R-29 Roof Davit

[Tym]

Hi Tugnuts,

While we understand that everything about boats is a compromise, we wanted a lot for our R-29, the Circle T. My wife June and I wanted to carry both a dinghy AND a two-person kayak simultaneously, and we didn't want to lose the view out of the cockpit while we were underway in order to do so. The roof seemed to be the only answer.

Nothing we saw that existed would do everything we wanted, so my incredibly mechanically-talented friend Paul Parszik, plus my son JG and I started with a blank sheet of paper, a few beers for courage, and began figuring out a custom way to do all of this...

Well, It's been a long project with lots of set backs along the way, but we finally finished and were able to take the boat on a trip to test everything out in real-world conditions. The Circle T accompanied Stuart Royston and his Spirit of Gratitude on a 4 day trip together in Southern Californian waters, and the pictures we took are in a Circle T photo album for you to see.

These pictures show the big picture of the basics and not the details of the construction, so will hopefully give you a good overview of our project. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them but will be out of town for a few days after posting this so not able to answer immediately.

My wife and I are looking forward to traveling to Everett and meeting some of you at the seminar there in March.
Best Regards,

 

[Commander Ed]

Tym,
Looks great buddy. I look forward to seeing it in person some time soon. Interested in the motor mount in the rear too. I want something like that for Sea Dragon. Not sure I can do the davit for the roof, but definitely like system you devised. You must have the most "tricked out" 29 around. Come see me in San Diego next time you are down. Cheers.
Commander Ed

 

[Spirit of Gratitude]

Tym,
I do have to say that after seeing your davit system first hand, I was very impressed. I loved how it took up very little space, worked very well and it adds a real nostalgic beauty to the boat. It truly looks like it belongs on the boat.
I love the fact that you can get all your toys up on top, and the davit is not in the way.
Also, being one that likes to be aware of all power I am using on board, I like the fact that it does not use any battery power.
I have to say that all your hard work has really paid off with a simple to use and great looking system.

Great job!

Stuart

 

[JerryE]

Tym,

Fantastic! Was the davit pre-made, something we can explore buying from somewhere on the web? Or, was it specially made up for you?

 

[Tym]

Hi Jerry,

The davit is a St Croix product called the Junior Crane and you can see it at: http://davit.com/remcranes.html

As you'll see, it's removable and some people store it inside of the dinghy while they're not actually using it. That was my plan too until I saw how "Tug-boatee" it looked and decided to leave it up all the time for its looks. That also makes it easier.

The height of the davit pole as it comes is 5 feet and the folks at St Croix weren't able to change that. That was not enough for the R-29 so we had to have an additional 9" welded on. But I see you have an R-25 so the 5' height might be enough. The nearest R-25 to me that I know of is Commander Ed's Sea Dragon in San Diego, and I'm in Los Angeles... but I do get to San Diego once in a while and Ed brings Sea Dragon up this way on occasion too.

We mounted the davit to the side of the cabin instead of it sitting on the floor as we didn't want any toe-stubbers on the boat's walk-around. To do that we had to have stainless steel reinforcements custom made for the purpose. We did have the place that made them for us keep the details and dimensions in case more sets were needed for other Ranger owners. The racks on the roof were custom made and mounted, but now that we've been through the learning curve we know how to do that so it won't be so hard the next time.

Frankly it makes sense to me that the factory install this system as the boat's being built. Taking up just half the width of an R29 for a dinghy and leaving the other half for a solar panel or a car carrier or kayak or bicycle or ? just makes sense if a Weaver type davit isn't used. And as I said, it looks cool. The R-27/25 could certainly carry a dinghy or whatever using this system. I sent Andrew details of our construction techniques a while ago and he was going to share the idea with appropriate folks at Ranger, but I've not heard back from him as yet.

But as far as retrofits, I'd be happy to help anyone interested with information or parts or ???
Hope this helps.

 

[GPBoatHead]

Say, can I ask you how the block and tackle is working out for lifting the dinghy? How much does your dinghy weight?

I am considering buying/building something similar. But my dinghy weights in at around 100 lbs. I like the idea of block and tackle, but maybe a manual winch might be more reasonable?

Thanks,
Galen

 

[ALICE J]

I have built a rack above the solar panels (2) and use a st criox Jr. Davit on the port side similar to the photo to hoist the 10 ft RIB using an ATV 12V winch from harbor freight with a remote. I placed a guy wire at top of the Davit to the starboard, as a precaution because of loading in bumpy seas. The same set up with shorter poles is used to hoist my 10hp at the stern to a motor mount on the swim platform. I store my Brownie dive compressor on the fore deck and use davit arm and motor to hoist a lower it into the dinghy electric is supplied via battery cable 6 gauge (harbor freight) using Anderson plugs as connectors . Remote is the cats meow and swapped out metal cable for non stretch fabric line. Shorten the fabric line as it was too much for the spool and would override.

 

[Glen]

I have the same davit as Tym / Circle T (except I don't have the extension that Tym added), I use it to lift a 180 pound Honda Metropolitan scooter into my cockpit. It works great.

 

[JamesTXSD]

I have the same davit as Tym / Circle T (except I don't have the extension that Tym added), I use it to lift a 180 pound Honda Metropolitan scooter into my cockpit. It works great.

How 'bout a photo of that?!