Dinghy in Davits

[jim767]

What the opinion of hanging a dinghy in the davits in open water?

If you were to hang the little boat how would you rig it?

[Unicorn Dreams]

Hoist the dinghy up in the davits and then I take a pair of ratchet straps to go around the dinghy and the davits, then ratchet them up tight.

Probably takes a whole 5 minutes to secure...

[speciald@ocens.]

I'm not a fan of a dinghy in davits off-shore. We store ours inverted and partially inglated onthe foredeck. A friend of mine who has a 56 Oyster carried his as detailed above and broke one of his davits and dropped his dinghy after a wave boarded from behind. These were not the typical stainless tubing davits but solid stainless welded bar.

[s/v Moondancer]

It is essential that the dinghy not be able to move laterally or fore and aft. We actually use 4 ratchet straps and rig back-up lines to the lifting tackles so that a single failure will not result in a dangerous failure.

We have had our dinghy in the davits for 10,000 miles. Worst weather was 45 knots and 20-25 seas and it was rock solid.

[Vasco]

I carry my 10'06" AB and a 15 hp Yamaha 2 stroke on my arch. As others have said absolutely no play in any direction is essential. 4 ratchet straps do the job.

[seashine]

We have U shaped receiving tubes under each davit arm and a pin (read, old bolt) goes through these and the gunwale of the dinghy, which is aluminium. No movement in any direction. Head of bolt is on the dinghy side, so if it did come adrift we could easily retrieve it. On a long passage I might be tempted to actually screw a nut onto the bolt.

[Cotemar]

jim767,

Have always kept the dingy with the 45lb 4 stroke engine on the davits on all my offshore trips.
As everyone said keep things tight with ratchet straps.
This picture shows Ocean Marine davits on my Catalina 380.

Mark

[James S]

Plus 1 for the straps.

[SariTimur]

I think davits are great for inshore and coastal cruising but I put it on deck when going offshore. Got Swmpped once and the davit bolts sheared. 5h1+ happens offshore and if we were knocked down etc things dangling off the back are things I do not want to be concerned about.

[James S]

Originally Posted by SariTimur

I think davits are great for inshore and coastal cruising but I put it on deck when going offshore. Got Swmpped once and the davit bolts sheared. 5h1+ happens offshore and if we were knocked down etc things dangling off the back are things I do not want to be concerned about.

Agree

[capnorv]

Davits are great for cruising, foolish for passages, in my humble opinion.

[Dockhead]

Our dink (11-odd foot Avon rib plus 25hp Mariner) lives in our davits inshore and off. We've been in some fairly tough weather and never worried about it (which is not to say that we didn't need to worry about). The davits are fairly massive and are bolted down to structural knees in the transom, so they don't flex or budge, to any extent which I can observe, in any weather.

Another thing about a dinghy in davits: obviously it hurts sailing performance with windage. But there is also a positive effect - this windage is well aft, which moves center of pressure back and reduces weather-cocking, making the boat more stable at anchor and easier to turn through a strong wind.

I suppose that on a really long offshore passage I would want to bring the dink on board, deflate it, and tie it down somewhere on deck. Or maybe I wouldn't bother unless heavy weather was expected.

[Hudson Force]

I'll toss a new complication into the mix. I do keep my light weight RIB strapped tight to my 2.5"SS pipe davits when offshore. I also keep tension adjustable shrouds from the distal end of each davit to the top of my mizzen. With the triatic from mizzen to main, my hull, davits and standing rig are all one framework. Some might consider that this strengthening support of my davits is compromising my rig and I can't dispute that they are tied together, but this is not unlike the manner in which a long bowsprint is "compromising" the rig. I'm very pleased with my frame. Others might have a similar supportive system.