How to get a large dog below decks

[Knowazark]

We have 2 border collies and they come sailing with us without any major issues.

We also have a near vertical companionway with a height of about 4 feet. I built a ramp from a 1 foot wide 1" board. I made it as long as it could be and still fit between the companionway and the table down below. The problem was the angle was still quite steep so I put a 10" length of the board at 90 degrees on the bottom end to make the angle shallower (so its an L shape with one leg about 10" long and the other about 5 foot long). I screwed some timber battens across the board to assist with traction and covered the ramp in scraps of carpet. The ramp sits on the second step of the companionway steps and the other end sits up against the table leg.

Our dogs race up and down the ramp with ease and we use the same ramp to assist them getting into and out of the dinghy.

[s/vfootloose]

There was an old William Hand motorsailor in a boatyard I was at. The guy had an old lab. It used to go up and down the ladder all the time. Amazing to watch. It had to have been at least 12' to the deck.

[SaucySailoress]

We completely rebuilt our campanionway steps, and made them lifting, with steps firmly fixed to the wood panel. We lift the panel up partway, and rest it on a water cooler (we're planning on adding proper legs!) and we have a ramp which our ten year old St Bernard Cross can manage.

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by Pete7

but don't worry they don't molt so won't be a problem.

:ROFL:

Please tell me you didn't believe that?

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by SaucySailoress

:ROFL:

Please tell me you didn't believe that?

It was his eyes and big floppy ears with the tilted head when he looked at you, couldn't send him back. Well nearly did when he ate a whole sofa

Pete

[roverhi]

Our 60# Labrador got down the companionway ladder in our Westsail 32 without much difficulty. Basically just started down and then leaped the last 3 steps or so. Worked fine. In harbor, she got out okay. Under way with any heel and we had to assist her out but it wasn't a big deal. Just had to stabilize her from the side as she climbed out.

The dinghy thing was a bit more of a challenge but was basically boosting her up from the Avon. She was good at scrambling with a boost to her rear.

Sympathize with the hair thing. I was cleaning hair out of the most inaccessible places for years after she was gone.

[sarafina]

Give her time... Just this weekend I was commenting to Himself that Cara the Wonderdog had gained even better control of her ladder climbing. What used to be a clamber and scramble has become a paced deliberate step by step climb up and down. And this is on a ladder, not stairs.

As for boarding, I can't imagine how high the freeboard would have to be to slow her down. Let her jump, no lazy dogs aboard!

And I shed more than the dog ; -)

[Fenchurch9]

We have a Westsail 32 and 3 pitbulls varying from 81-45 lbs. The littlest one figured out she could stand on the nav station and then easily step up onto the last step of the ladder. The boys. Didn't really get it though. We re still waiting for them to catch on. Until then, we just steady them from behind and wait until
They are done making their way up.
On getting them in the boat, that's a different story. They put their front paws on the ladder and we rest their abdomen/pelvic area on our shoulders and just bring them over to the settee and plop them down.

[Hannah on 'Rita T']

Originally Posted by SaucySailoress

:ROFL:

Please tell me you didn't believe that?

Ah, but Cap'n Morgan, our labradoodle, has fleece instead of hair and doesn't shed a bit. Our 12-year-old daughter shed a lot more. We've had him on the boat three years without a stray hair. The difference seems to be labradoodles that have longer hair shed like labs shed, while those with curly fleece, like poodles, don't.

[sarafina]

A thought about the ladder. In our boat the ladder has a slope deep enough that when viewed sideways each step is almost completely out of the shadow of the one above it. Cara and other dogs go up and down it easily.

Yesterday we were on a friend's boat and his dog and ours were struggling with getting in and out. I looked at his ladder and it was much steeper, with each step only half revealed by the one above it. If you have a steep ladder maybe get one that is a bit more extended. It doesn't have to become a stairway, There is only a bit of difference in the total footprint between our ladders, but it made a HUGE difference for the dogs!

[Auzzee]

WARNING THIS SUBMISSION MAY NOT BE AS SERIOUS AS THOSE WHICH PRECEED IT:
Someone standing on the cabin sole can tempt the pooch toward the companionway hatch with a tasty morsel; when the doggie looks over the precipice, the other crew member (standing behind the subject in the cockpit) boots it straight in the arse.

Based on the principle that living organisms will always adopt the line of least resistance, Rover will very quickly learn the skills required to make the trip without the aforementioned assistance.

[NY2822PJ]

We have a 70 pound mixed breed that sometimes sails with us on a C&C 24. He can climb up from the cabin into the cockpit just fine but has problems going down from the cockpit into the cabin. Some ideas I have read here sound interesting. I like the ramp idea but am concerned about a wooden ramp warping.

[Wavewacker]

I have noticed ladders as I've been looking for a boat and tried to figure this out as well. My dogs never had a problem in the cuddy.

At Lowes or Home Depot there are hooks to fit ladders. I though of taking plywood and screwing two on a small platform to form a longer step. You tilt it up to hook it on the risers and it locks down just putting it on. I looked at one boat and thout 3 larger steps would do it. After use, lift up, it slides off and store behind the ladder.

I think these dohickeys are in the paint department. You could make the bottom brace from wood with a couple small blocks screwed on at the angle needed for the ladder. It just uses the risers of the ladder makeing detachable steps.