Quote:
I'm not convinced the hydraulic stern lifts are the best answer. My alloy RIB is relatively lightweight but has a beam of 7ft. I dont want a platform that wide at the back of the boat. Or to have that much extra length added onto the length of the marina slip required.
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Brian
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The word "best" almost always applies to a given situation, boat, owner, experience level, etc. I think it is correct to assume that Brian was saying that a hydraulic stern lift is not the best answer for HIS situation. For my situation, it happens to be the best answer - not least of which because the lift was on the boat when I bought it!
But, on that topic, I have hoisted heavy dinghies over bow rails onto foredecks with hydraulic deck cranes, high up onto coach roofs with electric deck cranes, and tipped up onto swim platforms with the outboard mounted on a deck rail.
What I said in my post is that the TNT lift allows the easiest dinghy "deployment" of any of them - and I stick by that; Push the button on the key fob, and in 15 seconds the dinghy is floating free. Easy for ANYONE to do. It also has the other benefits of a large, submersible swim platform. However, even beyond the high cost, there are certainly other drawbacks to a unit of this type: Dealing with yet another battery (powers the hydraulic pump), access to the hydraulic pump and battery, trying to avoid damaging the dink when backing into a slip, and simply having that dinghy taking up the entire swim platform when trying to tie up the boat.
It is also probably not the very best place to have a heavy dinghy when running in big seas - in fact, TNT recommends putting the dinghy into the water and towing it under those kinds of conditions. So, is it the "best" solution? For me? With this boat and my intended uses? Yep.
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