Granted my experience was with a rigid dinghy but inflatables can do the same. On a sloppy crossing from Cape Charles to Hampton my Dyer was surfing up to about abeam. The strain on the painter quite heavy and trying to shorten it difficult. We were broad reaching with about half the genny out and the boat's steering squirrely and trying to broach. About half way the painter sheared the towing eye out of the Dyer along with a beer can sized chunk of glass. This happened as the dinghy was abeam and turned toward us. Since then I have generally tried to keep the painter short, rigid just far enough back to keep it from hitting the big boat, inflatables up to the rail. This also seems to drastically reduce the drag.

With light weight inflatables on long painters I have seen them go airborne, then crash back down. A capsized dinghy, rigid or inflatable makes one hell of a sea anchor and a real bear to right in a sea way.

My current boat has davits so I rarely tow a dinghy except for a very short distance.