My platform is about 3 inches above the water. The davits are glued on the
side of the tube, about 4 inches above the water line. It is fairly easy to
engage/disengage the davits simply by pushing/pulling on them. Only when
the dinghy is fully loaded and still attached to the davits on the platform
do we have to "lean away from the boat, folks" to take weight off the
davits to unhook them.  However, I had another problem, that you obviously
have, and that is that the the dinghy blocks access to the ladder.
Actually, I had to fashion swim platform extensions, 1x6 mahogany boards,
bolted to the swim platform and extending out about 12 inches beyond the
platform, to attach the davits.  This placed the davits far enough out from
the ladder to allow the dinghy to pivot up, past vertical and lean slightly
toward the transom against the ladder. The extension boards are not very
elegant, but they are easily removable with a couple bolts each, and they
aren't visible when the dinghy is mounted (most of the time). Even with
these extensions, the dinghy leans against the ladder up to the aft deck,
essentially blocking it's use from the water.  To use the dinghy, we untie
a line at the aft railing that releases the dinghy and allows it to deploy,
then we simply climb down the ladder to the platform.  Boarding, we reverse
the process.

You cannot glue the davits to the tops of the tubes, or the dinghy will not
lay flat in the water when deployed and you will not be able to unhook it.
You should glue the davits on the tubes so they are slightly above the
davits on the platform when the dinghy is empty and sitting in the water.

Frank Timpano
Hatteras 38 DCMY "Discovery"
Deltaville, VA  on the Chesapeake

At 07:46 AM 7/17/00 -0700, E16 wrote:

Hi Garrett -

I faced the same problem - especially since the Weaver instructions said to
align the bottom of the pads with the top of the bootstripe. I called their
support folks and they told me that the placement of the pads (vertically
on the inflatable) was critical due to the way the dinghy sits when in the
"Up" (out of the water) position. If you glue the pads too low, then the
pivot and balance points are not correct. I had two choices - put extenders
on the swim platform (Weaver sells custom made ones that quickly
attach/detach) or live with pushing the dinghy edge down to snap/unsnap it
from the davits. I went the later route and it has worked quite well. When
the raft is empty it does sit rather high and pulls up on the swim
platform. As soon as you put significant weight into it (e.g. me) it
becomes very easy to attach and detach.

Good luck with the installation.

Jeff

At 07:46 AM 7/17/00 -0700, you wrote:

<<snip>>
However, because the swim platform is only 4 inches above the water, my
mental
picture suggests something's wrong with the geometry.
<<snip>>

Jeff L. Kenyon, Ph.D.
Anthropologist/Sociologist
NRCS Social Sciences Institute
350 Agriculture Hall
1450 Linden Drive
Madison, WI  53706
Tel:  608-265-3646
Fax: 608-262-6022
email:  jkenyon@ssc.wisc.edu
Voice Mail 9000-865-2665

Garrett:

I'm still wading thru all the TWL msgs from July that were posted while we
were gone.  I saw a couple of installations up in Desolation Sound that are
just what you are looking for.  They are the same as Andy Clark described in
his reply to you.  I remembered them because we are considering ditching the
Livingston in favor of an RIB.  One thing you might consider in your
selection.  We saw and spoke to the owner of an "Aquapro" RIB that highly
recommended it.  The reason is that it had an Aluminum floor vs. FG or Wood.
He claimed it was SUBSTANTIALLY lighter than either of those and had all the
better characteristics associated with RIB bottoms of those materials.  As I
recall, he said the weight of the RIB was 70# vs. 120 - 140 for the others.
I haven't had time to verify this yet, but it sounds desirable.

Oops!  I decided to call the local RIB Gurus "Inflatable Boat Works" here in
Seattle.  Here is new information.

On the weaver clips:  According to them, Weaver makes sets for RIBs that are
the reverse of what is normally used for rigid dinghies.  Instead of having
the "loops" on the swim step and the "clips" on the dinghy - the RIB model
has the loops on a patch for gluing in the RIB and the clips are mounted on
the swim step.  Also the normal position for gluing the patches is 2/10
o'clock on the tubes, not right on top.  Whether the step mounted loops have
the zig-zag to raise them - I don't know.

Regarding aluminum hull RIBs.  They don't carry Aquapro, but Zodiac does
make Aluminum hull Models.  According to them, the aluminum hulls ARE
lighter, BUT not that much (approx 10# in a 10' boat, maybe 20# in a larger
model), and the cost is substantially higher ($400 US) for Alum. vs. FG.
They claimed that at some point Aquapro had to "beef up" their bottoms
'cause they were crumpling.  This may be why the weight differential wasn't
as great as we had been told.  Finally, the reason that they didn't carry
them was because they were imports (Australian or NZ), there was no US
office, the warranties were the responsibility of the distributor not the
manufacturer, and there had been problems with nailing a distributor down
when necessary for a warranty claim.  "Sorry, we don't distribute them any
more, ... etc."

I'd be interested to know if there is a dealer in BC, and what their story
might be.

Dick Nielsen
"Keebird"
38' Bayliner
Seattle

----- Original Message -----
From: "E16" E16@telus.net
To: trawler-world-list@samurai.com
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 7:46 AM
Subject: TWL: Weaver Davits & Low Swim Platform

them