to port under your own steam.
I was sailing in Norway a few years ago when the starter motor broke.
We managed to limp into a nearby marina using the dinghy to tow us.
In the heat of the moment, it was a nerve-wracking business, and would have been much easier if we’d done some experimenting beforehand.
In the event, we made it into an easy berth: but I’ve since wondered just how manoeuvrable you can be with a small dinghy powering a large yacht.
To help us find out, Mark Carey kindly lent us his smart Laser 28 Zorra for an afternoon.
She’s moored in Parkstone Yacht Haven in Poole Harbour: the club’s marina is a tight squeeze inside its large stone breakwater, and we had an unusually still day in early February to play with.
We inflated my venerable 1978 Avon Redstart dinghy with its 2hp Mariner outboard of a similar vintage as motive power, and cast off to see how easy it was – or if it was even possible – to control the yacht with the dinghy.
Boat towing & berthing: Securing the dinghy

We used the painter attachment point and the straps for the aft thwart to lash the dinghy alongside before boat towing
It’s worth taking your time when lashing the dinghy alongside.
It needs to be as far aft as possible so that, ideally, the engine is aft of the yacht’s rudder.
You’ll need two springs – one fore, one aft – to take the strain of the tow, and two breast lines to keep the dinghy attached in the turns.
The whole lot needs to be as tight as possible to make manoeuvring comparatively crisp and easy.
We used the Avon’s painter attachment point and two sturdy webbing seat brackets at the stern.
The large height difference between the dinghy and yacht makes this potentially tricky – we got around it by taking the stern breast line across to the dinghy’s port side, which pulled the dinghy in tight and held her securely.
Boat towing & berthing: Getting used to manoeuvring
In the relatively open water off the PkYC slipway, we had just enough space to put in a few turns and manoeuvres to get to grips with Zorra’s now altered handling.
With David Pugh in the tender and myself on the helm, we turned to port and starboard.
A few things quickly became obvious: the boat turned much more readily with the dinghy on the inside of the turn as the prop wash from the outboard pushed the stern around, with Zorra pirouetting in her own length.

Turning to port, with the dinghy on the inside…
Turning to starboard, with the dinghy on the outside of the turn, was slower: it’s no great problem, but you need to be aware of it and plan accordingly.
With a few turns completed, we opted to try manoeuvring at low speed, ahead and astern.
With a small outboard, this took some time, and we soon learned that it was important to increase the engine’s revs gently.

… was easier than with the dinghy on the outside
Going ahead from a standing start, we found that the dinghy’s prop, offset as it was to port, pushed the boat’s bow to starboard.
We found that it helped to steer into the boat’s side to keep her true. Once the yacht started to move, we could centre the engine and she responded normally.
Being able to ‘vector’ the outboard through 360° gave us some flexibility.
We soon found that while the yacht was stopped, applying power to the outboard made it act more as a thruster than as motive power until the yacht had some way on.
Therefore the steering angle of the outboard was critical, as was communication between myself on the helm and David in the dinghy.
Going hard astern to stop the boat was a case in point.
With the propeller offset to the port side of the yacht, the bow would swing wildly to port when power was applied in reverse, so it was important to go astern with the engine vectored slightly to starboard to keep the boat going straight into the berth.
Too much, however, and the prop acted as a stern thruster and walked the stern to starboard – a useful tool to bring her alongside, but potentially dangerous when easing into a tight marina berth.
After spending 15 minutes entertaining the onlookers with pirouettes and shouted commands, we began to get the hang of things and settled on a system of hand signals to show David which way to steer the dinghy and the amount of throttle needed.
Stuck down at water level, he could see very little, and it was obvious that he was simply the engine room: the helm of the yacht needed to be in command.
Boat towing & berthing: Going astern
To test the efficiency of towing backwards we cast off and used the dinghy in astern to pull the boat out of the berth.
This was surprisingly successful, and steering was actually easier than with the boat going ahead.
By synchronising tiller and outboard positions we found we could steer very accurately, and managed to make our way down a narrow aisle.
Berthing ahead: first failure
Our first attempt had the pontoon to starboard and on the inside of the turn.
It didn’t go well, but we were able to abort the manoeuvre before any harm was done.
1. With a little tide running, we approached the space without issue until we turned into the berth and applied some astern power, as you would under normal circumstances.
2. This combination pivoted Zorra around her keel because we applied too much astern power to the offset prop with the outboard’s tiller positioned fore-and-aft.
At the same time, I was steering Zorra to port, and she simply spun on her keel. No contact was made, but it was a useful lesson to apply power slowly and have clear communications to vector the engine correctly in astern.
Boat towing & berthing: Bigger berth, starboard turn
1. We decided to try another, bigger, berth – also requiring a turn to starboard.
2. We were nervous after the previous close call, and applied some reverse power too soon. Again, no harm done, but we were realising that you need some way on the boat when approaching.
3. Leaving the engine idling in slow astern, steering the outboard as necessary until it was time to apply a burst of power to stop the boat at the last minute, proved much more effective.
4. The tender holds her steady into the berth.
Same berth, port turn entrance
1. This time we approached with the pontoon to port and on the outside of the turn. This was more successful: the dinghy was always pushing the boat into the berth.
2. By aiming the bow into the corner between the finger pontoon and the main walkway she ended up in the right place…
3. … and David could apply power at 90° to the boat to push Zorra’s stern alongside.
Let’s try the first berth again
1. With a much better idea of how the boat handled, we opted to attempt our first tricky berth again, this time approaching from the opposite direction (pontoon on the outside of the turn, dinghy inside).
2. This time we left the tender’s outboard idling, and with clear communication used it to either boost or check the boat’s way. We aimed at the inner end of the finger pontoon and glided in.
3. David finally checked our progress into the berth with a well-timed burst of astern and starboard engine that also brought Zorra’s stern in to the pontoon – perfect!
Lessons Learned: Practice makes perfect
Berthing with the tender proved a useful exercise, becoming much easier with each attempt.

Effective communication is vital, especially over the racket of a noisy outboard motor
While we hope we’ll rarely have to use this skill, we now have a good idea of how to manoeuvre the boat with a small-engined dinghy and would recommend every skipper take the opportunity to try it.
1. Communication is vital
The helmsman of the yacht is the one who needs to be in charge, and should give clear instructions to the crew in the dinghy – ‘slow ahead’, ‘ahead, steer half port’, that sort of thing.
2. It’s useful to have a spare crewman to help tie up
Having a crew member ready to step off with a bow spring to stop the boat in the chosen berth would have been very useful.
Short-handed berthing was possible, but slightly nerve-wracking!
3. The engine works as a ‘bow thruster’ until you get moving
The most striking thing we learned was that until the outboard is in charge and the boat is going the way you want, the outboard is only really working as a glorified thruster.
You need to pay particular attention to the engine’s orientation, and practise (in an open bit of water) how the engine’s throttle and steering affect the boat at slow speeds – and especially when changing from bursts of ahead to astern.
4. It’s easier with the dinghy inside the turn and the pontoon outside
We found approaching a berth with the pontoon on the inside of the turn much trickier.
That’s true for normal boat handling, but is exacerbated in this case by the need to have the tender on the outside to avoid it colliding with the pontoon.
With an easily-handled, modern boat like Zorra, it would even be worth going past the berth in astern to gain the correct approach.
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