Davits... do you have them?l

[scgunner]

Ron,

I've got a 10' Cribe RIB, it weighs about 95lbs and aside from locking the painter to the handrail when not in use I don't really tie it down. The weight allows it to rest securely on deck even when it gets wild and wooly. With an 85lb 15hp motor it's a heavy rig but since I use it for diving it works for me. I also have a swim platform on the transom which would be a problem with davits, but that doesn't mean davit wouldn't be a good solution for someone else.

[britinusa]

Ron,

I've got a 10' Cribe RIB, it weighs about 95lbs and aside from locking the painter to the handrail when not in use I don't really tie it down. The weight allows it to rest securely on deck even when it gets wild and wooly. With an 85lb 15hp motor it's a heavy rig but since I use it for diving it works for me. I also have a swim platform on the transom which would be a problem with davits, but that doesn't mean davit wouldn't be a good solution for someone else.

Do you keep it on deck upright? That's what we do right now, hoisting to / from the deck with a handy billy which even my wife can pull sufficiently to hoist the dink sans engine (that gets hoisted and stored on the port aft rail stowage.)

Paul

[Mas Tequila]

We went with an Atlantic tower with built-in davits and absolutely love it. Holds the dinghy very securely and high out of the water and is very easy to raise and lower using Garhauer blocks. It supports our solar as well and is rock solid. We are considering another boat and this would be the very first thing we add to it.

[scgunner]

Paul,

I store it upside down, it's more stable that way and it keeps the rain water out. It's easy to launch and fairly easy to recover.

Mas,

First I've heard of the Atlantic tower but it looks like a great answer to the davit question.

[Jim Hardesty]

Anyone have pictures showing their inflated tender stored on the fore deck they could post?  I would be interested in how others do it, especially where v-berth hatch and anchor locker access work out.  I usually don't store it there, thinking it would be in the way flying the asymmetrical spin.  Thinking I'm only fooling myself as I rarely fly it cruising.
Jim

[Dave Spencer]

Hi Jim,
I've attached 2 pictures of our Highfield 290 RIB stored on deck.  You will likely recognize the location as Killarney Mountain Lodge.  In this case, I hoisted the dinghy on deck the night before in preparation for the next day's 0400 departure for our 60nm journey across Georgian Bay to our home port.

The inflated dinghy is 2.9m LOA with a beam of 1.71m  (9'6" & 5'7" respectively) 

You can see from picture looking forward that I tie the aft lifting handles to the cabin top rails.  I place another line on the towing eye and run a V shape to the pulpit thereby preventing a jib halyard from catching under the dinghy.  This V shaped line is just barely visible in the picture taken from the dock.   I usually take the tail of the line tied to the cabin top rails and run it over the hull criss crossing the two lines thereby securely holding the dinghy down in case of a serious blow.  This isn't shown in either picture. 
The transom is snugged up to the mast and the pontoons rest on the line organizers.  I place a pad between the dinghy and the deck organizers to prevent wear.   The V berth hatch can open partially allowing for some ventilation.

There is plenty of room forward of the dinghy to allow me to open the anchor locker and manage the ground tackle.  I haven't sailed our cruising spinnaker with the dinghy on deck but there is no reason I couldn't.

The owner's manual say the dinghy weighs 44kg but I think it's 50+ kg.  I found it a chore to lift using the spare genoa halyard or spinnaker halyard so I made up a 4 to 1 block arrangement making the dinghy very easy to lift.  Working by myself, it's about 10 minutes to get the dinghy from the water to fully secured on deck. I've also attached a picture of my dinghy lifting and tie down kit showing the 4:1 blocks, tie down lines and pads to protect the pontoons from the deck organizers.  This isn't something I would want to do every day but for the 4 or 5 times I do it each season, it works well for me.

I've never considered davits on our boat although the Atlantic tower on Mas Tequila's Positive Lattitude looks great!

[Jim Hardesty]

Thanks Dave,
Yes I do fondly remember.  I'm planning to return to the North Channel this summer, depending on time and weather may stop in Killarney.  Thanks for pointing out the bow lines set to avoid snagging with a jib sheet.
Jim

[scgunner]

Jim,

My dinghy storage is just about identical to Dave's although I've never felt the need to tie it down. The anchor locker is fully accessible and the V-berth hatch can be raised about 6" which provides surprisingly good ventilation. Also you can raise the hatch while underway without fear of getting water in the V-berth.

[Mick Laver]

We store our 8'11" Achilles RIB upside-down on the foredeck. It's secured forward with a single strap from the painter ring to a Wichard 6505 folding padeye. Aft is secured on each side from the handles on the dink to the C34's grab rails. I'll also run a 3" ratcheting strap (not pictured) across the bottom (well the top, since it's upside down) that attaches to the forward shrouds' chain plates. This configuration is pretty secure, we can open the forward hatch a bit for ventilation if needed, there's plenty of room forward on the foredeck to work the anchor or deploy an asym, and the sidedecks are clear so we're not stumbling over tie-down lines if we have to go forward. Since it's usually just the two of us 8'11" is just fine.

We can have the dink in the water in about five minutes, with me guiding it and Sherrie providing the muscle on the spinnaker halyard. Even so, we still have to do all the other stuff that's associated with installing the outboard and getting the dink ready. We do look with some envy and those folks with davits who can have their boat in the water and ready to roll in two minutes.

- Mick

[Bill Shreeves]

I currently keep my 8' RIB upside down on the fore deck.  It fits pretty well and I've sailed with her there but prefer not to.  Less to worry about with tangled jib sheets and a less obstructed view.  So, I usually tow in fair weather.  I must say, having it on the fore deck in 6' + seas has been very helpful fending off the inevitable wave over the bow.

Something very important to keep in mind.
If you sleep in the fwd cabin with the dink on the deck, be sure to hoist up the dinghy bow enough to allow escape through the hatch.   Even if at the dock knowing fire can consume a boat in a heartbeat.  My reminder is to place a winch handle on the v-berth when I pack up on Sunday to remind me when I return on Friday night to hoist 'er up.

[Mas Tequila]

Our Atlantic Tower is what they call a "tower in a box". They come in various sizes and Atlantic Towers was very helpful in picking the right size for us and answered all my stupid questions. Ours is schedule 80 aluminum and is solid as a rock. As memory serves I believe we paid $2300 on sale which included shipping. Installation was a breeze and they have a ton of accessories so you customize it just about any way you want. The only thing to watch out for is to make sure you watch out for the clearance for the mounting bolts because of the location of the storage area in the aft berth on the MKI. But you all know that story...measure a lot of times, drink a stiff shot before you drill holes in your hull. We did relocate the aft nav light on the arch because the dinghy blocks the one mounted on the pushpit.

It's very easy to raise and lower the dinghy and after we lower it into the water we use one of the blocks to lower the outboard. Two people are helpful but it's no big deal for one person either.

[britinusa]

Our Atlantic Tower is what they call a "tower in a box". They come in various sizes and Atlantic Towers was very helpful in picking the right size for us and answered all my stupid questions. Ours is schedule 80 aluminum and is solid as a rock. As memory serves I believe we paid $2300 on sale which included shipping. Installation was a breeze and they have a ton of accessories so you customize it just about any way you want. The only thing to watch out for is to make sure you watch out for the clearance for the mounting bolts because of the location of the storage area in the aft berth on the MKI. But you all know that story...measure a lot of times, drink a stiff shot before you drill holes in your hull. We did relocate the aft nav light on the arch because the dinghy blocks the one mounted on the pushpit.

It's very easy to raise and lower the dinghy and after we lower it into the water we use one of the blocks to lower the outboard. Two people are helpful but it's no big deal for one person either.

I saw them at Annapolis a year ago, impressed!

Paul

[pablosgirl]

We have the Forespar Nova folding davits. They came with the boat. I would love the Atlantic tower, but can't seem to come to terms with spending the money when there are so many other items on the upgrade list. The Forespar are OK for around the bay sailing and light to med winds. But when the wind gets over 16 they creak and grown as they have a small pendulum swing to them with the 9.5' Carib and the Nissan 8HP 2 stroke, even when hoisted all the way up.  The sound drives me nuts.  It puts me on edge that they might fail when things are swinging around back there.  Also, we find the bow rides a little higher with the dingy+OB on the davits.  The dingy is 95 lbs and the OB is ~70lbs so bellow the 300lbs rating on the davits.  I would say that the tips of the davits are 2.5' above the stern toe rail. 

For short trips we will tilt up the motor and tow the dingy.  I attache a second line to the dingy as a back up.  I broke a bowline is a ship wake once, but that is another story.

For open water crossings we put the outboard on the Stbd stern rail and hoist the dingy onto the foredeck using the spare jib halyard.  The boat sails better and I don't have the davit noise spoiling the sail. We secure it to the hand rails and the bow cleats.   It sits like Dave and Mick's pictures.  With the longer dingy there is just enough room to slide past it to get to the anchor locker which is free of the bow of the dingy.  One trick we have learned is to have a 6' extra bow line with a spliced eye in the end that the halyard attaches too.  If you use the eye on the bow of the dingy you can't attach/detach the halyard from the deck.  Before I made the short painter I tied a knot in the dingy bow line to do the same thing.  I use a velcro strap to attach the short bow line to the longer bow line.  So when we pull the dingy to the bow to hoist it to the deck the eye or knot in the bow line is just above the lifelines.  Just attach the halyard and hoist!

It takes my wife and I 15 min. to launch or retrieve the dingy and load up the motor and other dingy stuff.

While at anchor we attach the spare jib halyard to the bow eye and pick the bow of the dingy up of the deck 2-3' to allow air flow and provide an escape path.  The stern stays tied to the hand rails and I have a stiff foam pad the is "L" shaped that protects the deck and mast from the OB bracket. The dingy also helps funnel the wind into the hatch.

[britinusa]

Here's how we store the dink. We use a 4:1 handy billy to hoist it for raising / lowering which makes it a whole lot easier than hauling directly on a halyard.

[lazybone]

Here's how we store the dink. We use a 4:1 handy billy to hoist it for raising / lowering which makes it a whole lot easier than hauling directly on a halyard.

That's a teeny-weeny dink.  How long is that