Extending your swim Ladder

[Bigplumbs]

Having eaten too many pies over a period of time and at the tender age of 53 (nearly) I was looking at my swim/ boarding ladder on the back of my Fletcher 19 GTS and thinking there is no way I will get up that. I concluded that it needs to be lower in the water when extended. Because it looks to be quite a good ladder I have purchased some marine grade stainless tube of ebay and am going to extend each section by 200 mm to give a total lower in the water by 400 mm.

I was wondering if anyone else has done this or have you just bought a longer ladder like this one


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Step-St...150828?hash=item3f3c45dbac:g:qsgAAOSw5dNWjYzh

Dennis

 

[Bigplumbs]

Being shall we say on the larger side I felt that it needed to be a little bit longer so that it would extend into the water a little more in order for me to get in after a swim.

I am talking about the swim ladder on the back of my fletcher GTS which was very nice but will only dip into the water about 6 inches. This is where ebay is your friend.
I bought 1.2 m of 3/4 (19.05 mm) marine stainless polished tube (cost about £24 delivered) some stainless nuts and bolts (£3.50) a length od 16 mm dia nylon (£5.50) and extended the ladder by 340 mm so I should now have about half a meter below the water which I think will make it far easier to get back in /on after a swim.

Each of the two sections of ladder had to be extended by the same amount to allow it to still fold and I also added a grab handle to the rear of the boat to assist.

All you do is cut the tube into 4 lengths each of 220 mm and drill 1 hole at each end to fit your bolts at say 170 mm centres. Drilling stainless is not easy and you must drill slowly and keep the drill bit and work cool. Drilling fast will heat up the metal and drill bit which will ruin the bit and make the stainless too hard to drill. Also use oil to reduce friction. once all these are drilled and with a little filing (fettling) of the inside of the existing ladder tube they will very snugly fit inside it. Once you have done all 4 you will have extended each of the 2 ladder portions by 170 mm. You will now need to add another step and you should have enough tube left to do this. At the junction of one of your joins (the position will be obvious) you buy about 250 mm of stainless threaded rod of the same dia as you bolts and pass this through both sides of the ladder. You then cut you piece of tube to length so that you can grind concave ends to it with a bench grinder to match the profile of your vertical tube. You then cut 2 short lengths of the 16 mm dia nylon (about 1 inch long) drill a hole in the centre to the same size as you threaded rod, You then hammer the piece of nylon into each end of the tube and slide it over the thread rod. You then fix the rod at each end with a couple of washers and nyloc SS nuts. The nylon supports the tube step on the threaded rod and the concave ends stop it from spinning

In the pics there is one end left on the boat with the top step/rung

You can also buy plastic end caps to fit from ebay (about £1.50 for 10)

All works very well.

Dennis

 

[Scubadoo]

Neat solution, I have often thought about doing that but it wouldn't fold enough to fit under the bathing platform grp housing and lib.

 

[Bigplumbs]

I know what you mean. Mine will now have to fold and fit to rest on one of the grab handles I am fitting. Wont look quite as good as it did, but better that we can get on and off ok

Dennis

 

[Bigplumbs]

Here it is fitter with a couple of extra grab handles. It now extends to a nice depth

Dennis