I've an inquiry for current and former owners of DeFever 44 and 44+5 cruisers. My 1982 44 footer has a large, hard dinghy mounted on the upper boat deck. Our boat has the original two stanchions per side supporting the upper deck (which then marries into the house and flybridge structure) and there is evidence of previous repairs to the gelcoat at the point where the boat deck wings (or the pickleforks as the Washington State Ferries call them) join the house and flybridge. There are also new and continuing stress fractures at this point on our boat. I have been aboard both the Meander and the Island Fever, also 44 footers here in Puget Sound, and they both have what appears to be "post-production" additive supports for the boat deck. One has a center, vertical stanchion amidships and two angled stanchions on the stern and the other has much beefier stanchions on boat sides of the lower deck and supporting the upper deck. Have others experienced this type of problem on the 44 and 44+5 boats? My guess is that it is a design flaw and that other boats have come up with other solutions and fixes. My first step is to remove the heavy, hard dinghy and replace it with a lighter weight RIB. Any other cures or suggestions? Many thanks, Steven Williford M/V Cloud Nine Seattle

At 02:44 PM 6/27/02 -0700, you wrote: >I've an inquiry for current and former owners of DeFever 44 and 44+5 >cruisers. My 1982 44 footer has a large, hard dinghy mounted on the upper >boat deck. Our boat has the original two stanchions per side supporting the >upper deck (which then marries into the house and flybridge structure) and >there is evidence of previous repairs to the gelcoat at the point where the >boat deck wings (or the pickleforks as the Washington State Ferries call >them) join the house and flybridge. There are also new and continuing >stress fractures at this point on our boat. I have been aboard both the >Meander and the Island Fever, also 44 footers here in Puget Sound, and they >both have what appears to be "post-production" additive supports for the >boat deck. One has a center, vertical stanchion amidships and two angled >stanchions on the stern and the other has much beefier stanchions on boat >sides of the lower deck and supporting the upper deck. > >Have others experienced this type of problem on the 44 and 44+5 boats? My >guess is that it is a design flaw and that other boats have come up with >other solutions and fixes. My first step is to remove the heavy, hard >dinghy and replace it with a lighter weight RIB. > >Any other cures or suggestions? > >Many thanks, > >Steven Williford =========================================================== Take the dink off the roof and get rid of some of the roll factor. Put it on your swim platform and make the launch and retrieve much quicker and safer.......... . Captain Al Pilvinis "M/V Driftwood"--Prairie 47 2630 N.E. 41st Street Lighthouse Point, Fl 33064-8064 Voice 954-941-2556 Fax 954 788-2666 Email yourcaptain@earthlink.net Website http://home.earthlink.net/~yourcaptain

Our DeFever was starting to develop similar cracks. I added a support from the railing by the ladder to the boat deck. It looks nice and has made the upper deck much stiffer.Obviously, the lighter the dinghy, the less the problem. Fred Flinn