Tender Cranes - What do you have and is it reliable?

[IRENE]

Thanks for sharing, looks like a nice outcome.

I have been speaking with Nick Jackson. Any advice for me, please? Have not pulled the trigger yet but anticipate doing so in a few weeks...

 

[Bud]

Thanks for sharing, looks like a nice outcome.

I have been speaking with Nick Jackson. Any advice for me, please? Have not pulled the trigger yet but anticipate doing so in a few weeks...

I went with 1000lb crane with a 1200lb 12v winch. The crame has 80 inches reach and I will be lifting a dinghy of less than 500lbs. The cost was $4300 for the crane. I ran 80ft of 2 gauge wire and 40ft of 14/3. I did the install myself it took about 6 hours. Let me know if you have any specific questions?

Bud

 

[Redhook98]

I just stuck a couple of ATV 1500lb winches on my factory boom and have no issues with my setup. 10-ft double bottoms WM RHIB with a 15-hp Johnson. Wired a battery directly to the winches. Not sure why boats with good stout booms and masts would need an additional crane. ?



Pic was taken in prep for a recent storm. Hence all the tie-downs and extra lines/fenders.

 

[Bud]

I just stuck a couple of ATV 1500lb winches on my factory boom and have no issues with my setup. 10-ft double bottoms WM RHIB with a 15-hp Johnson. Wired a battery directly to the winches. Not sure why boats with good stout booms and masts would need an additional crane. ?



Pic was taken in prep for a recent storm. Hence all the tie-downs and extra lines/fenders.

We were using our mast and boom to lift boat and engine seperately. I was comfortable lifting 200lbs or less with it. It is not designed to lift 500lbs. One stay wire breaks and the whole works goes down. It is difficult to inspect stay wire and halyard connection points on top of mast on a regular basis. I have seen those connection points wear oblong as the system works. The other concern I had with ours is where the boom meets the mast there is a knuckle that allows it to swing side to side and up and down. When lifting on the side of the boat it puts a side load on that knucle and a twisting load on the mast. This davit crane is bolted not stayed and the lifting wire rope is easy to inspect as I pay it out to use it.

My mast and boom are desigmed for a stay sail. They are both slotted for a sail to slide in. Other masts and booms might be designed differently. We use our boat quite a bit and want the process of dinghy launching to be easy and safe.

All that being said if we were only launching our dinghy once a month for
6 or 7 months we probably would not have made the investment.

Bud

 

[Xlantic]

We finally completed the install of the new davit crane from nick jackson. It was quite a bit of back and forth but I am very pleased with the result.

I installed the same Nick Jackson pipe davit on my earlier boat a 1979 GB 42 classic. It generally worked well but here are some issues I had:

When installed, it seems the crane was not perfectly vertical but rather slightly slanted towards the stern. As such, it required some effort to swing the boom out with the dink hanging on it.

Once, when deploying the dink, I must have pushed the dinghy too hard to swing it out. As a result, the cable jumped off the pulley at the end of the davit and jammed between the pulley and one of the side plates supporting it. This was a very bad situation as the dinghy was hanging a few feet above the water and could neither be raised nor lowered. (I eventually solved the problem by removing the bolt through the pulley which allowed the dinghy to drop, with a plash.)

Another time in a very crowded anchorage (in Ibiza) the wave of a passing boat violently shook the boat as the dinghy was being hoisted down to the water. The dinghy started swinging as well, repeatedly hitting the mother boat and bending a couple of handrail stanchions.

My dinghy was particularly heavy (250 kg or 550 lbs.) but, as mentioned by other posters, particular care should be taken when using these devices.

 

[Bud]

Roger that Xlantic. I had a hydrolic crane davit on my last vessel and we loved it. Had it for almost 20 years without incident. We were lifting mostly around 300lbs to 350lbs.

Bud

 

[Lepke]

I use a 12v truck crane, like you find on utility trucks. Lifts 2000 pounds at 6'. My shore boat is a 16' I/O so I need the lifting capacity. Crane cost $5000 on ebay. About 30Gs for a marine crane of the same capacity. It has power rotation and a long control cable so I can rig the boat from the water and load/unload it by myself. When not in use, it's covered by canvas, so nobody knows it's not a yachtie crane. Crane weighs 800 lbs. and probably 200 lbs. of support structure. Repainted it for marine service.

 

[Bud]

I use a 12v truck crane, like you find on utility trucks. Lifts 2000 pounds at 6'. My shore boat is a 16' I/O so I need the lifting capacity. Crane cost $5000 on ebay. About 30Gs for a marine crane of the same capacity. It has power rotation and a long control cable so I can rig the boat from the water and load/unload it by myself. When not in use, it's covered by canvas, so nobody knows it's not a yachtie crane. Crane weighs 800 lbs. and probably 200 lbs. of support structure. Repainted it for marine service.

Do you have any pics of it on the boat.

Bud

 

[Lepke]

No