Mainship 400 Dingy Davits moved to upper level?

[jefndeb]

Hello all.

Our 2006 Mainship 400 has the davits on the standard location,..right in the way on the boarding transom door...

My wife wants me to relocate them to the upper aft area so we can enter and exit the boat easier. I like the idea but has anybody done this?...

Is the railing/structure strong enough to support the weight ?

Its a 10 foot West Marine PVC inflatable...

Jeff in Savannah

 

[garmstro55]

Jeff, I have seen photos of MS400's with the dinghy way up in the air like you describe. I took this picture last summer. I bet it can be done, my biggest concern is having something up that high flapping around in a wind or underway.

I am not so much worried about the supports on the boat, I worry that the connection points on the dinghy could fail. I have an inflatable bottom so there's no place to install a lifting eye and I have to hook to the d-rings glued to the boat. Also, someone might hit their head on it.

I started looking at the under the swim platform davits sold here Dinghy Davits for your yacht since it looked to me like the dinghy could be positioned further aft so it wouldn't be in the way. I haven't pulled the trigger yet and am still looking for a solution...

 

[Shrew]

I've seen it done a few times.

 

[Shrew]

Granted, those are 390's, but the concept is the same.

 

[Dougcole]

Granted, those are 390's, but the concept is the same.

Yes, and if IRC, the 390 used smaller diameter rails. Or maybe they were aluminum instead of stainless? Either way the rails on the 400 should be stronger. I'd look closely at the rail bases and how they are connected to the deck. That seems to me to be the likely weak point.


The sway would also worry me. We had suspension davits on our old boat and the dinghy moved around more than I liked. I used criss-crossed ratchet straps on it, which helped, but it still swayed a lot.


Then again, that boat would roll the peanut butter out of the jar if you left it open, so maybe it wasn't the fault of the davits.

 

[BruceK]

The Clipper 40 sold here, made in the same factory as NP, has a ss frame cantilevered off the aft end of the FB which can secure the dinghy. Usually attached by large bolted plates to the FB and with ss tubes attached to the aft railing. They`ve been doing it for years, I`ve not seen a failed one yet. An electric crane is fitted to the FB supported by a tube below it to the lower deck.This one is complicated by a canvas extension of the FB deck, but should help illustrate how it`s done.

 

[healhustler]

Very spiffy!

We also carry our dinghy on davits at boat deck height. That cross brace you see handles a lot of lateral torque as the dinghy wants to swing, but with extra load straps to control it, never had an issue. For a decade, we carried a 9 ft. Caribe with a Merc 9.9....probably 200 lbs. or so.

 

[Cartouche]

Hello all.

Our 2006 Mainship 400 has the davits on the standard location,..right in the way on the boarding transom door...

My wife wants me to relocate them to the upper aft area so we can enter and exit the boat easier. I like the idea but has anybody done this?...

Is the railing/structure strong enough to support the weight ?

Its a 10 foot West Marine PVC inflatable...

Jeff in Savannah

Picture of our 390 make sure it is lashed tight I cross straps and las from underneath when out on the lake plus tou have to have 80ft of line each side

 

[jefndeb]

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments...

 

[Comodave]

Maybe a Seawise davit system. We had one on a previous boat and loved it. It will allow you to use the swim platform and still stow the dinghy down low. Also you can literally launch in one minute and recover in a couple of minutes. That way you are not adding hundreds of pounds up high on your boat.