Height of Dingy Davits Above Water

[mrybas]

Hi,
I'm in the planning stages of having a new arch with dingy davits made for my boat. I'm working with a fabricator who doesn't do alot of marine work, so I will need to tell him exactly what I want. How high should the davits go? I was thinking the higher the better (with in reason). This would keep the dingy out of the water when healed over. Any suggestions?

[imagine2frolic]

I would listen to the fabricator's suggestions. Then put in my own 2 cents. As high as possible without destroying the looks of the boat IMHO.........i2f

[Vasco]

I would not go much higher than having the bottom of the dink a bit above the top of the transom. If the dink touches the water when heeled in this configuration, you're close to a knockdown! Any higher looks awkward.

[Unicorn Dreams]

As Rick posted, bottom of dinghy a little above deck level, lower you would cover the name on the vessel...

[zeehag]

having seen what a sea- pooped transom looked like with dink on davits, i refuse to do that to my boat-- breaks all kinds of things you donot wish to have broken.

[jrd22]

Our davits hold the top of our 10' inflatable about a foot above the top of the transom. Remember to allow for the bridle in calculating where the dink will end up.

[Boracay]

The other aspect to hanging a dinghy from davits is that some way of preventing it from swinging from side to side is necessary. Some members have mentioned ratcheting straps: I've found that a truckies hitch works ok but I've only a light dinghy. The side straps could be arranged so that they carry some of the down force as well.

If you can have your davits constructed so they can carry a heavy load that's better. From memory I went for a 400 kg load on Boracay, but 500 would have been better. I've had to crawl across the back of the dinghy a couple of times for whatever reason while it was on the davits and allowing a rear load of 25kg (dingy) + 25 kg (outboard) + 15 kg (fuel) + 100! (maximum me) to give a total of 165kg. Make that a 3:1 safety margin and we've a load of pretty close to half a tonne on the rear mounts only.

When the seas are high and/or the rain is p!$$!#@ down its nice to have a bit of a safety margin.

The other little discussed aspect of davits is how to actually lift the dinghy. I initially brought some small but expensive double blocks but the rope just jammed in them under the load. I took them off and put in a couple of small manual boat trailer winches, with the rear one having double ropes. Works fine.

From memory the bottom of Boracay's dinghy sits about a foot above deck level.

[Vasco]

Yes tie downs are important. I use four ratchet straps. When the dink is hauled and secured there should be no play whatsoever in any direction. It's the shock loads that kill you.