Dinghy Davits

[trailertrawlerkismet]

We've been researching dinghy davits on and off since we took delivery of our R27 14 months ago. In the meantime we've been towing our dinghy, waiting to find what would work for us. We wanted something lightweight, one that would not obstruct our view over the transom and one that would provide us with an easy launch. We found a product made by Hurley Marine, we've recently installed it and thought we'd share the information and a few photos.

If you visit their website, http://www.hurleymarine.com you'll see they also make a beefier system for those bigger dinghies. We told them what dinghy we had and the dimensions of our platform and they matched up what would work best for us. Hope this helps for those looking for dinghy davit solutions.

 

[Pete]

Jim
Looks like a neat system and your criteria - lightweight, visibility, ease of launch - are what we are looking for. Unfortunately I don't think this will work on our 2013 R 27 since we have the propane tank box on the swim platform. We'll keep looking.
Pete

 

[Don and Brenda]

While my preference would be keeping a clear view off the stern, I have the platform rails so the traditional davits will have to work for now, but this is a pretty clean looking system. How was the cost compared to the Weaver davit system?

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

The system we have has a retail price of $889 and installation was easy once I figured out the proper positioning.

Jim F

 

[Barry Cohen]

Hi Jim:

We are in the market for a dinghy and davit system. Can you please provide the specifications of your dinghy and motor?

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Sure I can.........we have a 7' 7" Achilles inflatable hypolon material soft bottom with a 4 sectioned wood floor we bought thru Defender Industries online. Our outboard is a 4 stroke, 4 HP Tohatsu also bought thru Defender. Interesting fact is that Tohatsue makes all of the Nissan outboards and many of Mercury's small outboards.

Jim

 

[Barry Cohen]

Thanks Jim. Those specs are in line with what we are looking for. Sounds like a two person (maybe 3 person maximum) dinghy. We are going to take a visit to the Defender warehouse in the next few months. It's only a 2.5 hour drive from where we live.

I would be interested to hear about your experiences of how you get off and on the boat. We back into our slip. We get off and on from the swim platform. Would the davit system be in the way?

Thank you for all your great input.

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

We usually get off our boat from the port or starboard cockpit as we bow in. We bow in because our preference is to have the water as our view from the cockpit. If you had the davit setup we have you could stern in but the swim platform access is somewhat limited but doable. You can loosen the ratchet straps and tilt the dinghy back, as shown in one of the photos I posted, for better access. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Jim F

 

[baz]

Jim: I've seen this type of dinghy setup before and as much as I liked it I went for the traditional davits to minimize the overall length of our boat when docked in our 30' slip. We barely fit in the 30' as we are. Your dinghy setup on the swim step would cause us to exceed the 30'. We lean our Portland Pudgy onto the top edge of the cockpit railing and this lowers the overall height of the dinghy so the rear view is not blocked to any large extent. One other point is that the dinghy's center of gravity is moved as far forward as possible in this way rather than it being extended out beyond the rear edge of the swim step. I believe this helps with the boat's attitude when running at speed as well.

No matter, your solution is well worth considering if the dinghy is light and maximum rear view is a requirement. I also believe other Tugnuts have adopted this dinghy support assembly.