I installed Edson davits on my 424 when I first bought her 30 years ago. The davits bolted to the aft combing deck. From the photos, what you have appears similar. The deck area around the combing is quite strong, being cored with an inch or more of marine plywood. The lever arm presented by the davits is enormous however. While the davits could support 250lbs each, there is no way that the deck would support that kind of load. My dinghy weighed about 400 lbs empty, with about 250lbs on the end with the motor. The motor was a 30hp 2-stroke weighing about 135lbs. Though this was within the rated load for the davits, this proved unworkable. My dinghy was a 12’ 4” inflatable, so even if I took the motor off, really impractical, the thing only worked under motor. Any angle of heel would drag the bow or stern of the dinghy in the water. The arrangement would probably support a short dinghy with no motor.
I came up with a method of towing that worked. I pulled the lid off the motor and used a bridle to lift the engine and stern of the dinghy, leaving the bow dragging in the water. This reduced the load on the davits and distributed the load evenly between them. There was no longer an issue with the width of the dinghy either. The load on each davit was now about 75lbs. Though this worked, it still had issues because of shock loads transferred to the davits when running into a chop. I replaced the davits with custom made welded stainless. These have two legs on each davit to spread the load. They aren’t the prettiest things but they are functional and provide a great place for solar panels.
http://www.richardcarter.net/boat/davitSwimPlatform/
I’ve since replaced the dinghy and now have a 4-stroke motor. These new engines are much heavier than their predecessors, weighing in at almost 200 lbs. I still tow the thing by lifting only the motor end and leaving the bow in the water. I’d never take a chance transporting it this way in a severe chop such as Buzzard’s bay, but this works for me.
Rich
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