Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Boat deck fills up

One of the larger projects has been getting the dinghy positioned and mounted on the boat deck.  The first step is to use the davit (crane) to lift the boat out of the water and up onto the boat deck.  Then the chocks that I had made last winter (and that cradled the dinghy across the country) get set up in their approximate position on the boat deck, and the dinghy lowered into them.  There there is lots a shoving and moving things about to first get the chocks positioned and lined up correctly against the bottom of the dinghy.  Remember, the dinghy has an ever changing shape to it's hull, so the chocks only match up in one spot.

With the chocks properly registered against the hull, the whole assembly of dinghy and chocks gets shoved and slid around the boat deck to find the best position.  We have it pushed back with the bow hanging out over the boat deck extension.  This frees up a lot of space between the dinghy and the pilot house making movement around the deck much easier than on other boats I've been on.  We also have the dinghy facing aft.  It that way when you pick it up and swing it around to the port side of the boat to launch it, it's facing forward.  We have struggled with launch and retrieval on our Grand Banks where the dinghy is stern forward in the water and it's a real pain in the rear (pun intended).  I think this will be a lot easier.

Another thing we have done a bit differently is that we have set up the davit so that it parks pointing aft.  All the other 55/60s that I've seen have it park pointing forward, and the boom seriously blocks movement around the boat deck.  By pointing it aft we completely open the deck to walking traffic, and the boom isn't going to get in anybody's way pointing aft.

Once the dinghy is all positioned, aligned so it is square to the boat deck, it gets bolted down.  Then, in addition, there are three tie downs to keep it from getting away.


Dingy, aft pointing davit, and kayak on the boat deck

Closer look at the dinghy, including lots of room to move around it


Lots of space with davit pointing aft.


Bow of dinghy hangs out over boat deck extension with cable tie-down


Two more cable tie-downs at the stern

2 comments:

  1. I look at that prop and see skinned shins. Would it be worthwhile to fit some sort of cover over the engine?

    The rear facing davit is great.

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  2. Peter,

    At sea you will want to stow that dinghy engine and/or get it covered and put foam around the prop at a minimum.

    You may want to try and see the best way to lower the dunghy engine using the davit (remember, you can't muscle everything and you will not want to!).
    Andrew

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