Anybody have a deck crane to lift a tender on a Californian 34?

[3dog]

I experimented with a crane on the port stern in the past and the whole boat listed substantially when I tried to lift my 500 lb tender. I am wondering if a bow crane would do the same or would the weight in the stern counteract listing. Engines are midship and I have 125 gal on each side near the stern. Water tank and batteries are between the engines. I do have a diesel Onan 7.5 gen. in between the tanks. Tender is 11 ft x 5 ft.

 

[3dog]

I experimented with a crane on the port stern in the past and the whole boat listed substantially when I tried to lift my 500 lb tender. I am wondering if a bow crane would do the same or would the weight in the stern counteract listing. Engines are midship and I have 125 gal on each side near the stern. Water tank and batteries are between the engines. I do have a diesel Onan 7.5 gen. in between the tanks. Tender is 11 ft x 5 ft.

Right now I have my tender on a platform off the stern

 

[FlyWright]

That's an interesting tender! I bet she moves right along. Do the dogs ride in the cavities on each side of the small cooler?

I don't have a davit but have considered installing a small removable one for light loads like an outboard motor. I envisioned mounting it in a pipe extending below the deck to the hull on the port side where my rail gate is located. It would slip into the receiving pipe and have a manual crank on a block and tackle to provide the mechanical advantage.

I never envisioned lifting something as heavy as 500 lbs, though. Maybe 150-200 lbs max. Where would you store the tender, in the cockpit? On the transom step? If you used a bow crane, I guess you'd have to store it on the bow, obscuring your lower helm visibility and blocking the hatch from opening.

My 15 inch tube Achilles inflatable stores on bow chocks but is low enough in profile to allow me to see over it from the lower helm. It light enough to lift it over the rail from the dock and slide it into position on the bow.

 

[3dog]

Craigcat actually does sell a dog seat but my dogs would be jumping in before I got them settled. They are heavy hounds and not so swift when it comes to water.

The removable crane (atkinshoyle.com/files/products/6500t-low-profile-rotating-crane.gif} has a base plate that I am thinking about bolting to the stainless steel plate on the bow of the boat just under the bow pulpit and then drilling a large round hole through the teak bow pulpit for the standpipe and then putting other angled supports bolted to the cap rail. That way it would be centered on the bow so I could lift on either side. I would have to reconfigure the way the anchors stored as it is right over where the hole would be. I think I can move it forward or to one side and still launch it through the bow pulpit. I would need a backing plate on the inside also. I think I can get to it through the chain locker.

There are better photos on the atkinshoyle web site and the base plate can be mounted flat or on the side of a bulkhead. There is a pin that goes through the stand pipe. This is the same design that other cranes use like St Croix. Atkins & Hoyle are the guys who helped me with the stern platform and lift and the metal they use has held up under a lot of stress and elements.

I rarely steer from the cabin and if I do I am standing out the door steering. The starboard seat on the Craigcat can be removed by sliding it off and I don't think it will be a obstruction from the lower helm. You could actually sit in the seats if the boat was properly supported and tied down at rest or underway. There is power on the windless that I can use to power the 12 volt winch that is on the crane. The stand pipe would have to clear the life rail. It also is light enough that it can be removed and stored on the Craigcat or I could swing it forward and it would look like I have a 50 cal or a water canon on the bow (kidding).

The Craigcat has flat rotomolded plastic surfboard-like pontoons but I will have to measure to see if they would straddle the forward hatch. If not I will have to put some plastic lumber on the deck to raise it over the hatch and then figure out how to tie this puppy down. There is a cleat just aft of the windless and I am thinking that I could mount tie downs on either side of the cabin just under the side windows.

This is going to be expensive and I want to find out if anybody else lifted something this heavy on the bow and how the boat reacts. It did not work well on the stern but that is where the tank is and I think the weight back there added to the list. I am thinking it would counter act if the lift was on the bow. I am thinking the boat would not squat like it does now with the boat hanging off the stern. It took me several thousand and allot of trial and error to come up with the solution on the stern but it works pretty well but there is fiddling around that goes into lifting it out of the water and only I know how to do it. Not something I would suggest anybody else to try.

 

[3dog]

the plate that I am referring to is aft of the flukes of the anchor. Hard to see but if you blow the picture up you can see the plate better.

 

[kraftee]

As to the OP's original question: If you hang 500 lbs. far enough outboard of your boat to allow the deck crane to drop it straight down into the water, the boat is going to list and - depending on the boat - probably fairly significantly. We saw this with the deck cranes on our Great Harbours. We generally hoisted our ~600 lb. 12' tenders with consoles and 30hp engines onto cabin tops, boat decks and foredecks. There was listing involved in every case. However, it was not generally a problem unless in a very rolly anchorage or wake-prone area - where the dinghy slamming back into the saloon side or hull could possibly cause damage.

While I don't have any pics of a dinghy being launched, here are a few of the various places we stuck them!

 

[3dog]

Thanks for answering the question. If you beauty lists my 34' would certainly have the same issue even if I put the crane on the bow. The big issue is when it lists it is very hard to pull the tender on the boat as you are pulling up instead of just swinging it laterally. Looks like your crane most likely has power rotation but the one I am looking at would only have power to hoist.

 

[kraftee]

Nope. No power rotation - or even power luffing (except on that particular N47 in the pic.) With the tender high enough to swing aboard, you just have to get it moving and the momentum brings it back aboard - and then, obviously, the list is cancelled. It never was a problem.

 

[ksanders]

Here's the crane on our Bayliner in action. The skiff weighs something over 700 lbs.

No noticeable list, but in a wavy anchorage you can feel the boat mode a tad more.

 

[mbevins]

We had our 850# dink on the bow. Boat listed 15* when outboard on the crane. It was a manual swing as well. No big deal.

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