Davits on a 365?

[Mike Sibley]

The Admiral and I are thinking about installing davits on our Pearson 365.  We have a 8.5 foot inflatable (weighing about 65 pounds) and a 2.5 HP outboard (weighing around 37 pounds).  It appears that davits would make it a lot more convenient to launch and retrieve the dink, and we would thus use it more often when out on a trip.  However, we have no experience with davits and would appreciate any comments or suggestions from those who do.  Any suggestions regarding the type or make of davits, or any special problems with instoillation would be also appreciated.  If you have pictures of davits on a 365, we would welcome those also.     

[cliffmann]

Mike
I've installed davits on my 365.  Just make the davits your are considering have enough reach to clear the swim ladder when raising and lowering the dink.  I've got some St Crorix on my 365, but have also had Kato and Forespare on some previous boats.  All are good davits.
Installation is pretty straight foward.  The most difficult part is contorting in the cockpit lockers to install the washers, and nuts.  I couldn't use the backing plates that came with the davits because it was impossible to line up the 4 bolts in the position I was in.  I wound up using large fender washers instead.  Davits are a great addition, if you get some you won't regert it.
Cliff Mann
S/V  Free Rein  #88

[SailingSeaDragon]

Mike,

There was a nice discussion last week on SailboatOwners.com about Davits.

http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=125523

A lot of good information. Also, if you do search on Davits on this site you will find a fair amount of information on the subject.

Garner

[wedelstein]

Davits work well on the P365. The stern has plenty of reserve boyancy. I use davits made of cold molded Oak , Mahonony with Teak. They are very distinctive. I hold a 11 foot sport inflatable with a 9.9 hp engine. The total weight is about 200 pounds about 5 feet off of the water. I use the mizzen topping lift to help support the weight. They have been very successful for over 15 years. I can provide pictures if anyone is interested.

[S/V Deo Volente]

I had a machine shop make my davits using square aluminum tubing and mounted an electric winch under the deck for each davit. It easily picks up my 9 ft rib with 9.9. I do carry a tackle in case of winch failure, but OK so far.

[smokey]

Got any pictures of the setup and the electric winch hookup?  Sounds like a great idea -  I believe you posted on the Pilothouse we're consideringso any pictures of mods, special things about your boat would be greatly appreciated.  You could email them to me directly if you like.

Where are you located?  I travel a lot and maybe, of course with your "permission to board, sir", I'd love to take a look at her.

Thanks in advance.

Smokey
Thanks  Smokey

[Randy]

Personally, I would not put davits on the boat. If your dink weighs only 85lbs, simply use the spare halyard and anchor windlass to raise it up onto the foredeck. Keep it simple. I would never want all that crap hanging off the ass of my boat. I'm just sayin'

[S/V Deo Volente]

Keeping it simple is the specific reason for davits in my opinion. We do a lot of gunkhole cruising and it's quite simple to drop and retrieve the dinghy this way. i have friends who don't use the dinghy because it's too much work to hoist it on the deck several times a day, not to mention covering the hatch or trying to work around it on the foredeck. On longer crossings I put the outboard in the cockpit locker and have never felt any qualms about the dinghy. It takes all of 15 minutes to have the motor back on and the dinghy down when I get to an anchorage. Simple

[EdHouston]

This is interesting not sure how I missed this thread when it started.

I have Davits that are just a few inches higher than my stern pushpit rails, I have an Avon 8'6" dink and man when sailing and healing hard the dink will dip into the drink, lost my oars and almost flooded the outboard last time it happened.

So my recomendation is to make them high up as high as you can get them so the dink stays dry on all points of sail.

Ed

[S/V Deo Volente]

My davits center the dinghy on the stern rail and it seems comfortably high. The outboard prop has come awful close to the water on a couple occasions, but I remove the outboard for most "offshore" sailing. I have a picture posted on my brothers website. It's not the best for showing off the davits but you can get the general idea.

http://westernharbormusic.com/deovolente.html