Renting a Dinghy - How deep at the mooring balls?

IA Joe · Post by **IA Joe** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 1:01 pm

My wife and I are planning on renting a dinghy for a day, probably a center console, and this will be new for us. From searching the forum, I see that you have to use the mooring balls as most or all beaches if you have a center console dinghy. I am a good swimmer, but my wife is not a swimmer, so I want to know how this works. Can I drop her off up close to the beach and then go back out and tie off to the mooring ball? How deep is the water at most of the mooring balls? I know they are all different, but I don't even know if the water at the balls is 4' deep or 14'.

Also, are there any beaches that you consider "must see" on dinghy day, and any that should be avoided if accessing from the dinghy?

Thanks, Joe

Exit Zero · Post by **Exit Zero** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 1:27 pm

Since the mooring balls are pretty much designed for visiting yachts up to 60 feet they are in deepwater -- I have never seen one in less than 10 feet of water and most are much deeper.

RickG · Post by **RickG** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 2:59 pm

Who's telling you there is a restriction on dinghy size? Most of the beaches have dinghy channels and you can pull your dinghy up on the beach. There's a dinghy line between two buoys at Waterlemon Cay.

You can check out the Navionics chart and look for the red/blue buoys next to the beach for the dinghy channels - http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp . It's not perfect, it does not show the dinghy channel in Leinster Bay.

Moorings are all in 12'+ water. If you don't have a dinghy ladder, you'll want to rig a rope step into the dinghy if you're trying to get back in at a mooring or dinghy line. You can do this by running the dinghy painter (rope attached to front of boat) back to the rear of the boat so that the rope has at least 2 feet of slack in the water.

Cheers, RickG

IA Joe · Post by **IA Joe** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:54 pm

Thanks Exit Zero and Rick,

I appreciate your replies.

I got the impression that you could not beach the center console dinghies from the following Jan 1, 2014 post:

"In most cases you will have to pick up a mooring ball, not beach the dinghy - if you rent the center console dinghies they are not allowed to be beached."

My main concern is whether or not my wife will have an easy time of getting on the beach, whether that is by us beaching the dinghy or by me pulling up to the beach to let her out before going back to tie up to a mooring ball. I suppose some beaches are more accessible by dinghy than others.

Joe

Pia · Post by **Pia** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 9:30 pm

You can't beach center consoles (you must use a mooring ball) when rented through Calypso and they require 30 hours of open water experience

Pia

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