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Post by dralyagmas on Aug 23, 2016 22:30:17 GMT
I am in two minds about putting davits on the back of my SF37 (2003). I always use the stern for boarding when in a marina, which is the majority of the time. However we are planning a bigger trip and I am not keen on putting the dinghy on the foredeck frequently.
Has anyone got pictures of davits that are relatively unobtrusive, don't require ducking your head to get on/off and are not just plain ugly?
Thanks
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Post by vsergio on Aug 23, 2016 23:04:11 GMT
Hi,
Our friends own a 2003 SF 37 and we spend equal time on the SF37 as we do on our SO35. In my humble opinion your boat is to small to raise a dinghy on an aft davit. Hanging the davit will slow you down considerably, more than towing the dinghy behind. The SF35 sacrifices a lot for speed (cockpit divided by the traveller). Our friends lift the dinghy partially deflated at the bow only when the weather is really bad, otherwise they tow the dinghy on short and long distances.
Our SO35 has a baby stay which prevents storing the dinghy at the bow, so we always tow the dinghy behind us. Our dinghy is a 12 foot Takacat (catamaran configuration) that reduces drag to minimum under sail or when motoring.
Depending on your lifestyle and intended use of the dinghy, you may look at inflatable paddle boards. This boards are very popular here and some people prefer to load a couple of boards on board and dump the dinghy and outboard.
My advice, you don't need to drill more holes in your boat and slow down a great fast boat for a dinghy.
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Post by vasko on Aug 24, 2016 1:53:04 GMT
hmmm my boat is 34feet and still I love my arch that holds a lot of stuff and also has a davits on it... we do not like towing the dinghy behind or deflating or storing on the fore deck... you can see the pulleys under the solar panels for the dingy ..
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Post by hoppy on Aug 24, 2016 4:28:20 GMT
I hate the dingy on deck, but not as much as I hate towing it. I don't have davits, but I suspect that I would grow to hate them as well.
On the occasions where I have done overnight sails and recently when I needed to make a lot of miles over many days and was happy to stay onboard, I deflated the dingy and dumped it below deck. Very satisfying sailing that way. Having an electric pump makes it reasonable to do, but I would not want to deflate & reinflate every day or two.
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Post by MickeyB on Aug 24, 2016 6:56:21 GMT
I have an SO34.2 and added davits to her. Am rather pleased with them. Just come back from 3 and a bit weeks round Sicily and Malta and the difference was shear bliss. The extra speed from not towing was really noticable - the dingy not being on the fore deck was just plain nice (no lifting/lowering hassles - jib sheets getting caught etc). Getting the dingy up and down on the davits is simplicity itself, and the solar panel mounting on top was so efficient that we never ever ran low on power with just the two 100w panels (2 computers+piano+tablets+very cold fridge etc). Basically - THE best investment so far. Click for Images of installation hereMike
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Post by MalcolmP on Aug 24, 2016 7:07:58 GMT
A small dinghy (not RIB) can be stowed across the stern flipped sideways, then vertically, providing you lift it high enough it should be well clear of the sea even when heeled. With some experimentation is easy and quick to do. We have a Lodestar lightweight and if stern berthing just put on the foredeck then, when it can also act as a rain deflector. Like others don't like having on the foredeck to much as gets in way of launching chute and downhaul.
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Post by vasko on Aug 24, 2016 8:07:02 GMT
btw: I keep the dinghy - together with the outboard on the davits - great improvement... I specially choose my dinghy to be very light with light 2hp yamaha...
the only small issue is when i go in marina stern-to med style i need before mooring to get the dinghy in the water and knot it to one of the bow cleats... bu as we go very rarely to marina this is not a real issue...
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Post by tedp on Aug 25, 2016 23:03:23 GMT
I used to sail a beautiful plywood 23 footer. This carried an Optimist dinghy crosswise on the counter, in small davits. We spent several holidays sailing in this configuration, and later a minumum size inflatable was hung from the same davits. We may have been overloaded, but I never noticed any performance problem with that 1.5 ton boat. It didn't have a stern platform, but usually we dropped the dinghy and hauled it away before swimming from the ladder, which was 5 minutes work. Recently I decided to stow the inflatable on the coachroof of my SO32. But I actively considered fitting davits again. I didn't because of the work required, and the limited use we make of the dinghy. If you want to fit davits on a 37 foot boat, don't hesitate. You won't even notice them under sail.
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