T&T: ICW in winter

[Cole]

"COMMENT:
Do not do this!"

As someone who traveled from Ft. Myers To the lower Chesapeake om the ICW towing a 16 ft. Larson 115hp outboard as a "dink". I would mostly agree with Rich that it's a bit of trouble.
The tow boat was a 47ft Trumpy. We didn't have any major problems, but one incident could have been much worse. It was somewhat choppy as we crossed the Bogue Sound and the tow line was getting jarred pretty hard as it would slack up and draw tight repeatedly. Finally the shackle at the end of the line broke and set the tow adrift. If we had been in a narrow channel we may not have been able to rescue it so easily. Fortunately my mate was capable of operating the Trumpy so we got as close to the tow as possible and I just jumped in an swam for it, then motored ahead to protected water and prepared a better tow line while I awaited my mate with the Trumpy. BTW, the beautiful mahogany transom on the Trumpy did get a decent ding it from the Larson  banging into it when we had to slow up quickly at one point. 
Handling the locks was more troublesome with that big tow also.  We towed it out of one lock backwards when the tow line tangled in the prop (of the tow)
We did not however see any real costs in speed or fuel, the 6-53 Detroit's in the Trumpy didn't seem to care at the speeds we ran , only 7-8 knots.

My experience with that and my current inflatable, a 11 foot with a 10 HP Nissan outboard is that, I want the smallest, lightest dink that will do the job. In the spring I plan to buy something else and ditch this inflatable, it, and especially the Nissan are just too damn heavy. 

Cole Crockett