Dinghy as swim platform?

[bobbob]

Just curious - does anyone make a bracket that would let you hook an inflatable dinghy to the transom in a secure fashion? (Doesn't have to be while the boat is moving, could be only when anchored).

This would allow you to use the Dinghy as a sort of swim platform, and also facilitate easy boarding. It could either stand proud of the outboard, or be offset to one side or the other.

Thanks

[March]

I was thinking about something similar, but to a different end. A couple of years ago, when we sailed to the Bahamas, we were caught in some pretty heavy winds clocking at 40 kts. The dinghy that we used to have was blown out of the water at the end of its tether. Sure, it was pretty large and light (4 people, I think) and it had no engine, but keeping it down was a bear. I would like to avoid that in the future and plan to make an extension of PVC pipes to be mounted (maybe) at the end of the ladder, so that it may keep the dinghy rigidly, right side up, rather than remove its outboard before the storm, store it below, and let the dinghy flip-flop.
I'm curious, too.

[Russ]

What you are describing sounds like what Sumner has done on his 26S.

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-17.html

[March]

Yeah, that's about it. Wonder if a simplified version would not work as well: two parallel PVC tubes, split lengthwise and attached to the ladder that would prevent the dinghy from flipping over. In Sum's version, the rigid bar in the middle--is it rigid enough to prevent overturning? Wouldn't the middle section / the bar twist?

[mastreb]

We have a WestMarine RU260, 9' inflatable made by Zodiac. When we come aboard, I put the outboard down and hard to port, then pull the nose of the dinghy right up to the transom and snub it right up to the transom. I pass the painter through the mast bracket on the transom and turn it back to me to tighten it up until the bow of the dinghy is starting to come up out of the water. Then a hitch knot to the mast bracket, and it's snubbed in tight.

We swim off of it that way, and it works great. You have to be a little careful transiting through the transom and into the dingy because it has a soft floor and is only secured at one point, but it works well enough not to bother doing anything else.

[bobbob]

That's a pretty similar idea to what I'm thinking about, but I don't know if I would trust walking across the swim ladder bracketed in place horizontally. Would much prefer a more solid surface or a mechanism where the dinghy is right alongside the back of the boat.

If I used a dinghy with a hard transom board for motor mount, and fashioned some sort of coupler that would lock it to the back of the Mac, I wonder how that might work out?

[Sumner]

That's a pretty similar idea to what I'm thinking about, but I don't know if I would trust walking across the swim ladder bracketed in place horizontally. Would much prefer a more solid surface or a mechanism where the dinghy is right alongside the back of the boat.

If I used a dinghy with a hard transom board for motor mount, and fashioned some sort of coupler that would lock it to the back of the Mac, I wonder how that might work out?

It worked great as a boarding platform to get ...



.... in and out of the dinghy with the dinghy along side of it not at the end of it. Along side and you had nearby handholds which you wouldn't have going out on the end. Also the pieces under the steps provided a place to step when it was horizontal....



.... Ruth loved it and so do I...



But to swim the dinghy was alongside the boat and the ladder was all the way down. The added steps at the bottom made it much easier to climb the ladder when it was down in the water. More about it here....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-30.html

Sumner

============================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[Sumner]

I use to tow like Russ showed but now...



... tow the dinghy with a strap that is actually pulling the dinghy from its transom. Notice the bow lines are slack.



Above you can see how I use to pull the dinghy from the bow and it would ride up in the water. Now with the strap it pulls the bow down, especially if I do leave the outboard on for a short tow and now there is no strain on those attach points at the front of the dinghy.

We pulled it a little over 500 miles like this with no problems but I do pull the outboard off the dinghy if towing in open water or any distance. If I head to the Bahamas I'll most likely deflate the dinghy with the floor boards in and have her up on the foredeck but haven't tried that yet.

At night ....



... the dinghy is tied alongside like above and this is mainly that I hope to hear if someone comes along and decides they want the dinghy more than me . Towing with the tow bar works great and I'd never go back to towing with a rope where the dinghy goes where she wants at times. Sucked up to the tow bar there is no tow rope getting down in the prop.

Also the ladder can't flip over since it is attache to the boat at the top end and the diagonal brace just slides on to a rung on the boat and down on the ladder and is plenty strong to stand out there. Once I slide it on I have two quick pins that I push through the curved ends so that there is no chance of loosing it.

Sumner

============================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[Highlander]

This is what I,d like to do great mod & lets u use ur dinghy as a platform to I cannot find the pics that R Rae posted on here for this mod I have printed them off but cannot find them

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n56/ ... G_0316.jpg

J

[March]

Pretty cool, Highlander. That's more like what I had in mind. I'd like the outboard in place though, and maybe have the dinghy point the right way?
But maybe the additional drag would not be an issue.

Wonder if the rigid pars would go on either side of the dinghy (they don't have to be metal either), would the dinghy outboard (3.5 HP) be enough to push the Mac, too?

[Highlander]

Pretty cool, Highlander. That's more like what I had in mind. I'd like the outboard in place though, and maybe have the dinghy point the right way?
But maybe the additional drag would not be an issue.

Wonder if the rigid pars would go on either side of the dinghy (they don't have to be metal either), would the dinghy outboard (3.5 HP) be enough to push the Mac, too?

I contacted R Rae he did this mod on his boat asked him if he would send me more pics, I found the link but some of the pic,s a not now avail , Ron said he will look them up but could take a couple days
http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... f=9&t=9373

I think this a a good mod & want to copy it as well

J

[bobbob]

Yeah that's more along the lines I was thinking of too. It has occurred to me I might be able to fashion a bracket to couple the SeaEagle SE9 w/motor transom to the swim ladder (offset to be out of the way of the Mac outboard but with enough dinghy showing to still be reasonably easy to walk onto it):

https://www.seaeagle.com/MotormountBoats/SE9

[Gabby_SC]

Here's a swim platform http://s1290.photobucket.com/user/Doug_ ... 8.jpg.html

[bobbob]

Sure, but it ain't much of a tender

What's the brand name of something like that?

Cheers

[Gabby_SC]

www.magicswim.com the pic I downloaded was on the Beneteau 350 webpage. Beneteau dealer probably would be best bet for supplier