Towing a Small Sailboat.

Towing a small sailboat can present some unique problems.

Many sail boats like my friend's C&C do not have a cleat on the bow of the boat. There is not much on the front of the boat to which you can attach a line. We found that out a few months ago when we had a hurricane that was coming our way and we needed to tie our boats off the dock and in to the middle of our canal. 

With the C&C there is a line chock on the bow where a line can go through, but nothing to tie a line to. Tying a line to the mast step could be a possibility, but the mast step is just mounted to the top of the cabin. The mount is not set up for that type of strain and it is high on the boat. You also do not want to tie it to the fore stay mount.

With a sailboat like this or if you have a bow cleat that is suspected not to be solid, the best set up to tow is to pull the towline through the bow chock and make a bowline. Then, use bowlines to attach two more lines and lead those lines to the primary winches. The winches are mounted to take side pull strain, and with the two lines you spread the strain out to both winches.

You can use the sheet blocks for your jib to get a good routing position to the winches.  This set up lets the tow boat pull you by the bow and it spreads the force of the tow through two lines and two blocks. 

Also SLOW TOW at about only 5 knots. Faster can and often will cause damage to your boat and can damage the boat towing you. Most motor boaters have no idea how much a small sailboat weighs, and what its hull speed is.