Review: Harbormen marine sling davits with Merc 240 inflatable on A25.

[tribologist]

I ended up getting a custom made 4’ by 7’ Dingy Sling from harbormenmarine.com instead of installing my St Croix davits. Avoiding drilling holes in an area of the hull that often gets standing water was a big factor. I first tried Harbormens standard sling but at 6’ wide it did not work well with the narrow platform i have. After talking with Dave at Harbormen marine he made me a custom sling that was only 4’ wide to match my swim platform supports and it works great at that width. I was able to lift the dinghy and secure it with the boat on the trailer by myself without to much problem and it was super easy to get the dinghy in and out of the water when anchored. The dinghy catches a bit water in bigger waves but that seems ok except for some spray on Evinrude Jr and some water that goes into the dingy pooling behind the lower tube. A cover over the engine will probably take care of that issue and the water comes off when tilting it forward before launching the dinghy. To trailer it we folded it forward against the deck and secured it with two straps and the engine were hung under the platform. The transom rests on the rail so I protect that with some foam but i will look at getting a flat fender there instead.
The Mercury 240 inflatable was also a happy little boat. The large tubes made it feel sturdy when loading etc but handling on the water is very bumper boat like. No problem riding three people in it. Overall im very happy with the combination. For $275 for the sling including shipping you can’t beat the value.

[ssrig]

I'm not familiar with these slings, what happens to it when you launch the dink? DO you have to slide the sling around the dink when you want to raise it and how difficult is that?

[tribologist]

When you launch you first loosen the straps between the platform and the dighy, then you hold the net while loosening the upper straps. Now you can drop it in the water and get in while it is still secured. Then you unbuckle the top straps and the upper straps. At this point you just pull off the net. Tthe net stays floating in the water. When you get back you simply pull yourself up over the net and get it centered under the dinghy before clipping back the straps. Once it’s clipped in its easy to lift since you basically only lift half the mass of the dinghy. My wife took a video of my second try. I will try to upload that on YouTube and link to it.