Davit Musings

[Stemar]

The Catalac 8m has a small deck between the hulls aft of the cockpit, but it's maybe 50cm wide so, really, it just gets on the way of hoisting a dinghy.

The expected static load, with my current flubber and OB is no more than 30kg all told, so I thought my original figures allowed for a good margin, but it's true that, sooner or later, someone's going to lose their balance and grab a davit to save themselves, so I guess it needs to be able to handle that, but I'm not looking for something could pick up a dinghy with people in.

I rather think that, if I do decide to go ahead, I'll build a trial beam and see what it takes to break it.

 

[Refueler]

Flubber + O/bd is only 30kg ???

 

[Stemar]

Actually, a bit over, I was thinking of my 2T OB that was stolen, not its 4T replacement which is 18 kg rather than 13, and the dinghy is 17kg, so 35kg - until the rain starts and it fills up with water...

 

[Cheeky Girl]

Would the Plastimo davits work with a sugar scoop transom?

Or will they pull the tender up the scoop?

We at present carry the tender lifted up but across the stern.

Lifting onto the foredeck is not really an option as we have a baby stay in the way (but that 's another issue )

 

[Stemar]

This is how they fit - into holes in the deck:

On a sugar scoop, I would imagine you'd need to build a flat, level mounting for them, but it would need to be strong, as there'd be a lot of strain on it.

 

[dunedin]

Actually, a bit over, I was thinking of my 2T OB that was stolen, not its 4T replacement which is 18 kg rather than 13, and the dinghy is 17kg, so 35kg - until the rain starts and it fills up with water...

Your dinghy does seem light. The vast majority of the weight is generally on one end - with the weight of the solid transom and the outboard.
But certainly add a bit of extra margin. We keep a dinghy bag in the boat - with anchor, rope, pump, rubbish picker etc. And no matter how disciplined (keep bung out and tilted down at stern) it will fill with quite a bit of water.
Oh and once sold on the benefits of davits you will want to fit decent sized inflatable wheels on the transom.

 

[Cspirit]

I'm no expert but I have have fitted davits to two of my boats, the first was a 31ft Westerly Renown in which I sailed the Channel/Brittany, etc. The boat was really too small for davits and I certainly would not have raised the dinghy and the outboard - far too heavy. Generally the set up was not particularly useful as at the time we only sailed weekends and summer holidays and we could have deflated the dinghy for longer trips and otherwise towed it. When we purchased our Westerly Corsair, 36 ft, I again fitted davits, again bought rather than made, and they were much like the ones that the OP has designed. We sailed to the Med and spend ten years cruising around Greece and Turkey and places in between. The only hassle was the need to drop the dinghy when mooring stern-ton but otherwise, having a dinghy ready to deploy was both convenient and a safety comfort if someone went overboard. We still deflated the dinghy for long passages.

My view, therefore is that the boat needs to be big enough and have the buoyancy to support davits, and that small boats, say under 36 ft are too small to hoist the dinghy with an outboard. Furthermore, for me at least, davits are not worth the hassle unless living on board for protracted periods and using anchorages frequently. My current boat at 27ft for pottering in the Channel does not have davits.

For what it's worth, davits are also a nuisance when manoeuvring at close quarters, for example in crowded locks.

Just my experience for what it's worth.

 

[Bouba]

I always partially deflate the dingy and cover it...otherwise the midday sun will over inflate it

 

[Neeves]

Our davits, see earlier photo, were individually tested with 2 grown men standing on the end, up close and personal.

Jonathan

 

[geem]

I'm no expert but I have have fitted davits to two of my boats, the first was a 31ft Westerly Renown in which I sailed the Channel/Brittany, etc. The boat was really too small for davits and I certainly would not have raised the dinghy and the outboard - far too heavy. Generally the set up was not particularly useful as at the time we only sailed weekends and summer holidays and we could have deflated the dinghy for longer trips and otherwise towed it. When we purchased our Westerly Corsair, 36 ft, I again fitted davits, again bought rather than made, and they were much like the ones that the OP has designed. We sailed to the Med and spend ten years cruising around Greece and Turkey and places in between. The only hassle was the need to drop the dinghy when mooring stern-ton but otherwise, having a dinghy ready to deploy was both convenient and a safety comfort if someone went overboard. We still deflated the dinghy for long passages.

My view, therefore is that the boat needs to be big enough and have the buoyancy to support davits, and that small boats, say under 36 ft are too small to hoist the dinghy with an outboard. Furthermore, for me at least, davits are not worth the hassle unless living on board for protracted periods and using anchorages frequently. My current boat at 27ft for pottering in the Channel does not have davits.

For what it's worth, davits are also a nuisance when manoeuvring at close quarters, for example in crowded locks.

Just my experience for what it's worth.

We removed ours off a Prout Snowgoose 37 as they were a pain stuck out of the back when manoeuvring in tight harbours and marinas. We had a fishing boat hit them in Wicklow that did some damage.

 

[oldgit]

May I beg you to reconsider.

1. They look simply horrid
2. They add weight just where you don't want it, hereby increasing the moment of inertia of the boat's pitching leading to inferior sailing performance ('hobby horsing').
3. They add to your LOA so cost more (unless you lie).
4. They are a trap for any passing boat to get snagged by (please don't ask, the memory is still too raw...)
5. They put strain on your boat which it very likely was not designed to withstand.
6. They are unseamanlike, adding windage and are vulnerable to big seas.
7. They scream "here comes a gimmer who's now past it and can no longer get it up" (the dinghy that is).

Look at some examples of those who have to use the dinghy every day, often in difficult circumstances, like Skip Novak's "Pelagic Australis". No davits. Does anyone seriously imagine he couldn't afford them? Instead, contrive a better means to hoist the dinghy onto the deck forward of the mast.

Just my opinion you understand (although points 1 & 7 are probably universal).

Agree 100%
Walk down any marina or boat yard pontoon and observe the thousands of pounds (Sterling and Weight) worth of saggy faded PVC and Hyperlon hanging forlornly off the back of most boats. Those expensive little covers rarely keep out the rain and it merely gathers in the bottom of the dinghy going green and harbouring new life forms.
As with most "Ooo that looks a neat idea "

The Promise.
Everyone else has got one and the boat builder/seller gets to flog a some highly profitable lumps of stainless steel, a expensive bag of air and no doubt an outboard of some flavour.
The brochure will feature a photo of a very worryingly happy family whizzing across an crystal clear azure stretch of water towards an unspecifed destination, assumed to be a beach bar of some description with amazing food and very reasonable prices. It will be dead calm.
Course some folks will protest they use their inflatables all the time and they are actually only really for the kids to enjoy anyway.
The Reality.
Nobody moors off now anyway, except the Fray Bentos and Spirit stove Tendency.
It takes longer to get all the covers off, lower it into the water, pump up the floor/tubes and get the outboard off its mount and onto the back of the dinghy.....
and then attempt to start it,
The end of the season. Late August ?
The really keen, in a vain attempt to protect their investment ,will have deflated it, fought to get it in the hopelessly small bag, then up the pontoon in a far too small trolley , struggled into the car, then out again into garage, where it will spend the winter getting in the way.
In the Spring.
First find all those bits which were never ever going to fit back in that bag. ie the inflatable floor, the seat and those useless oars.
You could afford to moor in St Kats for a year for less money than a set of Davits/inflatable/ Outboard. ?

 

[oldgit]

I always partially deflate the dingy and cover it...otherwise the midday sun will over inflate it

Firstly what Sun and most should have pressure release valve hiding somewhere ?

 

[Stemar]

Nobody moors off now anyway, except the Fray Bentos and Spirit stove Tendency.

W don't do Fray Bentos, nor do we have a spirit stove - quite happy with gas, if only Calor would get their collective act together, but we love a quiet anchorage, and, drawing 2', we can usually find a quiet spot in the busiest anchorage.

Otherwise, yes, I do have to inflate the flubber to get to the boat on her mooring and deflate it and put it away afterwards, which is becoming more of a pain as I get older and creakier, but it's a chore that won't go away, as the budget won't allow for a marina berth.

 

[Hermit]

We have davits on our new (to us) boat and they are a revelation. Much easier than getting the dinghy out of a locker etc.

If you are fitting some I would recommend that you should also allow for an increase in size or weight of the dinghy in the future - you may realise you can have something with a solid floor or even a solid dinghy once you get used to the benefits of davits, and that may lead you to a bigger motor.

 

[Bouba]

Firstly what Sun

Yeah, sorry?..... I meant the other Med???

 

[Rappey]

An alternative plan could be to get a hard dingy, use the club trolley to deploy and recover and do what many others do and leave the dingy on the mooring while your away, unless you need your dingy while out sailing.

 

[dunedin]

We removed ours off a Prout Snowgoose 37 as they were a pain stuck out of the back when manoeuvring in tight harbours and marinas. We had a fishing boat hit them in Wicklow that did some damage.

Did your davits stick out beyond the dinghy? Ours don’t, and there have been many occasions when we have been grateful for having a 1.6m fender protecting our stern from wayward boats in marinas

 

[dunedin]

An alternative plan could be to get a hard dingy, use the club trolley to deploy and recover and do what many others do and leave the dingy on the mooring while your away, unless you need your dingy while out sailing.

I guess this is at the heart of the differences of opinion, Those who only / primarily sail from pontoon to pontoon, or go places which have these things southern softies refer to called “water taxis”, only use a dinghy very occasionally.
Those who like to sail further afield and use anchorages regularly may find the benefits of having a dinghy on davits are compelling.

(And davits work well with Baltic bows to mooring, except for dropping the stern buoy, but are probably a bad idea if Mediterranean stern to mooring is your thing)

 

[Refueler]

Firstly what Sun and most should have pressure release valve hiding somewhere ?

My Narwhal split its seams after inflating early morning ... then leaving in midday sun ....

 

[geem]

Did your davits stick out beyond the dinghy? Ours don’t, and there have been many occasions when we have been grateful for having a 1.6m fender protecting our stern from wayward boats in marinas

Our dinghy wasn't on the davits at the time. The davits stuck out. A big steel fishing boat bow hitting aluminium davits.