Installing davits, how to reinforce?

[tribologist]

Hi,

Glad to be back! Finally uncovered Driftless tonight. April has been terrible and the FIRST robotics season has taken all my time but that’s slowing down now and rain stopped for today at least...

i have a set of used St. Croix 300 davits I'm going to install later this week. They are removable and slides into shoes that mounts to the deck. Im planning to make a slightly bigger aluminum plate for the top that allow me to clear the trim (the opening faces back) and then put a 1/4 aluminum plate on the inside. Any pictures showing location and reinforcement on an existing install would be greatly appreciated.

[tribologist]

Here is the mount

[DesertAlbin736]

Stout backing plates is definitely the way to go. When you drill bolt holes through the deck make them a size over what your bolts are going to be, then fill the holes with thickened epoxy to seal the coring, let it cure, then drill through the epoxy for the bolts, and of course bed with caulking.

Interesting that Driftless is exactly one hull number newer than La Dolce Vita so likely they were built side by side at the factory.

I went with Garhauer davits where the arms are above the level of the stern rails, which lifts the dinghy higher off the water where the gunnels of the dinghy are above the level of the rails. The base of the davits attach to the swim platform & the risers attach to the rails with an added extra pair of stanchions to reinforce the stern rails. Then when I lower the dinghy the sides are right at the back edge of the swim platform. This arrangement doesn't block rear line of sight or the stern running light.

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I felt having the type you got would carry the dinghy too low to the water in case of large waves. Didn't want to end up in the situation again like what happened when our old dinghy on snap davits got torn off when it caught a wave & the painter fouled our prop.

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This is typical view looking back over the stern with dinghy attached. Am very happy with this setup, although being able to remove the davits easily would be nice.

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[tribologist]

Thanks! That style of mount looks great. Much less loads on the deck. I really hope im never out in weather that would fill a dinghy hanging above the deck. When you lost yours, was that not sitting on the platform?

[DesertAlbin736]

When you lost yours, was that not sitting on the platform?

The previous arrangement with the old dinghy as inherited from PO's was on Weaver snap davits where the dinghy rail clipped into brackets on the swim platform & was pulled up vertically. Very convenient & space saving & would have been fine if the boat's 8 ft beam had carried all the way aft to a squared stern instead of narrowing as the A25 does. I'm sure you've seen those around. Also very handy for boarding, just drop the dinghy but keep latched to the swim platform & was very stable for loading, mounting the outboard, etc. Problem was with the narrow stern of the A25 even a small 8 ft dinghy overhangs the stern fairly down low close to the water as shown in these pictures. Not only that, it tended to bang into docks. As can be seen with the 2nd photo, the stern of the dinghy was especially vulnerable to catching a wave in rough water, which is what happened & ripped the back half loose, dropped into the water & swamped. Was very sad to lose that dinghy, it was very stable, rowed & motored easily. The new Gig Harbor dinghy is much more tippy, which is why I added the fenders. Always thought having the boat name lettered across the bottom of the dinghy was a cool thing.

Old dinghy.jpg

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[tribologist]

Thanks! I truly appreciate it! Those pictures are great! We were at Defender today and my head is still spinning. Im trying to choose between a Mercury Air Deck 240 that is 7’3” or a Mercury Dynamic RIB 260 that is 8’ 2”. The RIB seems much better to hang since it has hard mounts and is allover a better boat but 1ft longer is concerning. I need to try to visualize it when i get home.

[tribologist]

8’2” seems to long.... i wish i had one to try with.

[DesertAlbin736]

We were at Defender today and my head is still spinning...

You were at Defender? How cool is that! I buy a lot of stuff from them, one of my favorite online suppliers. Them & Jamestown & Go2 Marine.

The Air Deck 240 would have minimal overhang, less than a foot on each side. In which case you could go with Weaver Snap davits. The Air Deck 200 at 6' 7" would have virtually no overhang, but pretty small. Personally I'm just one of those old fashioned guys who prefer hard shell dinks, much to the dismay of the Admiral who has a tough time rowing my Gig Harbor which is 7' 11". Ours is the base model row & motor version only, no centerboard slot or sail rig, mostly because we bought the floor model & picked up direct from the factory rather than have one built to order & wait & pay shipping.

http://www.ghboats.com/our-boats/8-nisqually/



Click to zoom in on the photo & you can see a wild burro grazing near the shoreline at the far left just inside the frame. Noisy critters they are, loudly hee-hawing at all hours.

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[tribologist]

That dinghy looks beautiful. A Dyer Midget would be an alternative but it seems rather narrow. I assume thats why you hanged fenders on it.

Defender has a nice store and very knowledgable staff. I have a Cabelas 500 ft from work but i much rather drive an hour to defender. You were only a mile away when you went up Thames river in Groton... you have to do it again.

[tribologist]

I don’t think the make the 200 airdeck anymore. The 240 has 1058 lb load capacity and 16” tubes so it seem very sturdy. The only concern is hanging it from the davits but maybe Weavers is an alternative at that length. I probably get my $ back on the St Croix 250 davits if i go that way. I might go down Thursday and pick up the dinghy and than it’s easier to figure it out. Did you bring yours even when you were in Eire Canal?

[tribologist]

We gave in and did the B.O.A.T thing and got a Mercury 240 Airdeck. Defender had a great deal on the 2016 models. I took some pictures. I start thinking it might be safe to hang it off the platform... there is a system that Harbormenmarine.com sell that might be an alternative to weaver davits... has anyone seen them in use?

[DesertAlbin736]

I don't think you'll have any problem with Weaver davits or their equivalent. Overhang with the 240 is minimal, and from your pictures only the back ends of the tubes stick out & not much to catch anything, the transom being a foot or so in front of the tube ends. One difference between your boat and ours even though they're only one hull number off is that we have stern rails & full life lines. Whether those were factory options or added later I don't know. Without stern rails I would not have been able to put in lift davits. I gave the standoff rods from our old Weaver system to Sunsetrider in Ontario, Canada. I probably should have gone that route, would have been a lot cheaper. I would have had to get different Weaver type davits as the hooks & latches for an inflatable are opposite those for hard dinghies. That is on hard dinghies the "loop" bracket attaches to the swim platform & the hook part attaches to the dinghy. With inflatables it's the opposite, the hook part that slides to release is on the swim platform and the "loop" brackets are on the dinghy. And of course the attachments are different.

As far as when we went on the Erie Canal we left the dinghy strapped down on the back of my pickup truck since there's no need for a dinghy on the canal, you can tie up to docks at each town you pass through. You should try that some time, it's not that far from CT (speaking as someone in the West who's used to huge distances). What we did was put in at the state park at the upper end of Seneca Lake in the NY FInger Lakes, ran the canal between Seneca & Cayuga Lakes & up the connecting canal between Cayuga and the main Erie Canal. Since we were limited on time because we were due to get to our friend's beach house in Weekapaug, RI on a certain date we went west as far as Fairport & turned around to go back to Seneca Lake. Five days, 110 miles, & 22 lock transits (11 each way) But if you had the time you could go a lot further in either direction than we did. It's a fun trip.

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We don't have any plans to take our boat back east again for the foreseeable future. Heading to the Pacific NW again in a few weeks & the Admiral wants to go to Europe next year. Who knows, maybe we'll get a chance to charter an Albin 25 on the Gota Canal in Sweden. Now that would be cool!

[tribologist]

Thanks! I seen s few ads. If you are getting serious about it I can search in the swedish boat web pages too.

[stxray]

Hello Tribologist,
I too am in the process of installing St. Croix davits. MIne didn't come with the slide-in shoe plates so, I took the opportunity to have them welded to large stainless steel plates. I also had matching aluminum backing plates made.

I thought I could just thru-bolt them to the deck but that proved to be a problem due to the slope of the deck. I've had to devise a wedge between the deck and the mounting plates so that they hang plumb.

I too started with a hard dinghy but found that to also be a problem. As a small hard dinghy, it was hard to get in and out of; much like trying to board a canoe. With age and flexibility taking its toll, it was too unstable for me. So I sold the hard dinghy and got myself an Achilles LS-RU Inflatable.

The LS-RU is only 7'6" in length and weighs only 57 lbs. I've had it on the davits (before removing them for a proper installation) and they seem to handle the weight just fine.