When we were having the dinghy davits extended on our boat we had to tow the dinghy. A trick we learned from the TMM briefer was to pass the spliced eye of the painter thru and around a stern cleat to secure the painter to the cleat. When we slowed the boat in preparation for docking or mooring, we pulled in the painter such that the dinghy was tight against the side of the hull and secured painter to a cleat via figure 8 around horn of cleat. When we were underway again, it was a simple matter of just undoing the figurre 8 around the cleat and throwing the painter overboard, knowing the end was still attached to the cleat.
Difficult to describe in words but very easy to do.
Cheers,
Tony
.
