Another dinghy question

[BobHaze]

At the risk of resurrecting the dinghy thread, which is not my intention, I'm looking for some input about carrying my 10' inflatable on Weaver davits behind my 2001 28 TE. The beam of the boat at the transom is 102", so the dinghy will overhang 9" on each side. Is that a problem, either with the exhaust or just wind drag at speed? This will be my first full season with this boat and I'm planning to install the Weaver davits this weekend, but thought I'd ask the group for some input first.

[djpeewee]

While I didn't have the Weaver ones, I had swim platform davits on the boat when I bought it. The first time I tried carrying the 10' 9" RIB on the swim platform I nearly lost it. One of the aluminum oars was destroyed from the force of the water spray and it was just about impossible to keep the thing in the davits. I'm sure the Weaver ones are better, but the length of the RIB is the problem and it will catch water. Hopefully you have better luck with the dinghy being 9" shorter.

[special k]

any dinghy longer than your boat is wide will cause problems if carried on swim platform. water moving at 20knots is a powerful force.

[rcwhite]

There is a lot of water passing over the platform when running. We carried a
10' zodiac, which measured just under 10', on lifting davits and the
outboard and outer tube would still see plenty of spray. I couldn't see
anything larger than around 8.5 on the platform of a 28 myself.

We have a WM 310 on the platform of our 35 and I wouldn't want
any more with a 12' beam. We are planning to downsize as it is
just more than we like to have to lift. We rigged a block to swing it up on
the platform but that doesn't help when it comes time to carry it at the shore.

Chris

[BobHaze]

Thanks to everyone for the input, which I took to heart and sold the 10' dinghy and bought a used West Marine 8' one. I'll mount the Weaver davits next week and I'm comfortable that the smaller dink was the right move.