I've been strapped up by someone on this forum !

[henryf]

Speaking with Roy (Spotty Dog) last year at one of our Beer & Natter sessions he mentioned that he’d bought into a company which produced straps and webbing for various applications. Long story short they had some good products but needed a bit of help in terms of direction so he got involved.

One of the products which interested me was their range of dinghy / tender lifting straps which clip into the passarelle. When we changed the boat a couple of years ago we got a larger tender more suited to chartering where a little more capacity was required. I cobbled together some straps using what was available in the Swanwick Chandlery, it has worked, nobody has died but after a couple of seasons it all looks a bit scruffy and in the back of my mind was always the question of what if something snapped and I had to repair the bathing platform or worse. We have a relatively light tender / engine set up but even so….

I won’t lie, when we chatted through the options and Roy sent me to his website www.rapidmarine.co.uk I struggled a bit with the price. Some stuff in life you can justify spending money on, other stuff you have it in your mind should be cheap. I don’t know what my Heath Robinson straps cost, probably 50 quid or so, a big difference to Rapid Marine's kit. Roy explained that many of the components had to be specially made in order to conform to the load test requirements and that added considerably to the cost. Each strap comes with a certificate to confirm it’s maximum rating etc. so in the event of a disaster there is no danger of the insurance company blaming you for using cheap string

This weekend I finally bit the bullet and the old adage of pain of price being quickly replaced by appreciation of quality was immediate. Something as simple as some straps had been really well designed. Adjusting everything to fit the tender was easy although I still can’t quite see how it gets longer or shorter, there are no loose ends !

I also got a couple of tie down straps, one of which in provides a particularly neat solution to a problem we had using the standard mounting points. Everything came in very smart wash through net bags which makes rinsing off easy.

No connection with the company other than knowing Roy through the forum but as a very happy customer I wanted to openly thank him for his advice and ultimately the product.

edited to say I haven't actually got an overall shot showing the tender supported from the passerelle, I will sort one out at some stage.


Henry

 

[Nick_H]

I used some old 10mm 3 strand rope, took about half an hour to splice some loops into each end at the required length. The rope is rated to 2500 kg, so no worries on loading. Actually I prefer the rope as it has a little give in it, so less shock load on the fixings when it's choppy.

The Rapid Marine product does look top notch though.

 

[SpottyDog5]

Henry, thanks for the great write up, most appreciated.
Whilst I have an interest, I am often surprised peeps will spend 100s of £1000s on getting their boat, but won't spent a few £100 on lifting or securing their tenders safely, but as I said, I'm biased....
Btw, can we have your old ones for our rogues gallery ?

 

[dj43]

We have been using these products for sometime now, and can confirm they are top quality , they still look and function as when they were when new, no fading or rust , unlike the cheaper ones, we had the stainless steel plastic coated strops before, problem with them, when you change your tender you end up having to have new strops as you can be sure they won't fit, unlike the Rapid marine ones that are fully adjustable , ( we are on our forth tender in five years ) so they have saved us a lot more than they cost ,just to add that they were also a lot cheaper than the stainless steel ones we had .
So another very satisfied customer of Rapid marine, and no connection with the company

 

[DougH]

Rapid marine

First class products, first class quality, first class service.

Would not go anywhere else for such products.

Quality is never cheap.

I wish them all the best.

 

[RogerRat]

I don’t know what my Heath Robinson straps cost, probably 50 quid or so, a big difference to Rapid Marine's kit. Roy explained that many of the components had to be specially made in order to conform to the load test requirements and that added considerably to the cost. Each strap comes with a certificate to confirm it’s maximum rating etc. so in the event of a disaster there is no danger of the insurance company blaming you for using cheap string

I haven't actually got an overall shot showing the tender supported from the passerelle, I will sort one out at some stage.

Henry

These straps really do look like good quality but I'm not so sure about the choice of snap shackles in the top picture for hoisting (although I'm sure there's plenty left lifting a small rib) and also the transom mounting in the lower picture for tie down. Weakest link comes to mind, does this part of the transom have backing reinforcement behind this mounting?

Hard to say dimensions here but I'm guessing 6-7mm stainless. The ratchet adjusters look great and will last longer than the straps but for me they were too fiddly to thread and wind up so I used self recoiling ones. (like a steel tape measure)

Tie downs have to take the largest shock load if a big wave hits the dinghy while at sea. Hoisting on the passerelle is the lightweight issue and can easily be done with 10-12mm 3 ply ropes as NickH and I did. Don't forget these ropes are often stronger that the shackles connecting them.

Henry, your new straps look most excellent. But your old straps.....

nuf said. :encouragement:



RR

 

[SpottyDog5]

Thanks for the positive comments Roger, just for information the top snap hook is 10mm, when tested it failed" at 1600 kgs loading.
If HenryF was to sit in his tender whilst lifting, we would have to revisit this

 

[henryf]

Thanks for the positive comments Roger, just for information the top snap hook is 10mm, when tested it failed" at 1600 kgs loading.
If HenryF was to sit in his tender whilst lifting, we would have to revisit this

Pot kettle black.


I've heard you are looking at solid back tyres for the motorbike.......

By all means have the old straps as a reference. At least they were genuinely what was replaced. Or were you wanting to reverse engineer my solution ?


Henry

 

[RogerRat]

Thanks for the positive comments Roger, just for information the top snap hook is 10mm, when tested it failed" at 1600 kgs loading.
If HenryF was to sit in his tender whilst lifting, we would have to revisit this

Thanks for clarifying, there was nothing to scale them in the pics. 10mm and 1600 Kgs is massive.

I'm just worried about the passerelle now!

Usually only rated to 250-300 Kgs. :ambivalence:

RR

 

[SpottyDog5]

Thanks for clarifying, there was nothing to scale them in the pics. 10mm and 1600 Kgs is massive.

I'm just worried about the passerelle now!

Usually only rated to 250-300 Kgs. :ambivalence:

RR

Me too, in case HenryF tries "man riding" .
This the term used when we have to quote for slings for vessels ready maned.