Davits Affecting Much?

[GreggL]

Considering a dinghy for my 33 foot hunter. Never had a dinghy before so I'm new to this. Thoughts about foredeck placement and roll ups led me I think davits may be my best route.

How much will davits affect my performance, handling, etc..? Will i heel more?

Can I leave the engine and all parts on the dinghy if I use davits? This seems much easier to me.

And lastly, I have a steel arch but something will need to be built off of that, what's a typical cost for this project? Assuming I hire a professional.

Thanks!

[swisscraft]

We have Davits and love them. Yes you can feel it a bit if the dink is up and the 10HP engine on it. The boat gets heavier to the stern - not an issue.

The Dink should be high enough to be let on so it may not conflict with any big waves coming from behind. If thats happen and your dink is full of water your in big trouble, thats a major issue to think about.We still are cabable to store our dink on the foredeck in case of a very long crossing - have it off the stern is the only thing to do before you run into real heavy weather imo.

Leaving stuff and engine on while its up depends on the system. I'm OK for short trips but take it off for longer distances to reduce weight/stress. Weight plus any movement is the main concern. So depends on the max capacity lifting of your davits. -

If I would have a choice I would go for an Arch instead of Davits. But the cost was prohibitive for me (over 6k US). The Arch is better to mount stuff like solar, antennas, lifts the dink usually higher and is much stronger no issue to leave Engine and so on....

[ozskipper]

The cost is subject to what materials you use, the location of the boat and the design. However a friend of mine put davits onto a hunter 335 legend. Imho he over designed them and added too much weight aft - he raced the boat and it certainly affected the boat. But they were very over Spec'd compared to most davits.

The boat wont necessarily heal more, rather the stern may be slightly lower and you may suffer a little windage to windward. Which, if your only cruising wont be a problem.

For the most part, davits are a great way to go compared to storing the dinghy forward. They are also a great place to put solar panels-antenna and the like.

[belizesailor]

Yes, davits are much more convenient than stowing on deck and also way less problematic than towing. By the time you load it all up it will put quite a bit more weight in the stern of course, but goods odds that it wont be a big issue. You might load up comparable weight on your stern before installing and see how it effects the trim of the boat (weight of dink, motor, 5 gallons of fuel, other dink gear, davits themselves, and add a bit for the other crap you are inevitably going to hang on there now that you can).

Some companies provide standard davit kits for popular production boats. If you can find such for yours, this is generally way cheaper than a custom build. The plus of a custom build is you can created it just like you want it. However, given that you don't have much experience with davits you may be better going with a packaged kit...if you have it built use some one who has experience building davits.

Whether you can leave the engine on will depend upon the strength of the dink transom and the davit arrangement. Handy to also have a separate lift and motor mount on the rail for those times when you want to remove the motor. Be sure to have a means of locking it all up whether on the dink transom or rail mount.

On a mono, you want the dink high, because when you heel you could dip one end of it into the water -- which creates lots of unfair loads. The length of the dink also effects this geometry. If you put a 12' dink on the back of a narrow stern then you up the chances of dipping it when heeling and/or fouling stuff at the dock....the voice of experience!

[GreggL]

Thanks everyone! Going to try some of these things out..

[Thegoodlife385]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Yes, davits are much more convenient than stowing on deck and also way less problematic than towing. By the time you load it all up it will put quite a bit more weight in the stern of course, but goods odds that it wont be a big issue. You might load up comparable weight on your stern before installing and see how it effects the trim of the boat (weight of dink, motor, 5 gallons of fuel, other dink gear, davits themselves, and add a bit for the other crap you are inevitably going to hang on there now that you can).

Some companies provide standard davit kits for popular production boats. If you can find such for yours, this is generally way cheaper than a custom build. The plus of a custom build is you can created it just like you want it. However, given that you don't have much experience with davits you may be better going with a packaged kit...if you have it built use some one who has experience building davits.

Whether you can leave the engine on will depend upon the strength of the dink transom and the davit arrangement. Handy to also have a separate lift and motor mount on the rail for those times when you want to remove the motor. Be sure to have a means of locking it all up whether on the dink transom or rail mount.

On a mono, you want the dink high, because when you heel you could dip one end of it into the water -- which creates lots of unfair loads. The length of the dink also effects this geometry. If you put a 12' dink on the back of a narrow stern then you up the chances of dipping it when heeling and/or fouling stuff at the dock....the voice of experience!

Do you think a 10 foot dinghy on a boat with a 13 foot beam is OK? Or does it really all depends on the size of the Stern.. Thanks Jim

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Jim.

[Thegoodlife385]

Thank you!

[Pete7]

Your problem starts when it rains and the dinghy fills with water. What was a 25kg dinghy is now 4 times the weight. Oh sure you can have a cover which is also good for keeping the sun off but rain will still get in. You can undo the drain in the transom but you will still have a pool of water inside. There is a French yacht moored opposite me that lowers the transom end right down so it drains when they are not on board, looks dreadful.

As to price, bet you don't get any change out of $2000 for the work, on the upside is a good location for a couple of large solar panel.

Other options are to store the dinghy sideways vertically on the transom. We do for most of our trips only deflating it and storing it in front of the mast if its going to be rough or a long trip. Cost, 4 x D rings glued to the inside of the tubes, some rope and a couple of carabiners.

As to size, well you are just a little longer than us so here are two photos of a Suzumar 2.3m dinghy and a Waveco 2.6m dinghy on a 10.6ft beam. We will be going back to a 2.3-2.4m dinghy next time and will pay more for the inflatable keel / deck as they are much more steady when standing in the dinghy plus the can be steered. A flat slatted dinghy seems to go sideways more than forward. One word of caution, make sure the dinghy is high enough that when you are close hauled and leaning over the waves running down the side of the yacht don't catch the dinghy tubes.

Pete

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[Panope]

Dinghy is engine-less and light weight (72lb.). It is davit mounted, high and at an angle that should be perfect for acting like a speed brake when going to windward. The thing is, I cannot discern a performance (or helm balance) difference between dinghy in davits, on deck, or being towed.

I drilled a hole in the bottom of the dinghy at the point where rain water collects.

Steve

[Sailor Doug]

I have a 10.5 foot dink on my h36 and love it. I made my own davits that lifts the dingy level with the gunnels. Lifting it high in the air compromises righting moment. I have a 4hp outboard for lower weight so that I can leave it on. With dingy up it lifts my bow waterline by 2 inches.


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[Cheechako]

Davits are one of the most useful things I've had. Especially if you are local sailing not going offshore. it depends on design, but I like to take the motor off on the davits.... a lot of weight aft. On a 33 ft boat I would not go with a heavy dingy with davits though.
The foredeck is not as easy as it sounds... your dingy gets small barnacles, mud and slime on the bottom. when you put it aboard you scrape your gel coat and get pretty dirty too, then your headsail gets slime and yuck on it too.
The answer is to take your dingy ashore and wash the bottom prior to putting it aboard, that is a PITA also.

[sailorboy1]

I blows my mind that someone with a dinghy wouldn't get davits. The biggest thing to decide it the different ways they can mount.

If you are carrying a dinghy you aren't racing so don't be worried about air drag. I've never have a weight problem from the rain as I just adjust the davits so the the dinghy drains.

[thuss]

We cruised our HC 38 for years with a 10.5ft RIB, 9hp outboard, and no davits. We stored it lashed upside down on the foredeck. Took us about 10 minutes to launch and attach the motor, gas tank, etc. Our new boat has davits and I'm glad for it but I don't think they're essential. 10ft is nice for 3-4 people but if it's just 2 of you and don't need to plane you can also go 9ft. For an H33 I'd be tempted to go for a 9ft rollup.


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[IslandHopper]

Yes have davits, love em. Got a 3.1m Swift alloy RIB with flat floor/double bottom, weighs 49kg dry and is powered by a 15hp Yamaha. Made a tackle for my mizzen boom for lifting/lowering the outboard which lives on the pushpit when not in use, real easy for one person to lift and lower the OB when standing in the RIB.

Short passages I may just tow the dink or leave it in the davits, depends on where it is and how the weather's looking when we depart. Long passages up on the foredeck it goes via the same tackle with 2 short slings and using the spinnaker pole and halyard, again a real easy one person operation.

I don't leave the outboard on the transom in the davits while underway, to much weight for my liking, but I have when anchored or moored, also as my boat gets left alone (in the tropics) for a month at a time I always lower the stern of the dink in the davits.

I'll be changing the davits in the near future to a set that I can mount my solar panels on, I want to get them of my bimini so I can open it up...

Yeah, I love my davits