Rear pulpit mounted dinghy - Bad idea?

[Mollusk]

Id like to mount my dinghy, which I am custom building, to my rear pulpit. I want to build a system (not too cumbersome) that will hold, hoist, and drop my dinghy into the water in an uprite position (the dinghy would sit on the mount like it would in the water). I curious why I dont see this done more often. Does anyone know if this would cause wind drag? Are there any reasons not to do this besides space limitations from the overhang? Cheers.

[svindigo]

This is not an uncommon activity. If you look up dinghy davits or arch davits on google you will see many executions. Particular considerations vary by boat type (dinghy and mothership) and deck arrangement. Good luck with your project.

[GerryMH]

What sort of sailing are you intending to do?

If you are going offshore or regularly sail in heavy conditions i would not think this is to be recommended.
Windage and the possibility of having the whole catastrophe swept away would be my main concerns...

www.gerryantics.blogspot.com

[Faster]

The success of this approach depends on the size/weight of the boat, the dinghy, and the transom design of the "mothership".

This can put a lot of weight at the back of the boat and upset the trim. Some windage can be expected, but that may not be a major concern. The extended length will be counted by marinas in calculating moorage fees. If the dinghy is overly long and protrudes outside the beam of the boat this can cause issues with docking too.

Should the dinghy ever get full of water (excessive rain or getting "pooped" at sea) the tremendous weight this produces could be a huge problem.

Finally, hopefully you are not relying on the stern pulpit attachments to support this venture... in no way are these attachments engineered for the additional stresses that the dinghy and davits would cause.

[sailingdog]

Mollusk-

Welcome to sailnet.

It would help if you said what boat you want to do this on. If you have a IP40, then it might make a lot of sense... however, on a Cape Dory 25, it probably is a bad, bad idea.

Dinghies on davits work pretty well when coastal cruising, but on a bluewater passage, the dinghy is very susceptible to getting filled with water and severely damaged. What kind of sailing do you plan to do and what area are you sailing in?

BTW, building your own davits may be more expensive than buying them. Garhauer Marine makes some excellent dinghy davits for a reasonable price.

I'd also recommend you read this post to get the most of your time on Sailnet.

[Maine Sail]

Are you looking for something like this?

And the dinghy on the davits:

DO NOT USE DAVITS IN ROUGH WEATHER!

[tdw]

What a lovely looking boat Halekai.

[Idiens]

I carry my 2.3 m inflatable dinghy on davits on a 11.6m boat, no problems. For ocean crossings, I would shift it inverted to the foredeck or deflate and store it.

[jimmalkin]

I'll chime in on davits as being a poor idea in rough weather. Delivering a 64' ketch to Antigua from St. Thomas and beating into a head sea, had the rigid dinghy work loose from the davits - in the scramble to secure it, almost had a crew fall off the transom (tethered, but still no fun.) I'm a firm believer in deflating inflatables and lashing rigids on deck. The inflating/deflating and hoisting/deploying isn't that much more time than the davit operation and IMO is sufficiently safer to warrent the time spent. I've also seen bent and broken davits - never sure whether due to collision with docks/pilings or to use or structural fatigue.

Taronga, as pictured, carries the rigid inverted and ahead of the mast on anything other than a daysail in soft conditions. The dinghy sits with its nose in a chock and is lashed with spectra webbing to padeyes. Best of luck with your choice.

[Mollusk]

Thanks for the advice. I'm on a fairly beamy 32. I'm not a fan of towing and I would hate to sacrifice my fordeck. I live in the San Juans, which is where I do my sailing, Gulf Islands included. I'm building a little 3 person plywood dinghy, about 7' or so. Maybe I'll just stick with towing.