The dinghy-towing thread is sufficiently frayed by now, but here is one more quote from old Maurice Griffiths on dinghy towing, written almost 50 years (1979) after the prior one, based on his experiences: "It was an exhilarating run, and over the Stone Banks off Harwich the seas were a little steeper, and our dinghy started to run up on us before some of the more boisterous seas. But we had by now learnt how to cope with this bad habit of towed dinghies, and always made it a rule when starting on a coastal passage...to shackle two painters on to the dinghy's eyebolt at the foot of its stem. We now cast off one of these to trail astern as a drogue, and veered the stouter one to about six fathoms. This arrangement, we had found, was more effective in braking the dinghy's wild rush down the face of a following sea, as it allowed its stern to slew to one side or the other if it wanted to. If the drogueline is towed from the stern it is less effective as it keeps the dinghy's transom square on to the seas. Moreover, when no longer running before it, it is much easier to retrieve the drogue painter from the dinghy's stem than from its transom, while the yacht is still sailing at all fast." The First of the Tide, p. 61 So, a possible twist on the drogue technique. David