Time to Replace Davit?

[Passages]

This old school Davit needs to retire

It's a Nautical Structures DC powered unit with a burned out motor and battle scars from 30+ years of service.

What I'd like is a low profile Davit with a powered rotational base. The Whaler weighs about 800 lbs loaded so a 1000 lb capacity unit should get it done.

Are there other companies out there beside Marquipt and Nautical Stutures worth consideration?

Any words of advice from those who have been through this?

 

[Pascal]

QuickLift. Small company here in Miami, great product and amazing service. Unlike nautical structure.

The 70 johnson I ran for 9 years had one of their Davits and it was great. Right now the 84 lazzara has a nautical structure. Service is awful. We had to spend $10k 2 years ago to partially rebuild it, it was 8 years old then.

 

[motoryacht lover]

I replaced my manual Davit a year and half ago with a steelhead 1000. It is fully hydraulic. I am very pleased and has made loading and unloading the tender so much less hassle. It was 25K installed in Stuart , Fl by Bullhead marine. Very pleased with Steel head and bullhead

 

[Passages]

Had UMT Marine out to the boat today. Seemed very knowledgeable.
Will get a quote next day or so. Anyone have experience with this company?

 

[motoryacht lover]

yes I had a UMT manual davit that was replace by the Hydraulic Steelhead. UMT is a reputable company but I am not convinced that their davits are the top of the line. My manual UMT went through 2 winch motors in 10 years and was working on the third when I cried Uncle. It also is made from aluminum which will require periodic painting to keep looking good. The wire that powered the winch sagged and got caught in the gears which severed power with one time with the dinghy in the air. I am not pushing steelhead just wanting you to be aware of what I noticed. Steelhead retracts and all of it is sleeved in fiberglass or plastic which eliminates the painting of aluminum. UMT may make a great hydraulic davit that may have none of the above issues. One of the main guys at UMT when to YRM who also makes davits and has a very good person to deal with. His first name is Chris. He is polish so I don’t want to try and spell his last name.

 

[Pascal]

I have head of UMT but neither bad or good.

Again call Quicklift. Excellent quality and service... heavy duty wireless remote with manual override on the pump. Most of Hargrave Yachts these days use them.

http://www.quicklift.com/

 

[Passages]

Thanks, I know you are a fan of Steelhead but I'm concerned they are on the West Coast of Canada while I'm on the East coats of South Florida. There seems to be a bunch of fabricators within a 50 mile radius.

 

[Passages]

I have head of UMT but neither bad or good.

Again call Quicklift. Excellent quality and service... heavy duty wireless remote with manual override on the pump. Most of Hargrave Yachts these days use them.

http://www.quicklift.com/

I did. My call went to voicemail. Got called back this am and person I spoke to said his Mom got my message to him late. During our conversations he mentions his mom several times.
Seemed a little unprofessional and gave the impression it's a 1 man operation working out of the trunk of his car.

 

[motoryacht lover]

Parsing words a little bit but I am not a fan of Steelhead just a satisfied customer. Any of the good brands should be fine. BTW my steelhead was installed in Stuart and dealer at least at that time kept a 1000lb in stock. I had a warranty issue that was a couple of months out of warranty and they covered it. Plus as fellow Viking owners we can have matching davits at the next Hatt rendezvous. Read pascal’s post about quick lift and saw about a manual override of hyd pump. Mine has the wire less remote but I don’t think I have manual override. That is a nice feature.

 

[Pascal]

I did. My call went to voicemail. Got called back this am and person I spoke to said his Mom got my message to him late. During our conversations he mentions his mom several times.
Seemed a little unprofessional and gave the impression it's a 1 man operation working out of the trunk of his car.

It s a family business. Two brothers plus a couple Of employees and yes the mom runs the office. Personally I like this better than a company like Nautical Structure with many people with fancy titles which result in lousy service.

They ve been around for years... good people.

 

[petewentsailing]

Agree with Pascal. Installed a Quick Lift on a 74 hatt I run 7 years ago. Its been trouble free. Great support from both Danny and his mom whenever we've had questions.

 

[Passages]

It s a family business.

They ve been around for years... good people.

Ok, I can appreciate that. Gave the fellow from Quicklift my criteria, let's see what the come back with for an estimate.

 

[doc g]

Run from Marquipt too. Horrible support, talked to thier service manager for ten or so minutes . Called him the next day and he swore he never spoke to me, and I was calling his personal cell phone given to me from someone at Marquipt. Had a cylinder leak, the one for the cable , asked for a exploded view and a reeving diagram for the cable,service mgr told me "just start taking it apart you'll figure it out".........Pat !!!

 

[Passages]

Parsing words a little bit but I am not a fan of Steelhead just a satisfied customer. Any of the good brands should be fine. BTW my steelhead was installed in Stuart and dealer at least at that time kept a 1000lb in stock. I had a warranty issue that was a couple of months out of warranty and they covered it. Plus as fellow Viking owners we can have matching davits at the next Hatt rendezvous. Read pascal’s post about quick lift and saw about a manual override of hyd pump. Mine has the wire less remote but I don’t think I have manual override. That is a nice feature.

Oops, I must have missed the part in your earlier post about your Steelhead being installed in Florida.

Was that yard in Stuart a dealer for Steelhead? If yes, I might as well deal with them.

 

[Passages]

Run from Marquipt

Well, I called them and was told the sales manager Garret, lives 2 streets away from my marina. He stopped by after work. Very sharp guy who knows davits.

I suspect his price will be the highest of the bunch. Was unaware their service was bad. I'm ok with paying a bit more for great service.

 

[motoryacht lover]

Oops, I must have missed the part in your earlier post about your Steelhead being installed in Florida.

Was that yard in Stuart a dealer for Steelhead? If yes, I might as well deal with them.

The davit was installed at the Riverforest Stuart Yard. The davit dealer was Bullhead Marine and he installed it at the yard.

 

[Sadey]

Garnett is his name. Spoke with him yesterday. We are in the same boat. Tried to find used with no success. Also didn’t know about their customer service. Spoke with Jose at UMT who has been very helpful. Not sure which way to go. Boat is in Wisconsin which carry’s it’s own set of issues.

 

[motoryacht lover]

Garnett is his name. Spoke with him yesterday. We are in the same boat. Tried to find used with no success. Also didn’t know about their customer service. Spoke with Jose at UMT who has been very helpful. Not sure which way to go. Boat is in Wisconsin which carry’s it’s own set of issues.

Don’t know if they do it now but about 10 years ago UMT traveled to Virginia and installed the davit on my boat. They shipped everything and I picked them up at the airport. They stayed on the boat. The boat had no davit at all and they were still done in 2 days. Ask if they will travel to Wisconsin.

 

[elpescador47]

I have a UMT davit installed by previous owner years ago. It has worked well with only minor and reasonable maintenance.

I had to replace the spring disc brake last year and customer service from the company was very poor.

I was always told somebody would call me "tomorrow" or in a few days, but they never did. 10 emails, 5 phone calls, and 3 months later I fabricated the part myself.

During this process I found some comments on other forums that gave me the impression that UMT customer service was better when selling a new system than it was supporting a previously sold/installed system.

 

[tomrealest]

I have had a UMT for about 10 years. I think I am on my 3rd motor. Last year had an issue with the brake. Another issue they pushed me to buy new. I had somebody else do the repair. I would try out Pascal's recommendation. They might ship it to you and fly up to do the installation like UMT did for somebody else. I would only go back to UMT for replacement parts.