I have a 58' Navigator Pilothouse. The old dinghy was a 8' Caribe with bad tubes and water sloshing in the fiberglass hull. It sat in a cradle on top of the main salon. The davit is a single boom mounted on the starboard side with a 800# capacity. One of the issues is that my boat is best suited to be tied up on the starboard side, i.e. power cable, blackwater tank, and hatch by the main helm. It appears that I would have to extend the davit out so that I could offload the dinghy on the port side. To do that, I would have to derate the capacity something fierce! That silly Caribe probably weighs 500# and I gave it to one of the marina guys. I've been looking at lightweight dinghies similar to the Gig Harbor Boatworks 10' Navigator (I like the model name!). It is 10' long and because it is made out of Kevlar, weighs 75#. 10' is a bit short and they don't make a 12'. I also looked at Porta botes. They offer a 12.5' that weighs in at 85#. I realize that the weights listed are sans outboards, so I would have to factor that in. Does anyone out there know of a quality lightweight dinghy that doesn't have air tubes? Oh and that marina guy drilled a hole in the bottom and drained the water out. He then patched the hole and fixed the crack by the keel. His young daughter was coming to spend the summer with him, so he was going to give it to her. I told him that he would be the father of the year if he painted the daughters name on it. He did and the girl will see it next week. How cool is that? Thanks!
As you are in WA, there are many wooden boat building schools around there. Why not contact one of them and get a custom one built in wood, the best and most durable material for lightweight dinghies? My first thought for a lightweight was a Walker Bay, but they too stop at 10'. http://walkerbay.com/dinghies-sailkits/rigid-dinghy/walkerbay10/
We have a Walker Bay, but it's the Genesis RIB. The 10' Genesis (310FTD) isn't what I'd call lightweight; it's around 125-lbs. (Specs on their website.) The outboard adds another approx. 107-lbs, battery another 20-lbs, fuel, up to another 35-lbs or so. Their slightly longer model doesn't add much more weight, but we carry ours aft, athwartships, and I thought the longer model would be pushing the beam too much... The folding transom (FTD) isn't particularly necessary, doesn't add anything for our purposes. -Chris
On the other hand, What about re-locating the davit? A new down tube is all you will need. Leave the old support/down tube in place and have a tube cap made. Then you can lift from either side when needed.
I was about to suggest the same thing. It may be difficult to do if the standpipe goes thru the inside of the boat but if installed outside on the aft deck, it will be the easiest solution. Extending th boom is simply not going to work. If the davit is simple model, it can be lifted off the standpipe and switched over pretty easily
Hi Pascal. Why wouldn't extending the boom not work? I could gain an extra 24" and still leave 18" inside. My davit tube is, indeed, inside the boat. I was talking to a Gig Harbor Boatworks guy and he said that a 12' Pt Defiance only weighs 130# if made with Kevlar. Wouldn't going from a heavy Caribe to a much lighter boat be the answer? If extending the boom and purchasing a quality dinghy would do the trick why go through the expense of relocating the boom? Am I missing something?
