Dinghy Hoist for North Westerner

[Jonathan Millenaar]

What seems to be the most practical way to put a dinghy on top of a cab?
Manual crane, electric crane, small mast with hoist?

 

[refugio]

Interesting boat! Welded aluminum makes me believe that strength won't be an issue.

The answer is, it depends. How often are you likely to deploy / retrieve? How big a dinghy are you contemplating? With motor? Are you single-handed? Do you need to trailer it - or perhaps rack store it - where height is an issue?

The logical place to mount a davit with winch is on the side deck, but it looks like your side decks are already narrow. It would be easier to deploy & retrieve single-handed with an electric winch with wired remote - then you could use at least one hand to maneuver the dinghy to keep it from striking the superstructure. Also, a single davit would restrict you to launching on that one side.

I also note that you have a single OB, and the alternator isn't going to put out much power - so an electric winch could put a strain on your electrical system.

A small mast would look "salty", but come with lots more complexity in terms of rigging, options for mounting lights and antennas, et cetera. But my gut feel is that your house is too short to make use of a mast with a dinghy that's likely to run 9' long.

Another alternative you might consider is simply winching it straight up over the stern and over the rear of the house, possibly with an intermediate support. If you are thinking a non-RIB inflatable, that could be the simplest. Heck, since you'll probably take off the OB first, you might be able to just haul it up by hand - I was able to do that with a 2.81 Avon onto a CD22. It was an effort, but certainly doable.

BTW, you might want to ask this on the CBrats site: the folks there own other trailerable cruisers in your size range and might have additional input.

 

[Jonathan Millenaar]

Thanks for the options. They all have their pros and cons. I like the "salty look" mast option if it can be achieved without starting from scratch to build. Have you seen a set up like that which is ready to mount?

 

[refugio]

I can't recall a stock mast that would work for various small boats other than a few powder-coated radar pedestals that are probably wrong for you application. If you are in the PNW, you might visit "Second Wave" in Seattle and look for a cast-off.

A better alternative would be to work with North Westerner - there might be another customer willing to share development expenses, and it could result in something that they would like to market. And the builder is certainly the best one to assess to attachements point and stress loads.

 

[Marin]

You might want to contact Eric Henning of this forum. Eric has a 30' Willard and he carries his dinghy on top of his cabin. But from his avatar photo his boat has no mast or boom, nor does it have any sort of apparent dinghy davit. I can't tell from his avatar photo what sort of dinghy he's carrying up there these days but he might be able to offer some ideas on how to get one up and down without the aid of a mast and boom or a davit system.

The use of an outboard sort of precludes any kind of transom davit system unless one could be devised to move the dinghy in such a way as to clear the motor. But this is likely to be heavy and expensive.

Of course you could tow your dinghy but you may not want to do that.

I have no idea if Eric will see this so you might want to PM him.

 

[Larry H]

You might want to check with EQ Marine, Cornet Bay, Washington. They have equipped a 25ft C-Dory with a crane to put an inflatable on the cabin top.

 

[refugio]

You might want to check with EQ Marine, Cornet Bay, Washington. They have equipped a 25ft C-Dory with a crane to put an inflatable on the cabin top.

Mega props for Les at EQ. He has rigged many boats in this size range and is now building the Marinaut. Great guy.