Dinghy Davits

[Miss Kathleen]

I am considering replacing current davits so that I can make a gate for easier access over the stern.

Tor, firstly, will miss your input, and you are right, the clock is only wound up once…

Anyway, I noticed in your pics that you have some davits that could suit my needs. Have you any detail photo’s, dimensions etc. that can help.

Thanks

Dennis

[robshookphoto]

I have forespar nova davits. Expensive but very easy to set up. 

However, in a year or a few I will be looking into having an arch fabricated. I have heard of people having aluminum ones done for 2k. That would provide the height needed to make exiting off the stern easy. 

Pearson 424 cutter - "Effie"

[Tor]

I can measure Silverheels’ davits for you, Dennis – just tell me which dimensions you want – but I can’t recommend them. One was bent and badly kinked, when I bought the boat. (The seller said it happened when he forgot to pull out his dinghy’s drain plug one time and it rained hard that night.) I straightened it and had a welder add struts, which have since proven themselves sufficient. Then I realized the arms were too short to actually fit even a small (9′) inflatable, so I had extensions welded on, at a slight angle to increase the hoist height. The davits could still stand to be a couple of inches higher – raising their base mounts is on one of my to-do lists – but they lift the dink, engineless.

 

These appeared “locally made” from the beginning. Now they look doubly so. They work, but only just. If I were doing it again, I think I’d invest in better-built, better designed davits.

 

 

 

 

[joe shimkonis]

I had an arch fabricated out of ss years ago with dinghy davits and a rectangle to support a solar panel – had it fabricated in Oriental by a guy that did a lot of custom boat work- he made 3 sets in a month and said he’d never do another one – even though expensive $8000 he’d said the working with stainless way toooo much work for the money- they came out great 

Joe Shimkonis

[Tor]

I once half-wrote an article I was calling “Back There,” looking at all the crap modern sailors pile onto the stern of otherwise beautiful sailboats. Joe, I’m sure yours is a functional work of art, but a walk through any crowded boat yard or marina will reveal how far those things are sometimes taken. Perhaps poor, deprived sloop owners have to come up with something to compensate, but ketches really don’t need much “back there.”

 

Consider that a wind generator is ideally mounted halfway up the mizzen mast (and the radome on the mainmast). Extra antennae perch happily on the mizzen spreaders, and if you simply reverse the mizzen sheet (which takes one second if you’ve led it correctly), you then have a ready outboard motor hoist. So, then, what would any ketch owner need a jungle gym for? (Oh, right, you can mount spotlights on it. But why?)

 

Davits – just plain davits – are a real plus on a cruising boat. Add a cross bar between the arms, set well aft, and you have a perfect 1-plane swivel mount for a 200w solar panel. Period. End of construction. Anything more seems like a lot of flashy, expensive deadweight on a ketch, and often an ugly deadweight at that. IMHO.

 

Tor

——————

Silverheels/424#17

http://www.silverheels.us

424@silverheels.us

——————

 

 

 

[Pjfuce]

Tor

I added my wind generator at end of my davits by modifying the davit ends and making a custome bracket out of aluminum and bolting it to davit ends. Did not want to mount my wind generator up mizzenmast. Also am putting solar panel 255 w on bracket that mounts on top of davits I had to remove davits when I bought boat to refurbish them and figured out this design. 

Paul 

SV Cygnus soon to be spell Bound #80

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[Tor]

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Wow, that’s different. Practically a yawl-rigged ketch. (Just kidding.;) I guess there is no end to the variations that can work back there, Paul. In the end these things are like Ricky Nelson’s last hit record said: “You can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to please yourself.”

 

 

 

 

[Miss Kathleen]

Thanks all for the comments.

My current davits are based on the same design as forespar. I like the one’s on Silverheels as they are spaced further apart (in line with the pushpit sides) and look neat.

Tor, I did not realize that your davits had gone through so many iterations to get almost-there. The reason I liked them from the photo was they appeared ‘uncluttered’. I still think they look good, and with a bit more engineering (height, strength as per your comments) could work out OK.

The existing davits had a bar across for a solar panel but one had to be a contortionist to get under and through when boarding from the stern. Now removed as the wind vane will have preference.

Will have to think on it for a while as there are a number of other jobs that have been on the list.

Cheers

Dennis

[Tor]

Dennis,

 

You’re right about Silverheels’ “almost there” davits. A tad higher is all they need now, plus more and stronger hoisting purchase to have the option of lifting the dinghy with its 8hp outboard on. I may leave those tweaks for the next owner, though.

 

As you’ve indicated in your email below, the stern gear on a cruising boat is best approached as an integrated whole. IMHO, less is generally better, as I suggested in my little rant against jungle gyms earlier. Simple, strong, widely spaced davits are a real plus for cruising. I also wanted a windvane. That presented some conflicts, but I eventually worked them out. All windvanes except one (as far as I know) present an obstacle to carrying a dinghy in davits, requiring the davits’ arms to be disproportionately long so the hoisted dinghy can ride abaft the windvane. The one exception is the Auto-Helm windvane, made in America by Scanmar Marine, the same guys that make Monitor Windvanes. The Auto-Helm’s airvane connects to its trim tab by flexible cables instead of a rigid post like all other windvanes, so it’s easy to leave an open space for a hoisted dinghy to ride in between, snug against the vessel’s stern rail. Wide davit arms allow for a sizeable solar panel on a 1-plane pivoting mount, which is worth its weight in gold for the additional solar power output.

 

Of course, a windvane requires offsetting the swim ladder, but Silverheels already had an offset boarding gate cut into her pushpit, so moving the ladder over was a no-brainer anyway. Admittedly, it’s a squeeze to use the swim ladder when the dinghy is hoisted in the davits, and with the mizzen sheet, a stern anchor, and other stuff “back there,” it’s kind of cluttered, but altogether the setup works. The one notable compromise I had to make is that I cannot tack the mizzen sail while the windvane’s airvane is upright because the boom won’t clear it. But dropping the airvane for the occasional tack offshore is not a big deal; only takes a few seconds.

 

The attached photos may be more useful than my thousand words.

 

Tor

 

 

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[Miss Kathleen]

Tor,

I already have a windvane – Windpilot (Germany). Used one for the South Africa to NZ trip and just love them. For local cruising the autopilot is OK, but when going offshore the windvane rules – and the dinghy will have to go on deck.

Thanks for the pics – and now I can see more detail i.e. extensions and supports etc. Still like the wide spread of your davits. Uncluttered is a definite!

The existing davits can lift the dinghy with motor but the pushpit aft rail does not provide a level of confidence, especially if I want a gate.

These are the first pics I have seen of your hard bimini. Looks good.

Cheers

Dennis

[Tor]

Sure, I deflate and stow the dinghy for offshore passages, too, but much of my cruising is island-hopping. Then I’m often using the davits and the windvane simultaneously.

 

Silverheels’ “homemade hardtops” are awesome. I like the way they look, and love the way they last. No more getting the bimini re-stitched in every other port of call! The attached PDF is a pretty detailed account of the project that appeared in Cruising World. I think the idea is catching on; I’m still getting emails about it from readers more than a year later.

 

South Africa to NZ? Wow. Where are you and Miss Kathleen now?

 

Tor

——————

Silverheels/424#17

http://www.silverheels.us

424@silverheels.us

——————

 

 

 

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[Miss Kathleen]

Yup, Hardtops for both spray dodger and bimini are the way to go. I did mine with glass-over-ply. The bimini also carries two solar panels. Main driver for the change was the cost of canvas and the repairs.
Met a chap recently who used the same material as coke etc. bottles, just thicker. Theory is that these plastic bottles float about the oceans and are near indestructible!

The SA to NZ trip was done in a van der Stadt 34 that we built. Departed SA beginning 1997. Arrived NZ end of 1998. Awesome adventure.

Miss Kathleen is part 2 of the adventure!

Cheers

Dennis

[Miss Kathleen]

All,

Eventually found the link;

Data can also be found on Klacko Marine. They have a great variety of stainless work.

Cheers

Dennis

[Miss Kathleen]

All,

Bad link in earlier post.

http://klacko.ca/

Cheers

Dennis

[Author]

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