Davits: Do You Use them on Passages ?

[dennisail]

Davits are great for holding the dink. Heaps easier than strapping the dink to the bow and I am sure they are perfect for coastal cruising. But is it a good idea to lash the dink to the bow when passage making for days or a couple of weeks between islands? When will you take take the motor off, and if you do where do you store it? I am thinking of making a bracket to bolt it to the railing while sailing more than day trips or in any sort of rough see.

Seems to me the dink and davit system would be susceptible in harsh conditions plus cause windage? Would it be safer and less likely to be lost when tightly strapped to the bow in serious conditions?

You can see my davit system here. Current dink 520lbs / 231kg, planned dink around 100lbs / 46kg with no motor 160lbs / 72kg with motor.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...lia-70541.html

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by dennisail

Davits are great for holding the dink. Heaps easier than strapping the dink to the bow and I am sure they are perfect for coastal cruising. But is it a good idea to lash the dink to the bow when passage making for days or a couple of weeks between islands? When will you take take the motor off, and if you do where do you store it? I am thinking of making a bracket to bolt it to the railing while sailing more than day trips or in any sort of rough see.

Seems to me the dink and davit system would be susceptible in harsh conditions plus cause windage? Would it be safer and less likely to be lost when tightly strapped to the bow in serious conditions?

A lot depends on the davits and the dink. How strong are the davits? How high above the waterline can the dink be lifted? And the boat, too -- how seaworthy?

Our dink is an Avon 340 rib with a remotely steered Mariner 25. To demount and store the engine so that the dink could be deflated and lashed to the foredeck would be a fairly time consuming operation.

I would do it for crossing Biscay or the Atlantic, but I leave the dink and motor in the davits for the kind of sailing I'm doing these days. Even in some pretty serious gales offshore, I have not had any problems -- the davits are mounted through the transom to special knees tied in to the structure of the boat, so they are immensely strong.

YMMV.

[svBeBe]

We never use the davits on passages. Fine for coastal cruising, but conditions offshore are too variable during long passages. When headed offshore we store the outboard down inside the stern lazzarette (15hp Merc). We used to leave the outboard mounted on the rail but during a bad storm it was almost washed away and we learned that lesson well. The dinghy is an aluminum hull RIB. It is stored upside down on the mizzen deck during passages.

During the approx 28,000 NM around so far, 99% of the time the dinghy would have been just fine on the stern davits -- without the outboard. But that other 1% of the time would have resulted in costly damage or loss.

Judy

[pdbms]

Last passage we put the dink (13 ft tinny) up on the davits. At the end of my watch I crawled into an aft bunk and was kept awake by a "scrape scrape" noise. Went back on deck to find the source was the dink rocking on its mount.

Solution - used a block and tackle to tension it up to stop the movement. Nice and quiet after that.

Not sure that I would like to try to lash ours to the foredeck. But, I am concerned that if we struck foul weather / following sea, we could end up with about 4t of sea water in the dinghy if struck by a large wave. I have large drain holes in the stern that I leave open when it is on the davits, but it would still take a long time to drain a boatful of water.

[dennisail]

My concern is the davits would not be able to handle the weight of a dink full of water.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by svBeBe

When headed offshore we store the outboard down inside the stern lazzarette (15hp Merc).

I would be careful about that if your lazarette does not drain overboard. Our laz does not drain overboard -- it communicates with the boat's main bilge, so putting an outboard in there would be hazardous -- gasoline vapors from the outboard (even if it has a remote tank which you store in a different place) can propagate into the bilge.

I have no good place to store our outboard except on the rail. I suppose chocks could be made for storing it on deck. For crossing an ocean, I would probably change it for something smaller and easier to manhandle.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by dennisail

My concern is the davits would not be able to handle the weight of a dink full of water.

+1

I doubt that any davits could handle that. So if you are in weather with danger of being pooped, you will not want to have your dink in your davits, no matter how strong they are.

[sck5]

my theory is that if I am going farther than a day sail with a good forecast I want to put the dink on the deck. Once I am out there in conditions which might make me want to get it off the davits it will no longer be possible to do it

[Bash]

I think a lot depends on the boat, especially in terms of size and freeboard. Some boats get pooped quite easily, some will never be pooped.

I remove the outboard when going offshore, but keep the dink on the davits. We are able to lash it to the pushpit so that there's no chaffing, and it rides at an offset angle so that it will constantly drain in rain. I rig an extra set of lifting points to the arch supporting solar cells so that the davits don't have to support all the weight. It's a fairly bombproof system.

[Jimbo485]

So why not put a cover on the dinghy so it doesn´t fill up while in the davits?

Or hoist it up in the davits, upside-down?

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by dennisail

Davits are great for holding the dink. Heaps easier than strapping the dink to the bowl

Are you sure? Davits were on my list of additions for quite a while. By the time they bubbled to the top of the list I had changed my mind.

I use the spinnaker halyard to a spliced bridle to lift the dinghy aboard and flip over to lash down on the foredeck. I made up tie-down straps from webbing that make the tie-down process very easy. The outboard goes on a bracket on the pushpit.

Day-to-day I use the same halyard and bridle to lift the dinghy clear of the water.

Short hops inshore we tow it. Longer hops we stow it. Not a big deal at all.

[AnchorageGuy]

That would depend on the davits and the boat and how the two are attached. We carried our dinghy on the davit on Sea Trek for 17 years in everything from gale conditions offshore to hunkered down for hurricanes. Neither the boat, the dinghy or the davits suffered any damage and the dinghy often filled with water when we forgot to take out the drain plug. We carried a Caribe and often left the 9.9 OB on the dinghy. The OB did come off for offshore passages. There are lots of photos on our Sea Trek website. Chuck

[TeddyDiver]

I know a 38m schooner was hit by a breaker. Davits and the dink got broken..

[Vasco]

Four ratchet straps. Absolutely no play in the dink.

[zeehag]

neighbor with a 41 seawolf came back from catalina with severely bent davits and missing dink--was pooped with a cover on it IN GOOD WEATHER!!!-- he was lucky is a garden design and didnt have transom broken. i think garden must have factored that into the design-- but i dont know.