Dinghy Davits

[Nautek]

I know this has been touched on before but !!!

Has anyone fitted davits to the back of their Mac??
To carry an inflatable around 35 kg
If so how does it affect trim and handling??
Have you any photos??

Allan

[David Mellon]

This is a Mod I have been thinking very hard about, davits and a swimstep are rising to the top of my list. After searching the site hard I was unable to find any entries so I looked into my photo cache for a mod I remember seeing. This is not my boat or my mod but here are the photos:





I hope to do it differently, but with this basic idea. I am considering aluminum channeling for the arch and davits. Hopefully I can get them done soon.

[Hamin' X]

Here is the original thread that those photos come, from plus towing ideas:

Towing a Tender vs. Carrying it on the Fore-Deck?

~Rich

[Divecoz]

I can tell you, that with about 700 Nautical Miles under my belt of towing a dink...... that towing leaves a lot to be desired .... that's for sure!
Sailing and towing surly slowed me down . Powering and towing not only slowed me down but when the waves are coming from the rear faster than you can or really want to go forward, that's a whole nother problem! You will find the dink is constantly BANGING into the motor or the boat .Under the best of conditions and having tried to tie the dink everywhere I could on the back, I came up with adding a U bolt to the port side of the motor and down even with the top motor mount bolt. Why there of all places you might be thinking?
Because it was about the only place I could really reach it , even in an emergency situation. All went reasonably well except for one time when I needed to get out of everyone's....... way ! Lots of sail boats under sail crossing my path from every direction. Hey no problem I own a Mac Gregor with a 50HP Bigfoot Mercury!! AND we are now doing 15 mph and the dink is nowhere to be seen! Ooopppsss there it is on the Port side like a dang salomon skier with the bow attempting to go UNDER!
Can I DRAGggggggggg it up over the life lines and mount it forward of the mast? Yes I can but what a PITA that was ,and now the motor needs to be mounted somewhere???????????? Somewhere handy and easy to get it back on the dink???
I will be watching to see what transpires in this thread.
BTW I would like it to look nice when its up there as well, and I would need to be able to see whats going on back thee in the meanwhile. BTW I found during my adventure that these are among the smallest sailboats spending extended time on the water. I saw smaller boats, but they were far and FEW between.

[richandlori]

Carrying a dingy is an issue for ALL sailboat, not just the Mac. I wouldn't think that a light dingy would really cause serious performance concerns hanging on the back of the mac...the question is just how and the above photos pretty much show that. We used the main halyard to pull our dingy up on the fordeck of our . We didn't have a motor, but if we did, it would need to come off first.

Dive's right about 26ft being about the smallest bout out doing any long term cruising. We see quite a few single people out on 30fters however.

Rich
Former and Future Mac Owner
www.svthirdday.com

[Tahoe Jack]

Hey folks....this issue got pretty well explored a while back...R. Rae of this site customized a commercial Australian reverse-tow mod that really seems to be the best solution I have seen. Do a search for Dinghy Tow....bottom line, the dinghy is backed in transom to transom, hinged with a couple rigid separator rods, and then raised till only the bow is in the water. I have tweaked Rae's mod and can pull this off and still raise motor and rudders....but ideally, you would need a rear arch to better raise the dinghy. I have not done enough sea trials to post my mod but Rae has great pics. I could PM a few of my pics if someone tries this. Jack

[The Mutt]

I'm looking at putting our inflatable on the bow upside down while on the trailer and use a hoist similar to Oskar 26M's for deploying


I find towing a dinghy, kayak or large windsurfing board can be a real thump in the butt, the tow device used by R Rae looks good with minimal additional stress being transferred to the Macgregor


The davits kadet use look good, is it harder to get onboard your boat when the dinghy is in position? looks like it would be.


We are lookin at making a cover similar to the one Wind Chime has made another advantage a cover makes for an inflatable, a cover minimises the effect of UV deterioration.


I'm interested to see where this topic takes us.

Glenn

[Divecoz]

Mutt: how often and how far do you intend to trailer your boat with the dink on the fore deck and why?
Have you trailered it down the road at 60 to 70 mph yet ? How id the dink respond ? Did It ever catch air and tear loose or lift the boat up?

[The Mutt]

Mutt: how often and how far do you intend to trailer your boat with the dink on the fore deck and why?
Have you trailered it down the road at 60 to 70 mph yet ? How id the dink respond ? Did It ever catch air and tear loose or lift the boat up?

We live halfway up the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, 20 minutes away is the Nepean River, nice spot to motor not great for a Macgregor to try and sail in, we have a minimum of an hours drive to the closest ramp we can sail from which is near Parramatta giving us access to Sydney Harbour, alright occassionally, can be a bit too busy with the Rivercats, WakeBoarders and waterskiers, on average we will drive about 2 -3 hours up or down the coast both nice areas, eventually when we can get enough time away we shall head to the Whitsunday's, Northern NSW river systems, across to South Australia and down to VicMexico.

Our dinghy has a hard floor with inflating keel, I am yet to put it onto the fore deck but had the thought that it could be deflated and strapped up if need be to tie it down. Worst case senario is to put the dinghy on the Rangie's roof racks or pulled apart for storage (PITA).

Probably won't take the dinghy every time we go out, if we're going for a day sail probably not, if gunkholing probably the kayaks 18kg each, easy to lift over the rail.

I hated towing behind our last boat, the kayaks have very little resistance on the water compared to the boat and can very easily try to overtake when the wind drops slightly, almost lost a rudder once from being hit while changing tack.

Glenn

[David Mellon]

I found that even with my tiny dink I could not see ahead when it was on the foredeck. While it is true that you can't board from the rear with a dink hanging in the way I don't foresee needing to. If on the trailer I usually climb in from the trailer ladder. If on the water I would be lowering the dink before going out the rear anyway.
One concern I do have is towing the trailer with the dink on the davits. Ideally it would be great to raise it and leave it on the davits until I am backed into my side yard. There I could lower and stow it until my next trip requiring a dink. The problem I see is the length of the dink, it must be 8' or less and centered to allow me to tow on the road. I am going to look into a cathedral hull dink at 8' if I can find one but all I have seen is the Walker Bay from West Marine which seems unstable to me. Does anyone have experience with the Walker Bay 8? Otherwise I would need to lift my dink onto the roof of my Suburban from the side which would be difficult at best.

[K9Kampers]

David Mellon says:

...I would need to lift my dink onto the roof of my Suburban from the side which would be difficult at best.

Here are some options for that. (I don't have any of these myself).

Kari-Tek Easy Load system

Thule Hullavator

Suburban lowrider

[The Mutt]

I would need to lift my dink onto the roof of my Suburban from the side which would be difficult at best.

We fitted a Firestone air suspension system to our Rangie, while we don't sit on the ground we can get low enough to let an Old Girl we know in, she recently had a hip replacement. We can also level up our roof top tent for sleeping without the blood rushing to the head.

What can't be seen here are the 2 kayaks we took with us, they were tied to the Shippe Shape roof tent while we were driving to the river. Got them on top without a problem, our dinghy is a tad heavier.

Glenn

[David Mellon]

Thanks for the ideas guys! I still want to leave the dink in place if I can but it's good know this technology is out there. Doubt I'll chop, channel and bag my 'Burban though!

[Nautek]

a few different methods to think about

http://www.allinflatables.com/shopping/davits/

http://www.marinescene.co.uk/view/568/p ... kg-davits-

Allan

[kadet]

The davits kadet use look good, is it harder to get onboard your boat when the dinghy is in position? looks like it would be.

I don't enter my boat from the rear except when anchored and using the dink so does not worry me. The ramp I use has a dock so I climb up the front trailer ladder launch and tie up at the dock then everyone else enters from the side. What I found a PITA is trying to lower the outboard motor onto the transom of the dink even in a very minor swell. It is light at 12kg but my dink has an inflatable floor so I have to kneel in it to maintain my balance, and my arms are not long enough to lift the dink off on my own from that position. Those pics don't show them but when trailering or sailing the dink is tied tight to the stern rails to stop it bouncing around. I have motored back in a rough chop about 1-1.5 metres and it caused no problems. In the warmer weather however I find it much easier to now I just pull up close to shore and swim. Dink is now only a winter feature .