Dinghy size hung from davits?

[Bart Man]

Hello all,
I'm new to the forum. I'm after some advice and the benefit of some of your experiences.

I have a 43 foot steel hull sloop with a strong set of davits at the stern that have only ever swung a lovely timber pram. I am soon to head north for a year of cruising the Qld. Coast, reefs and rivers. I was planning on doing a little more exploring than I think the pram ocean handle. I'm thinking a 3.6 metre tinny / dinghy would be more suitable for spear fishing out of and exploring north Qld rivers etc. and dragging up rough shore lines.

There are 4 of us, (2 adults, 2 kids), so bigger is better.
Yacht beam is 3.85 metres at its widest. A little less than that at the stern.
Would I be correct that it would be foolish to swing a tender that is longer than the max beam of the ship?

Thank you for your thoughts.

[capttman]

[capttman]

Mine travels just fine

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Bart Man.

[Calypso52]

Bart,
Assuming your davits are strong enough to handle the dynamic load of the larger dinghy when in a seaway, then the trick is strapping it down good and tight. We hang our fenders over the stern and then use beefy rachet straps. Even if your dinghy was smaller than the beam, it can still get hung up as you get near fixed objects like pilings, so I say go big and be careful.

[jeremiason]

The only problem with a longer dinghy is when the boat is heeled over does the dinghy drag in the water. If you can heel over and still have clearance then you are good to go.

My davits are pretty tall and the dinghy has exceptional clearance, but I don't like carrying the outboard on the dinghy when we are on long passages. If something happens and we loose the dinghy off the davits, we won't damage the motor or have the extra weight to mess with.

For instance in Capttman's Photo (No disrespect intended and I am sure he has no problems), but based on the picture, I would be concerned about dragging the lower unit of his outboard through the water, especially in the square waves we can get down here in the Gulf and Caribbean. This could lead to a catastrophic failure of the davits or loss of the outboard or complete dinghy.

[capttman]

Ah one good thing weighing in at 18 tons is I never heel that much.. Never touched the water yet.. If I do expect big weather I take the outboard off and mount on the davit

[autumnbreeze27]

Our cruising friends tell us our dinghy is to heavy for cruising, so we'll have to sell it and get something less fancy before we cast off, but until then we love the dinghy that came with our boat. It's got a 20HP Honda on the back, center console, bench seat.
If there's any kind of swell running it needs to be strapped in tight.

[Jeff Millar]

I was wondering how to store a 14 foot, 225 pound dingy on a Gulfstar 50.
The beam is 13 feet 9 inches. This blog seems to have given me the answer.
There is no room on deck for the 14 foot dingy.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but adding davits at a height would work ?
Or would it just be a bad idea ?
The dingy would be a Hunter 140 sailing boat. If hung on davits without any outboard.

Would appreciate experienced feed back. Or should I just buy a Bauer 10 foot rowing sailing dingy.

[Calypso52]

Jeff,
If you are in love with that dinghy, and you are mostly in protected waters, why not tow it?
If your davits are stout enough you may be able to hang it, but it will not be safe in a significant sea and will always be in the way coming to the dock, and when you are heeling. And if you plan on going offshore, I don't see anyway to do it.

[accomplice]

Jeff,
We have a 3.8meter dinghy (Genesis 380 RIB) -- a little shorter than yours. The dinghy itself weighs about 230lbs. The engine adds another 125lbs. Gas, another 20-40lbs. Anchor, etc. another 10lbs. Total about 400lbs.

When sailing along the coast, we usually hoist the dinghy (with motor, gas, etc.) in aft davits that are approximately 8' above deck level. In addition to the tackle that raises the dinghy, we use a strong ratching strap which keeps the dinghy from swinging.

When offshore, we remove the engine and gas and mount the engine on the stern rail and put the gas in a lazarette that drains overboard. As the davits are right off the stern, 8' above deck height, I usually don't have a problem with waves. It requires very steep waves to break into the dinghy. Once, in a gulf-stream gale, the breaking waves did splash into the dinghy, but didn't add so much water as to create a problem.

We sometimes store our full trash bags in the dinghy too, although compared to the 400#, that is not a lot of weight.

On my "to do" list is to craft a tent to put over the dinghy so that if I do find myself in steep breaking seas again that any water will simply roll off the sides and not fill the dinghy, increasing its weight and load on the davits. I have seen others who have done this, and they used fenders stored in the dinghy to keep the tent up in the middle.

[a64pilot]

I just bought a boat cover from defender and use two beach balls to keep it from holding water from rain, but I've never even been close to having waves break over it.

[Jeff Millar]

Which of the 2 small sailing boats do you think would be the best dingy
for cruising far and wide. Hung from davits.
a) O'day Javelin 14 footer at 475 lbs
b) Hunter 140 , 14 footer at 225 lbs

Experience shared please.

Thank you