The Dinghy Thread

[JT48348]

Holy cow! That is some structure hanging off the back of an Albin 25.

[2manyboats]

DA, I like your dingy setup and may think about doing the same. Keep posting about the setup and whether it's working as expected or maybe needs some tweeks.

My solution to the limbo was to cut the stern rail. and add a one step ladder. you lose a little swim platform area but makes boarding a lot easier

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Materials list
2 4' SS Tube Cut to lenght; Bent to align with the stern rail and swim platform
1 2' SS Tube for the step
2 90* elbows
2 Tees
2 Base mounts

Wayne

[DesertAlbin736]

2many/First Light,

Hmmm, that looks like an interesting setup. Love that sunset painting on the stern! The only issue in splitting the stern rail like that as it relates to lifting davits is that the stern rail itself plays a significant role in lateral bracing of the uprights. I don't know how your stern rail is, but mine is kind of loosey-goosey with some play in the stanchions. Between the davit uprights being attached to the stern rail and the struts I added it stiffened it up considerably. You can imagine the stresses that lifting davits would put on your split rail. The cross bar struts between davit arms address rotational twisting motion, but it's the stern rail and related bracing that takes care of fore-and-aft stresses as well as thwartships heeling motions. Not only the downward lever arm forces of dinghy weight, but lateral stresses with pitch & roll under way. I'm hoping that the pendulum effect of carrying the dinghy at that height will also help dampen the roll rate of the boat. We shall see. If I did something like the way you split your stern rail then I'd put that cross bar up as high as practical, say right below the bend and add angle struts to the stern rail as shown here in red. In my case, not only is the stern rail like yours except not split (stock Albin, I assume?), but like yours mine also has life lines running all the way up to the bow pulpit. When they're clipped in that also gives some fore-and-aft bracing to the stern rails.

In your case you would have to either mount the base of the davits up on the deck or change your swim platform to extend the full width of the transom.

PS, "Florida-Maine & in between" reminds me of my now 92 year old aunt. She lived most of her adult life in Bangor, and after retiring spent winters in Lakeworth, FL, spring and fall in Plaistow, NH, and a few weeks in summers at her rustic "camp" cabin on a pond near Bar Harbor. She now resides in a nursing home in Bar Harbor, having suffered a stroke some years back.

[2manyboats]

DA.

I split the rail soley for the purpose of making a boarding ladder. My rail was flimsey too and I worried that it would be worse. But I think it is at least a little stiffer. The step was intended to be mid point from swim platform to deck. However that blocked the sun....which is a wrap by the way. I found a picture I liked, Font for the boat name and the folks at DaVinci Sign did their magic.

The step is about 13" off the swim platform and 9" below the deck. In pratice it works pretty good. As you take the first step up the ladder, and begin to lose momentum, the step onto the deck feels normal. My wife can now board from the dingy, even with a small grocey bag in hand, without assistance. Works really good for us that are gettig older and weighted in the stern.

I will be interested in how your dingy lift will effect the roll of your A25. It should dampen the roll, placing that weight up higher. I'm thinking that as the boat rolls to starboard, the dingy will continue outboard,slowing the roll to port. It may however, under the right conditions, become in harmoney with the boat's motion and exaggrate the roll rate.

I don't plan on dingy davits for now. I have always towed my skiff and dealt with the problems that causes, plus, I never found a dingy light enough to throw onboard that i liked. I looked really hard at Puffins this past summer. I ended up with a WB because stabiliy has become more important lately. I wished I had thought off the bumper solution before I bought the RID kit. Maybe when I need to replace the kit I'll remember your setup.

Wayne

PS We live just south of Bangor in the summer. My wife and I both grew up in Camden, and have been to Bar Harbor many times. As most of the Maine coast, a beautiful place to visit, especially boating.



Wayne

[DesertAlbin736]

RE Maine, the last time I was there to visit my aunt was summer of 1999. We happened to be there the weekend that the news broke of JFK Jr's death in that airplane crash.

One of the issues for us with davits vs towing the dinghy is that we trailer in and out of the water each time, so that would mean launching the dinghy separately at an often busy launch ramp. For local lake boating it's only 15 miles from where we store the boat to the lake. Yesterday I made up a pair of web straps with rope ends to 'trice up' (is that the right word?) the dinghy tight against the davit arms, plus adding a 2nd means of support besides the lifting falls. One end tied off to the end of the davit arm, then criss-crossed under the dinghy & tied off to the cleat on the opposite side. Also tying bow and stern lines to help prevent swinging. So I'm fairly confident on transporting the dinghy that far on the davits. For long distance trailering I'd carry the dinghy on the back of the pickup as we've done before. Using a pair of folding sawhorses and 2 x 4 ramp boards I can park the truck sideways behind the boat, lower the dinghy onto the sawhorses, flip it upside down, and slide it up onto the rack I made for the truck, as seen in this photo of the old dinghy. All single handed. I have a funky Harbor Freight utility trailer that I added longitudinal bunk boards to which I can drop the dinghy onto to store it at home, but it's not really road worthy right now unless and until I re-do the tail light wiring and replace the ancient tires that are on it. Would be nice to be able to take the dinghy out to the lake by itself and launch it to putt around in. At least I was able to re-install my outboard motor bracket as before, which I wasn't sure if the davit uprights might be in the way or not. Hope to get out on the lake next weekend. The weather here has FINALLY dropped out of the 90s to highs in the low to mid 80s & nights cooling off to the upper 50s to low 60s.

[JT48348]

Watertight compartments tabbed in. I ran out of scraps of coosa board, and since I was looking for weight savings, opted for 1/4" Luan with a layer of fiberglass for the vertical bulkheads. Total weight added back on: 8 lbs. this puts the weight at 62lbs right now. Each compartment will have an 8" deck plate.

On the bottom I added 3 rubbing strikes to protect the keel, also made from 3/4" coosa scraps epoxied to the hull.

[tego]

Joe, I have the same dink but original (1965) model. I found that the best bottom protection is a piece of 3/4" ss rubrail attached to the bottom of the skeg. That's the part that gets ground contact when you drag it around. I also filled in the skeg trough inside (foam with a FG skin). I love this dink 'cause it rows so easily and is surprisingly stable. Ben

[JT48348]

Ben: that's a good idea I was thinking the same thing

[DesertAlbin736]

Joe, I have the same dink but original (1965) model. I found that the best bottom protection is a piece of 3/4" ss rubrail attached to the bottom of the skeg. That's the part that gets ground contact when you drag it around.

When we bought our Gig Harbor dink I had the factory add the optional s/s rub strip to the keel.

JT, looking good! Isn't working with fiberglass fun? BTW, do you have any plans for a drain plug? What Gig Harbor Boat Works does is put one with a screwed in captive plug sideways in the keel sump, since like what you're doing the aft seat on their boats is a water tight flotation compartment up against the transom. If you contact them perhaps they can tell you where to find that type of plug.

The only thing with the flotation compartment like what you're doing (unless you were to split it into to separate compartments with an opening in the middle) is that it precludes having a self-bailer, which would be nice if you plan to tow the dink (see Bruce Bingham's "The Sailor's Sketch Book"). That, and if you plan to tow, what about bracing the towing bow eye?

https://www.amazon.com/Sailors-Sketchbo ... sketchbook

[JT48348]

Ben: I have a question for you. Since a new teak tie rail is $400 for steam bent, I'm thinking about making a PVC lumber rub rail made from 2 pieces of 1x2 trim on the inside and out toe rail. I've used PVC before to create a rounded trim edge on my pilothouse sailboat and it worked great. The PVC can be heated around a curve and epoxied in place. My question: how much rigidity dies your original teak toe rail add to the sides of the boat? Obviously the PVC is not a rigid but makes a nice edge and it's light.

[tego]

Joe, That sounds like a good idea. My gunnel is one I made myself from laminated strips of teak about 1/8" thick. It does give some rigidity (actually better than the original oak which had gotten soft in spots) but it still gives more than I'd like. I overhauled mine about 12-13 years ago and its still in great condition. The PVC you show in your pics should work well if you stagger the scarfed joints. I hang mine in davits. I wouldn't use something like the Weaver system, where the weight of the dink is on the gunnel strip. Ben

[DesertAlbin736]

"I hang mine in davits. I wouldn't use something like the Weaver system, where the weight of the dink is on the gunnel strip. Ben"

Amen to that! That's exactly what happened to us when that wave ripped our Boatex dink off the snap davits. It tore out a 1 foot section of the aft starboard gunn'l where the snap davit latch was bolted to the rail. The way the Boatex was constructed was that the deck/seat/sheer insert section was all one molding attached to the hull layup as seen in this picture, which is of course very different than the Dyer Dhows or Gig Harbor dinks.

DSCN1266.JPG

Anyway, this past weekend was our first time out with the new dinghy & davit set up, and it worked great. My "MacGyer" RID tube solution consisting of three 8 x 20 inch Polyform hole-thru-the-middle pneumatic fenders attached to each side also did well. I can stand with my full 200 lb weight to one side of the dinghy & it won't ship water or capsize.

Here are some pictures taken while we were part of an eight boat sailing club raft up, RV camp out, and beach party at Lake Pleasant, AZ on a nice 80 degree sunny day. No I don't keep the outboard mounted on the dinghy & lifted on the davits while under way, only when at anchor like this.

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This is how our gang parties...

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My "Admiral" helping serve up BBQ'd pulled pork

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In this photo you can see our dinghy beached on the shore in the right foreground. This is a gravelly/rocky shore, so having that s/s keel rub strip helps.

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Our sailing friends from Flagstaff made a major score off Craigslist last week. They bought a used Walker Bay 8 in good condition, complete with sail kit (mast, sail, rudder, dagger board) for $400. This is a major improvement in size & stability to their other hard dink, a Montgomery 6 ft 8 inch pram.

[JT48348]

Seat tops put in. The addition of the seat tops and sealing of compartments with epoxy has created a lot of stiffness in what was formerly a very flexible boat. Very pleased with how it came together. Now onto the rub rail and some primer.

[JT48348]

Rubrail installed using epoxy and counter sunk stainless screws. The rubrail still needs to be finished and sanded but it came out very nice. It's a nice lip to hold onto and carry the boat and I can't believe how the hull stiffened up.

Minus the thwart seat and bronze hardware, the dinghy weighs in at 71lbs. I'm guess the final weight will be approximate 78lbs.

[tego]

Joe, Looking good! At 78 lbs, she'll be about 30 lbs lighter than mine. That's one of the drawbacks of mine- I can't carry her on my back anymore without some major straining. Getting older is a bitch! Ben