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Need dinghy/crane advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Root
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Bill Root

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Oct 26, 2007
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817
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  1. OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
Hatteras Model
54' MOTOR YACHT (1985 - 1988)
I need to replace the dinghy on the 54' MY we just bought. The boat has a 1,000lb. Marquipt crane configured to launch the dinghy over the starboard side. I haven't used one of these cranes; my current boat has a tip-up dinghy carried on the swim platform.

I'm leaning toward a 13' Whaler with a 25/30hp motor or an 11' or 12' RIB with center console and about the same size motor. We use the dinghy primarily for fishing, taking our large dog to shore and general exploring. We don't need to go super fast, 25-30MPH is just fine.

Since the crane only lifts/lowers, the crane arm will need to be pushed and pulled around to get the dinghy on/off the dinghy chocks. How much of a problem will this be? I'm envisioning standing on the roof of the aft deck with the HAT healed over by the weight of the dinghy trying to pull it uphill to get it over the roof and onto the chocks. A 13' Whaler will weigh around 850# with motor and gear. The RIB will be 100-150lbs. lighter, but will have much less usable space inside.

What's the experience of folks on this site? How much of a problem will launching/retrieving that dinghy be? Thanks much!
 
first dont' go to small as an 11 or 12' RIB doesn't have much usable room inside. it's much more stable than a small whaler though, especially with a large dog.

i dont' find moving the boom around to be a problem and my tender is a heavy 13' hard hull. yes you need to pull to get the tender back over the chocks but it's not bad. hydraulic rotation is great but $$$$... not worth it for most folks.
 
I have a 54 Viking MY with a 12.5 AB dinghy with 40 OB on the bow. The Davit is from UMT and is 1000lb manual rotation with a 120 V winch. I believe the cost installed was 10,000 back in 07. Manual rotation is not a problem for me on the bow but I am behind a railing the whole time and the boat does not lean all that much. I would not prefer it on the aft deck roof but I think it is still doable. Maybe have two lines thrown down from the aft deck roof and tied to the bow and stern of the dinghy. That way you will have some control when your are retrieving it. Be careful not to let the dinghy break any windows on the way up or down. Feel free to PM me if you want specific detail on cost and details. Also UMT offers hydraulic rotation but I think it is 5000 more call Chris at UMT they were very good to work with.
 
We have that setup on our 53MY and it's no problem. The davit swivels rather easily and an 800 lb dinghy doesn't make a 60,000 lb boat heel enough to bother you. I just have a long line on the bow of the dinghy so I can keep it straight as it goes up and down and tie it off to the swim platform after it is down. Some people use 2 lines for better control, but I haven't found that necessary and have use the dinghy at least 500 times. If you have to get the dinghy down in serious waves, it will swing back and forth a lot, so wait or be careful.

I think a RIB is the best because you don't have to worry about a hard shell dinghy bumping into the side of your motoryacht going up and down and you can use it as a tender to push the big boat around if you ever need to (I needed to 3 times in 6 years). If there are already chocks for your existing setup, find what kind of dinghy they fit so you don't have to reinstall chocks on your aft deck roof.

Get 3 point or 4 point lifting chains to lift the dinghy by and a big center shackle to clip the davit hook onto. Leave the chains hooked to the dinghy eyes and laying on the floor of the dinghy when not in use for lifting. When you let it down, let out extra cable from the davit after it is in the water so you can pull it around to the side of the swim platform to unhook the davit clip.

We have a 40HP motor on a Nautica RIB12 Deluxe and I think it's too big
of a motor, but it's what came with the dinghy.

Doug
 
We have a Caribe 13' center console with a 40 horse Honda and I think the engine size is just right. Chine walking at 40 knots is......perfect!
But then I'm a life long racer, road race bikes for 25 years, now Porsches.
(Your mileage may vary)
We handle the Caribe with a Steelhead hydraulic (absolutely silent...yeah!) manual rotation davit. It takes a little muscle on the tag lines to rotate the boom back in at times, but nothing excessive.
 
I,ve had the same 13 whaler on the bow for 34 years its had 4 engines on it.whalers never die! I,ve got the old time fixed davit with a golopowerwinch setup. pushing it around is no problem as long as you grease the pivot and bearing joint once in a while. I would not go with less than a 40hp, not for the speed but when you have 4-5 people on the boat and 6-12gal gas the extra power is needed. I started with a 20 and it was underpowered. Make sure the winch cables and the pulleys on the davit are good and move freely. also check all electrical connections you dont want to get shocked. I coat everything in the remote box with dielectric grease (dow dc-4)
One thing about a Whaler there are no tubes to leak air like a rib (I saw the neighbors kid bump a pole loaded with mussles and the rib half sunk in less time than you can say oh _ _ _ _! I dont like standing on the tube to get out of the rib either that or you have to do a split to get out . down side of the whaler is that it does pound but that can be all but eliminated with power tilt and trim.
 
Hey Bill,

If you're going to keep a tender on the boat deck, I agree with the recommendations for a RIB. I recently traded mine in as I prefer a towed, larger tender...My last RIB was in great condition and is still for sale. You might be interested as it is near Aventura...

It's a 12' RIB w/Center Console and Mercruiser 25HP 4-stroke with only 81 hours on the motor...solid aluminum hull...

The guy who has it on consignmen is asking $3900...though I'm sure we would accept a reasonable offer...

http://www.tenderintl.com/

Would prefer someone on the HOF have the benefit of a well-found tender...

Steve
 
I am putting this here since its on topic... I removed my dinghy cradles last winter and need to adopt them out. They are solid teak, painted awlgrip white, with a rubber channeled liner for a 13' Boston whaler. One is cracked (still intact). Anyone want 'em? pm me for details ws
 
just another couple thoughts on safety:
-never have anyone under the load
-never lift anyone in the load
-dont allow anyone to stand near or behind the cable(if it breaks under load it becomes a bullwip)
-always use tag lines to guide the load from a safe distance
make sure everything in the load is secured and wont slide when lifted altering the cg.( including the motor steering)
-and most importantly use gloves when touching the cable( the little barbs that invaribly protrude from the cable will rip your hand open

these things are all common sence which you already probably know but it doesent hurt to reinforce them.
 
With a bow line and stern line to guard against unwanted dinghy swinging while during lift, due to wind and or waves, you should have no problem using either to easily swing the dingy aboard.

Such lines are always a good idea because you can be sure when you get the dinghy lifted some wake or other waves will arrive...just watch anyone lifting without such guide lines and you'll quickly discover the wisdom of using them.

RIBs are my favorite...hard bottom for shore and collision protection, soft sides to protect both the dinghy and big boat in rough conditions. Also, RIB's I have used with those big air tubes are considerably drier than vertical sided Whalers when running in windy conditions....biggest downside of RIBs is shorter longevity.... RIB longevity can be greatly extended by synthetic sun covers as seen a some megayachts....tied down over the air tubes. If you boat in varying temperature conditions, say cool at night and hot during the day, you'll have to adjust the RIB air pressure to satisfy both conditions...easy once you practice a bit.
 
Thank you to all for the great advice. It's much appreciated. It's ggod to know that my concerns about handling launch/retrieval are probably unfounde.

I'm leaning toward the Whaler because of the extra usable space and the fact that we do a lot of fishing. I'm not sure fish hooks and inflatables mix real well.
 
I have had an 11 ft. Whaler on my Hatteras since 1975 with a 15 hp outboard. It has been outstanding as a tender. Planes with two, carries four adults through reasonable seas. I believe this boat with wheel steering console is certified for 25 hp which would probably plane with four. Mine doesn't have the console, so isn't rated for larger engines.

I bought the 11 because I was concerned about the weight aloft of a 13 Whaler, perhaps the greatest small boat ever. We carry our tender on top, behind the flying bridge. After this much experience with the 11 footer I now think that we could carry the weight of a 13. Most of the added weight would go into the larger hp outboard. This would be about the same as one more passenger on the FB, which we carry with no problems. So not critical.

One problem which has arisen is the side clearance of our 11' with the ouboard mounted. Our cradle requires the outboard to be in its normal tilted up position. This means the propellor end extends out beyond the top flybridge deck and beyond the side rubrails. That is, it sticks out beyond the side of the boat, which means I have to be careful entering slips with tall pilings or overhead lighting or the tail of the outboard will hit them. One or the other will break.

This Whaler is about our fourth dink. It's predecessors were smaller and lighter, much tippier (and didn't last). I think the location of the present cradle may not have been optomized for fit with the Whaler and tilted outboard. Today the Whaler is between the davit to port and the radar mast to stbd,so can't be adjusted much. I would do some careful measuring to see how a 13 ft+ Whaler with outboard would fit a 15' 10" hull. But, after all, I have managed 35 years without breaking mine, so it can be done.

My children and now my grandchildren are driving this Whaler. It is unsinkable and virtually untipable. It has had 35 years in the tropical sun. It is a record that I don't think any other tender can match.

It is no harder to launch than any of its lighter predecessors. I use bow and stern lines to pull the dink over to the pt side and then to steady it as I lower it. One person can do it, but two are better. I never ever let anyone stand beneath it. I did replace the original geared manual winch with an electrical one, one of my better ideas. (Its 110v motor can also be powered by my inverter if necessary.)

I had one of the very first 13 ft. Whalers for more than 40 years before selling it. If there is such a thing as an "investment" in a boat, a Whaler is it!
 
We have a late model BW 130 Sport with a 2 stroke Mercury 40HP that we keep on the boat deck of our 18'2" beam 56MY. It has a manual Marquipt 1000lb davit with an AC 110v GoLo winch. We have used this literally hundreds of times, just the wife and I. We are not very adept or coordinated, but have launched and retreived under a variety of conditions. Some observations:

The Whaler seems to put this system at its limit. Indeed, we had Marquipt come out and weigh the dinghy when we were shopping for a new davit (right close to the top of "the list") it came in at a little over 1000lbs. We spent a good part of one Miami boat show looking at inflatables and looking at davits (Marquipt, Nautical Structures, Steelhead, et al). An inflatable that would give us the utility of the Whaler costs as much as a new DC powered 1200 lb hydraulic davit (lift only, not rotation or extension), and it wouldn't have the interior room.

We really enjoy the Whaler and use it constantly. It is the family SUV, since we anchor out and live on moorings much of the time, and love to explore all the places the mother ship can't get into. The interior room has come in handy many times as we have ferried guests, luggage and other cargo to and from. Even now when we are at the dock for extended periods, we take it for a spin on a regular basis. I just can't see spending the $$ for an equivalent inflatable as nice as they are.

I replaced the 1/4" cable with 5/16 stainless after the original cable broke when Ann inadvertently held the control in the "up" position for an extended period of time while we were getting the boat of the chocks. I didn't see any reason to go to the synthetic cord, and the winch was set up for this cable (check that yours is if you decide to switch for whatever reason). We had no issues with fish hooks before or since. We have a welded heavy aluminum "strong arm" rather than web harnesses for lifting the boat. The Whaler lists to starboard when in the air, the Hatteras seems to be completely unperturbed.

The biggest issue we have is the hard sided Whaler hitting the swim platform. We deploy a small fender from the Whaler and I have a large one that I hang horizontally from the base of the ladder. Often it works best to come straight in to the big fender and get on the swim platform from the bow. When we refurbished the platform this winter, I looked into putting vinyl rub rail on it with a rope insert, but we just couldn't get it right so I left it off rather than screw and glue something I was ambivalent about onto my nice new-looking platform.

So, that is a long winded way of saying that it is a great set up, but I'd like it a lot more with a 1200-1500lb davit and a good looking and functional swim platform edge that lessened the need for fenders. I haven't got around to putting the davit circuit on the inverter, which would also be convenient, partly because we want to go to DC/Hydraulic at some point and partly because it would not be very simple to do on our boat.
 
Thanks, George & Jim. My 54 MY has a 17'6" beam, so I think the length of the 13'6 Whaler will be OK behind the fly bridge. Besides, that's what the boat originally had before the guy I bought it from replaced it with an inflatable.
 
We also have a 13 ft BW, with the same crane and golo winch,
in order to protect the BW sides at the swim grid, we took the stainless steel hoops off an old boarding ladder and then drilled a set of holes in the grid to mount the hoops into, works great as crash pads. we use a 3 point lift harness with very high tensile line as the 3 point harness and the 5/16 st stl line for the winch. Using st stl for the 3 point harness did not work, the wire would snap as the lifting angle is very shallow.
 
this is an excellent source for all things whaler has the complete history of the 13 hull I had a 73 now a 91 they look similar but there were many improvements over the years the 91 has no wood in it the transom is flat for a better motor mount and it has a pocket for a small bilge pump. my 13 has the fiberglass seating with storage that is realy nice. We go lobster diving at night and the arch and floodlights are great

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/
 

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I tow a center consul 17' using a NewZeland Tie. The boat is towed literally right up close to the swim platform it requires a fender attached vertically to the front of the tender and I also put two small fenders on the back of the swim platform, primarily for backing.

When I back the tender acts like an extension of the boat so it is perfect for locking thru and of course makes it easy to use.

I learned this tie method from an Austrailian Captain who said when they fish they take the "Mother Ship " and pull a smaller fishing boat for use on the reefs because of the heavy seas there towing the boat on a long tether can be problamatic. This method does require the tender or boat your pulling to have a blunt front or the ability to secure an fender horizontally on the front, typical of bay boats.

This system works for us because we anchor alot and use the tender constantly, and the center consul came with the boat as part of the package. The only down side is that when you are in a slip many times you have to disconnect the dink due to the length. While in home port it becomes our fishing boat, go to town boat etc.
 
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I also have a 13BW GLS w/40 outboard. I like the boat OK but the motor is too heavy for hoisting around. It starts poorly so probably this year I will replace it with a 20/25/30 hp outboard, hopefully lighter in weight. I'd prefer to have a dinghy that is also a great fishing boat, but the little CC (Dauntless) BWs are too heavy, as are the small jet boats (the grandchildren would love one of those). The BW has a ton of space, seating for 6 and will never wear out - but she sure isn't any lightweight.
 
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