Swing-lift

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by builder dan

wonder how swinging your boom out with a preventor and lowering outboard with mainsheet would work.

Dan, it might work, but why bother with the boom? As outlined above, it is easy to do with nothing but a halyard.

Cheers,

Jim

[goboatingnow]

None of these things remove the last bit , thats the difficult bit. and leaving a outboard about 1 foot of the sea in a chop , can't be done.

These things are great in a marina, but you always end up struggling with that damm motor in the dinghy and getting it onto the transom.

dave

[gjordan]

Hank, you have a reasonably small boat. I dont know what type of dinghy you have or plan to have, but my engine lifting problem was solved by a thief. I had a 9.9 on my achilies, and always fought getting it on and off of the boat. While down Island someone stole the 9.9, and I bought a used 2hp to get me by. I learned to love that light weight motor when I could stand in the dink and lift the motor onto the deck with one arm. It made life slower, but easier. With your 30 foot boat, you are not likely to have a hard bottom inflatable that will plane, so you might be just as well off with the smallest motor available. The older 2 strokes were much lighter, but smaller generally means lighter, even in the new 4 stroke motors. Just an option to think about. _____Grant.

[Hank Kivett]

Hey thanks gjordan...I have a 5 hp 2 stoke and it weights 20 lbs and the dinghy is a LSI 88...i bough it as a package...i think a smaller motor would do...I did consider elect but then again there is the battery factor...I do plan on using my wisker pole to get up and onto the fordeck...its the motor that give me grief...

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

None of these things remove the last bit , thats the difficult bit. and leaving a outboard about 1 foot of the sea in a chop , can't be done.

These things are great in a marina, but you always end up struggling with that damm motor in the dinghy and getting it onto the transom.

dave

Dave, I'm not sure which of these "things" you are referring to, but I disagree with the "can't be done" pronunciation. Why? Because Ann and I have been doing it for many years now... and very seldom in marinas, mate!

And I'm neither young, strong, nimble or a magician...

Cheers,

Jim

[Lojanica]

Here's another pearl. If you need extra stability take the dinghy midships.

Use a whisker pole for the front and the boom for the rear. I have a vang which works well for the boom lift and a preventer to control the boom. The whisker pole has its own halyard, the topping lift and preventer controls the main boom. The vang can raise and lower.

With this combo you can easily handle the boat and the motor. Since they're under the same motion it is fairly easily to control everything and don't need to let go of control until satisfied all is well and working. Also keeps the boat and engine away from the mothership.

But he main halyard is usually all you need by itself.

[skippermalolo]

I'm trying to find the swing lift by thistleworks, but can't raise their website. Last I heard they received a US patent! Does anyone know of an American distributor?

[Tony B]

We use our dinghy davits to lower the O/B motor to the dinghy.
When we had our sailboat, I used 2 triple blocks hooked to my boom to raise and lower the O/B. Even a kid or woman in her 70's can do that.
We bought a lifting strap and leave it on our O/B all of the time. It has a place to put a hook from your pulley set-up.

[skippermalolo]

I've used the spinnaker halyard to lower our 15 hp yamaha 2 stroke, which works, but requires 3 people: one on the winch, one to guide the motor and hold it away from the boat and one in the dink to stabilize it on the transom. Two works fine for raising it. The "Swing Lift" video shows a single individual both raising and lowering the motor -albeit in a marina. I realize that any system will be more difficult with sea movement. Has anyone had experience with the swing lift? It's manufactured in Canada. Anyone know of a Stateside distributor?

[Cheechako]

As noted, the Swing Lift appears to put your motor in one exact spot.... that's tough with a dingy moving around or wavelets etc. A halyard or better yet a Nova Lift type small crane allows you to move the motor while you try to place it on the transom while in the dingy.... which is the hard part with the dingy wanting to skate around with every effort you make.