E-38 Dinghy Davits/Hoist?

[noproblemo2]

Does anyone have or know of a good dinghy lift system for an E-38?

[Chris Miller]

We've been looking into davits for our 38 and decided on Kato Marine (http://www.katomarine.com) after looking at all the options. They are not cheap, but after talking to lots of other sailors and checking out all the options at a couple of boatshows (including Annapolis), we found them to be best suited to our needs. Especially good if you ever want to do any long distance stuff... they seem more stable than most. I'm sure there are lots of opinions on this subject, but I'd definitely check them out.
They also have done E-38's so they have all the basic measurements and pictures of the fit up.
Chris

[e38sailorman]

Try typing in Ocean Marine Davits on your search engine. I have their davits on my 38, they look good and work great.

[JMGOMEZ]

An alternative to davits is a lift sytem consisting of a detachable SS pole and swinging arm. This doubles as a lift system for any heavy item from dinghy or dock. Check out lift system from St. Croix, which costs about $500-$600.

Incidentally, those of you with inflatables and E27/29's, where do store the rolled up boat?

Joe Gomez
S/V Imagine
E27

[Ernest]

It is essential when using davits to get the dingy up tight to the davits and devise a system that will not allow the dink to slide (at all) to port or starboard when sailing. Even a small amount of movement will play havoc when well heeled in gust. The longer the dink, the bigger the problem. I used a 10' dink on a 44 foot Columbia and it would touch the water when heeled in a big gust. And this boat had a lot more freeboard than an Ericson. These were also big high davits. Just something to consider before spending the big boat bucks. Ernie Schlesinger

[Sven]

Incidentally, those of you with inflatables and E27/29's, where do store the rolled up boat?

In the slip, on La Petite we store it in the v-berth until it is time to settle in for the evening, then we lift it up on deck. When at anchor we'll of course inflate it (using a 12-volt vacuum to speed it up). When we are about to weigh anchor we use the same vacuum to deflate the 8' 6" dingy. All the liftiung is good foer you :-)



-Sven

[Loren Beach]

On our prior 26 foot boat, and on our present 34... we have stored the slat-floor roll-up Zodiac on the front of the cabin. We half deflate both side chambers and fold the boat over once. Then a securing line goes over it from toe rail to toe rail.
This way it only needs a short bit of re-inflation with the foot pump to be ready to re-lauch over the side for use.
When below decks and back in its bag, we keep in the aft cabin, which reduces the double berth to a single.
Loren in PDX

[ted_reshetiloff]

On our E-38 we keep the dinghy at home in the garage when not in use. :D

When we go out we keep it rolled up on the cabintop fwd of the mast. I have recently started storing it on the port side between the shrouds and the cabinside. I have the turnbuckles covered so no pins in the dinghy.. This method doesn't block visability and helps with the strbd list that we have. After the first night out we inflate and tow it unless we expect heavy weather in which case we stow on deck again. I thought about davits and maybe if I did more extensive cruising I might, but for the expense its hard to justify. Also the sun is the biggest enemy of these things along with theft. I guess you could lock it up and put a cover on it but it also can get in the way backing into a slip. Not to mention the performance aspects of adding weight to the ends. I would probably get davits if I was going to go cruising for a serious length of time. But then I would also get a RIB in that case. RIBs obviously dont stow on deck all that well and davits would be the best way to get the dinghy out of the water. Its a tough call on a 38 foot boat, but me personally I would never even consider it on someting smaller. I just dont like all the clutter... My $.02 FWIW.

[u079721]

I would love to have been able to install davits on our 38, but the one E-38 I saw with davits and a dinghy was squating a fair amount from the load. I just don't think the hull form of the E-38 is broad enough in the stern to handle the extra weight that far aft.

We used a folding Porta-Bote as our dinghy solution. It was not perfect, but it stowed between the cabin and shrouds on the side deck out of the way on long passages, and towed fairly well in protected waters.

If we had moved to an inflatable I was going to look into one of those dinghy mouts that holds the stern up but allows the bow to float aft. I saw quite of few up in Canada and they looked to work quite well.