BLUEMOMENT

When you're towing a rigid dinghy, the painter tension (and thus the effect on speed) is significantly less if you adjust the length so that the dinghy is constantly falling down one of the waves in your wake and not trying to climb up it.

Good idea, a corollary to that would be to remember to be careful if deciding to reverse to set an anchor. We managed to wrap a floating line round the prop doing so in a chartered cat having been told to make sure we towed the dinghy with lots of painter out. (and to haul the dingy in before reversing....) The cost of the replacement painter was very high.

ubergeekian wrote:When you're towing a rigid dinghy, the painter tension (and thus the effect on speed) is significantly less if you adjust the length so that the dinghy is constantly falling down one of the waves in your wake and not trying to climb up it.

This was one of several excellent bits of advice I got with my first (second-hand inflatable) dinghy. Earlier this year we also tested the one about a single tube and the thwart being enough to keep you afloat in the event of a sudden deflation.