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I've recently purchased a set of davits from Garhauer Marine. As an after thought - middle of the night kind that wakes you up - how do I hook it up and then get back in the boat? Even stepping into it from the stern of a DE38 is iffy. It's a long way down... Cheers Dave Branch SV T'Gilli
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we have stern davits. I've never thought about actually trying to get in and out of the dingy at the stern. so far I have only done it at the dock. Lowered the dingy to the water and pulling it to the dock at the stern of the boat. My plan to use the dingy from the boat would be to pull it up to amidships and enter and exit there from a ladder. Actually I am planning on storing the dingy in front of the mast up forward and using the spinnaker halyard to lift it on and off the boat.
I'm thinking that riding the dingy up and down from the davits would be risky and climbing up or down a ladder there a long climb. 🙂
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Agreed. The davits are most likely not strong enough to support the weight of the dingy and operator.
On stern davits like this, the best course of action is to lower the dink into the water, then pull her up to the boarding station amidships. A dinghy step or boarding ladder would be helpful, but not necessary.
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There are so many problems with dingy davits on our boats that it's hard to find much in the way of positives.
downsides
- Dingy sits almost against rail in back of cockpit and makes it hard to use the railing there for mounting anything.
- it's very hard to get the dingy unhooked and hooked back up to raise or lower it.
- The dingy is not really very accessible etc. to remove the outboard or do much of anything with it while in the davits.
- reference item 2 in getting the dingy from or to amidships.
- if you have a stern light on the cap rail or even just below it the davits block it from view aft. (on valkyr prior owner mounted a teak bar from one side of the davits to the other with a light mounted on it to overcome this issue. It is one more thing in the way back there.
upsides
- Dingy is stored off the deck and doesn't get in the way of anything other than mounting stuff on the stern rails.
possible compromises.
- When anchored out used the dingy from the foredeck with a gin pole to put it in and out of the water. Easy access all around.
- When doing longer voyages and sailing move it back to the davits to clear the decks.
- figure out some system to hook and unhook the dingy from deck when it is in the water from the davit pulleys.
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I have a hard dink and my davits are installed outboard of the stern rail, on some right angle brackets that I attached to the small vertical section of the transom.
I created a sling to hoist the dinghy. I have two slings, one forward and one aft. Starting with some webbing, I purchased some 2" heavy duty type, and D-rings to attach to the davit tackle, and a pole to hold the webbing apart so I could easily slip the dinghy through while it was still in the water. For the pole I just picked up some ash pole they sell at Home Depot for push brooms, and cut the threaded bit off. I also purchased some lead dive weight packets, the kind that have lead beads in a nylon "bean bag" kind of thing. I sewed two on each of the webbing straps so the bottom part of the webbing would sink below the dinghy.
When I want to hoist up the dinghy from away from the dock, I board the big boat from the side mounted ladder and keep control of the kind with a painter and stern line. I maneuver the dinghy to the stern and lower the forward and aft harnesses until they are partially into the water, making sure I pass the painter through each harness. Then it's a simple matter of sliding the dink through the harnesses and pull away until she's up and in place. With this method, you definitely need to secure well to the railing or some fixed hardpoints on the big boat, but that is no problem.
Here is a picture taken last year at Mystic Seaport (highly recommended if you are in Connecticut). This year, I think I'm going to lower the poles a bit closer to the dink, I left a little too much room in the original design.
[Image Can Not Be Found]
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Do you ever have issues with the dingy wanting to slide out of the straps when the boat is heeled over and bouncing through the waves?
This definitely makes the getting the dingy on and off the davits at the stern a bit easier since there are no shackles to attach or detach while the dingy is in the water so far below you.
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No, I didn't have issues with that, but I'm of the opinion that a dink should be lashed tightly to the stern railing or some other hard point while under way. Once I hoist the dinghy up, it get lashed down with the painter and a stern line crossed and both lines frapped down pretty tight. Once it's on, there is no side to side motion and the davits are only holding the dinghy on a vector parallel to the mast.
It's funny how you come up with ideas. I never really considered using shackles to attach the dinghy to the davit blocks specifically because I couldn't figure out how I would be able to do that and re-board the boat, or attach the shackles from the stern. So, the sling system seemed obvious. Now I just need to fine-tune it before our August cruise.
Hey, by the way, I'm the guy that emailed you early on offering the old DE yachts site, backed up on my hard drive. I still have that if you think any of that information might be useful. Especially the old owners database. Don't know if you have time to deal with at the moment, but when and if you, let me know and we'll figure something out as far as a way to get the data to you.
-Eric
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Dave Branch said:
I've recently purchased a set of davits from Garhauer Marine. As an after thought - middle of the night kind that wakes you up - how do I hook it up and then get back in the boat? Even stepping into it from the stern of a DE38 is iffy. It's a long way down... Cheers Dave Branch SV T'Gilli
Both my davit install manual and my inflatable dinghy manual state emphatically: "Do not sit in dinghy while lowering into water from davits." Bummer, sounds like a fun thing to try...
Currently I use a couple lines to shepherd an inflatable into position for raising. I do this after clambering on deck.
What's that horror movie about the young kids who go out to sea in a power boat, forget to drop the boarding ladder before diving in for a ocean swim far off some remote island, and then can't get back on the boat so various things 'get' or 'eat' them and no one survives? (Insert jaws music here)
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Argyle38 said:
Hey,by the way,I'm the guy that emailed you early on offering the old DE yachts site,backed up on my hard drive. I still have that if you think any of that information might be useful. Especially the old owners database. Don't know if you have time to deal with at the moment,but when and if you,let me know and we'll figure something out as far as a way to get the data to you.
-Eric
Eric,
For some reason I thought I had already gotten that from you. Maybe it was the other DE site I got.. I definitely want what you have so I can add anything that isn't up on the site now. How would you like for me to get it.? How big is it? I can download it if you zip it up and put it up on the web somewhere. I think I can give you access to a ftp site I have access to also so that you could upload it to there.
Sadly my life over that last couple years has been so scattered and busy that my mind is mush a lot of the time. I know that I have had offers of one thing or another from one member or another here on the DE site to help or other things and I forget who offered. I probably need to open up moderation and administration of the site to one or two other members that would have an interest as well as some knowledge of websites and forums.
As for anyone else that has offered content or help at one time or another and I haven't followed up on it then the answer was and is yes:) I have just forgotten who offered what and most like forgot what also:)
Scott
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After a month of cruising in the Canadian Gulf Islands (from Saint Helens, Oregon), here is what I found out about the davits.
1) Garhauer did a great job on them for 20-100% less cost than all their competitors (1300 plus shipping - complete).
2) I installed them next to the vertical posts on the stern rail for support, which is really too close together. I also discovered that the stern pulpit is not square and the vertical supports were not centered - off 1 1/2" from center. So while functional, I'm going to replace the stern rail with something that is vertical, higher and more robust. Then the davits will look like a someone other than a 6yr old had installed them.
3) I have wood-floor West Marine 9' inflatable. I used two 10' standard nylon 1" hold down straps and ran them through the side rings on the boat (one strap 2' aft of the bow, the other 2' forward of the stern), under the bottom and back. I hooked the two ends and ratcheted them down so the connection was 6" offset from the fore-aft center line. I now had two straps athwart the dinghy. The hooks from the davits are connected where hooks on the straps are and the loose end coming of the ratchet is run through everything as an added safety measure. Note that the offset from center is away from the stern. When I raise the boat, the inboard side is down as a result of this. I then use 2 short straps to pull the dingy snug to the stern pulpit which puts it in alignment horizontally. Snug is good, especially off-shore.
4) When launching the dinghy while on the hook, I have 60' of 6-1 purchase line to work with. This is sufficient to pull the boat far enough on the aft quarter to get aboard and unhook. I also found a 1-step ladder at West Marine that when attached to the stern pulpit gets me halfway down to the dinghy. Step fenders would also work.
5) It takes about 15 minutes to launch/hoist the dinghy. I have a 26 lb 2 HP Honda which for now makes life easy. It normally lives on the rail as opposed to the dinghy.
We did get into some short choppy seas in the Straight of Juan de Fuca with 30 knots on the tail. One of the broke under the dinghy and it basically saved us from a drenching. It was a good addition to the boat. The next step will be to either get a RIB or a proper sailing dinghy - Gig Harbor makes a great one.
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