Davits on a small yacht?

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Babylon

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Thinking about hanging a lightweight plywood 8ft pram tender (which I intend to build) on davits (which I haven't yet even begun to imagine how I'd fabricate) on the stern of our 27ft yacht (there being not quite room enough to lash it upside down on the foredeck).

Is this a realistic way to cruise with a rigid tender? What are the downsides? What about towing it astern? What about rough weather?
 
I remember seeing a design for a nesting dinghy which you built in two halves .The forward half fitted inside the after half which made it small enough to lash down on deck .

I think an 8 ft dinghy is going to look massive hanging on the back of your 27 ftr.If a wave ever climbed aboard it would hold a tremendous weight of water until it drained out. Cats Paw nesting dinghy
 
Some will doubtless disagree but I think a small rigid tender is an unnecessary hazard on a small boat. I know of at least three capsizes/swampings in the North Wales area over the past 15 years or so in which deaths occurred. This season a member of our club had his dinghy swamped and both occupants had to swim for their lives, being pretty lucky to suffer no more problems than losing some kit.

By contrast, when we used to dinghy half a mile or so along the Menai Strait to our mooring we had water to the tops of the tubes several times. Never any risk of sinking or capsizing.

I suggest a small inflatable, partly deflated if necessary and stowed on deck, is a far better option. We tow our somewhat larger dinghy almost everywhere and although it has capsized astern of us a few times that seems a reasonable price to pay for having a safe transport mode.
 
I looked carefully at this after cruising Western isles in my Westerly 25 and needed the tender more often. My conclusion was that collapsable rigids put too much stuff on or around the decks. I bought a small inflatable (Bombardier AX2) and so far have been happy with the result.
Martin
 
...lightweight plywood 8ft pram tender...

Even without the wight of any water getting in (suspend it upside down?) I doubt if you could realistically build it to that size and keep the weight down to less than 60-70kg, which is a serious lunp to hang off the back of a twenty-seven footer.
Add to that the problem of its massive amount of windage, which in a serious blow I would find even scarier than trying to tow it in such weather - you can easily cut the painter on a tow.

Sorry, but IMO this idea is a non-starter
 
Have to agree with the pessimists.
I have davits and the additional weight of them and the empty dinghy is considerable (altering the waterline) and I have a fat-assed motor sailer.
Unless the transom on your boat is about 8' wide, you will have all sorts of problems lying alongside.
Some places count the davits in LOA when charging for a berth.
Convinced ?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Have to agree with the pessimists....
.... Convinced ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. I was doubtful about my proposal, hence my question.

I have nothing against inflatables. Already have a 2.3m with removable floorboards stowed deep in the cockpit locker: its a bit of a faff to remove/restow and inflate/deflate in the small cockpit or on the small foredeck, but its quite do-able.

However I need a tender to get out to the mooring anyway. I would also like to be able to row more, rather than relying on a small outboard - which is the only way one can realistically propel a rubber-duck (especially against a foul tide).

But if the voices of experience counsel strongly against hanging a huge swamping 'bucket' over the stern (or cluttering the foredeck), increasing our windage, and impoverishing me further in occassional marina's, then I am suitably convinced.

The only point to make is that the actual weight of an 8' pram can be kept down to about 30kg by building epoxy-glued clinker with 5mm marine ply, which is pretty light, and buoyancy can be provided by inflatable bags under the benches. It can also be rigged with a simple sail (sprit or lug, ie collapsable spars), rows considerably better than an inflatable through a chop, and will take an outboard if really needed.

Thanks

Babylon /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I went that route - lightweight clinker epoxy nearly 30 years ago, probably one of the first when WEST came on the market. Still have one of them. Used it regularly to get out to the swinging mooring, had sails so did a bit of that. Towed it sometimes, although its light weight was a disadvantage then. Would not dream of using davits for all the reasons others have said.

If you do want that kind of setup have a look at some of Maurice Griffiths designs of the 50's and 60's such as Lone Gull 2, Tidewater and Waterwitch where he drew buxom sterns and used wooden horn type davits in the Dutch style. Look great and work, but you have to really like that style of boat!
 
Well I wouldn't be so negative as all the other posters. A small well designed dinghy can be easily rowed and can be made safe with air tanks.(side tanks are best. i built 2 Sabot sailing dinghies over the years. The design could be scaled down a little and thye row beautifully. Transom bow 8 ft long.

i think the trrick would be to haul the dinghy to the transom so that the lower gunwhale is near the water line the keel is aft and the upper gunwhale perhaps 1.5 ft above the top of your transom. Set the lower gunwhale into chocks attached to the transomdown low perhaps hinged so that the gunwhale cvould be attached while the dinghy floated then hoist by the far gunwhale. You may be able to use the stern rail as the davit. olewill
So no likelihood of filling with water and little wind resistance. It will however weigh down the stern to some extent.
 
If your main concern is rowing to the mooring,do it confortably with an easily rowable dinghy and leave it on the mooring to await your return.
Jim
 
[ QUOTE ]
If your main concern is rowing to the mooring,do it confortably with an easily rowable dinghy and leave it on the mooring to await your return.
Jim

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I do now. Until this year I had a wooden boat which easily carried a fibreglass dinghy on deck and do find it a pain with the plastic yacht having to use an inflatable and outboard even with an LVM inflatable compared with the convenience of just sliding a dinghy over the side and chucking the oars in.

When buying a yacht I was really looking at one with a transom wide enough for davits to carry a small dinghy but in the end bought something slightly different.

When I was looking into possible davit set ups I had decided on Simpson davits which have extendible arm allowing the dinghy to be fixed firmly up against them and that the dinghy should have a well fitted cover as well as a drain plug. The stress on the stern from overhanging davits would have required considerable strengthening but the weight would be less than a person sitting on the stern pulpit so could easily be compensated for by a bit of ballast forward.

But none of this happened as I fell for a yacht with a slightly longer narrower stern which looked prettier and was at the right price!
 
Well, sticking my neck in the noose, I would not discount towing a dinghy. It really depends on the type of sailing you intend to do. We have towed a Bobbin behind us for the last 4-5 years behind a 28ft Stag. We keep the dinghy in the club compound, row to the mooring, tow it around with us and row back at the end of the sail. Never have we had any problem. Use 2 painters to prevent potential loss, have extensions available for a following sea and make sure the oars and rowlocks can't be washed out.
The beauty of such a dinghy is that it can be rowed for pleasure, fully rigged for sailing and motored happily. Plus there's none of that foredeck exercise every time you stop at a different place.
If I were going to sail the Atlantic or Biscay I wouldn't tow a dinghy, but I'm not.
Think about it..
 
Davits, towing or stowing

Tranona said:
If you do want that kind of setup have a look at some of Maurice Griffiths designs of the 50's and 60's such as Lone Gull 2, Tidewater and Waterwitch where he drew buxom sterns and used wooden horn type davits in the Dutch style. Look great and work, but you have to really like that style of boat!
Click to expand...
I finally completed a Waterwitch 5 years ago which is rigged as a ketch and has davits as originally planned by Maurice Griffiths. The boat is located on the Brazilian coast where there are many islands and beaches that can only be reached by boat, close to Sao Paulo. The davits are extremely useful for suspending an inflatable and generally more useful than towing because of light winds and/or wave action. However, I agree with others that a timber or GRP tender would be too heavy on a 27 footer.
 
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