Davits...Finally!

This post is to summarize the journey to finally have davits installed and operational on Sandrobber. We spent a considerable amount of time researching this addition to our boat, as it was something that would be a "permanent" installation...and once they were installed, we knew that this decision was not reversible.

First off...really quickly...some of you might ask "What's a davit anyway?". Simply put, a set of davits is the mechanism that we employ to attach our dinghy and motor to the mother ship. For dog management, as well as fully being able to enjoy our cruising experience, we have known that a dinghy was something that we wanted to be able to have with us everywhere that we travel. It allows us to "walk the dogs" during our travels, without needing to pull into a marina every 4-5 hours for this reason alone. And then wherever we decide to anchor out for the night, the dinghy expands our ability to explore places that we can't go in the boat.

There were really 4 options for what we could do with the dinghy:

1. Just tow it behind the boat and be done with it. This really wasn't a long-term solution for us. There were safety concerns with this, and also towing a dinghy really makes going through locks very difficult at times.
2. Install a crane on the upper deck and store the dinghy up there on a set of chocks. This was not only quite expensive, but for our purposes, this was not a good solution. We didn't really want to add weight and sail area up top, and given the space available, we didn't like this direction.
3. Use some tip-up style davits. One side of the dinghy would be attached to the back of the swim platform at the water level, and then the dinghy would have to be rotated up, until it was stowed on it's side in the vertical position. We know some other tug owners who have successfully performed this installation, but we still had some concerns about the stress that this would put on the swim platform.
4. Install traditional style davits that anchor to both the swim platform and the transom, and allow for the dinghy to be hung from the back of the boat in a horizontal position.

We chose #4, and settled on davits manufactured by St. Croix. And here is what the final installation looks like:

And here is what it looks like when we add the dinghy:

 So basically, we pull the dinghy up along side the back of the swim platform, attach the dinghy to the davits using the lift rings that are built into the dinghy, and then simply use the block and tackle mechanisms to lift the dinghy into it's stowed position. We will have a couple of other straps to secure that aren't shown, which keep it from swinging around while underway. But the bottom line is that this installation was exactly what we expected, and we feel secure knowing that we have a great permanent solution.

And these also rotate out of the way when the dinghy is in the water. We were concerned that we would lose full use of the swim platform as a result of adding davits, but this solution has proved to be not very intrusive at all. It has added only a very minor inconvenience, and we are not at all concerned about any access or use issues.

For those of you with an interest...here are a few close-ups of the brackets themselves:

The handles that were installed at the top of the transom, to anchor the top of the davits, are through-bolted through the transom and extremely secure. The plates at the bottom of the davits are bolted through the swim platform, plus we added some substantial backing plates (of aluminum) to the underneath side of the platform for stability and to spread the stress out a bit. Here is a pic of the backing plate underneath the swim platform...it is roughly 12"x18":

So that's the end of the story with our davits...probably more than anyone really wanted to know!

Some Boat Projects

This post is just for those of you who might be interested in a few things that we are having done to the boat at present. Any boat owner knows that maintenance never stops, but there are some projects that we choose to not do ourselves (and frankly we can't do most of these). So, last Monday, we pulled the boat out of the water to get a few things accomplished.

For those of you who might be wondering how you pull a 20,000 lb boat out of the water, it is actually quite simple...if you have a marina with the right equipment. In this case, our marina has a 44 ton travel lift that makes it a piece of cake. We simply drive the boat up to the loading area, they slip the slings under the appropriate lift points and away we go. Once they have it in the slings, they can "drive" the crane around to a spot on the yard where they basically just put the boat up on blocks for the maintenance tasks. Here we are hanging in the slings:

So what are we getting done? Here is the laundry list:

• Bottom Job - basically sanding off the bottom paint (the black paint), and re-applying 2 fresh coats. This paint protects the bottom and inhibits algae growth. In fresh water, we don't have to worry about barnacles, but we would were we in salt water. The paint we applied is designed for use primarily in fresh water environments. It will last at least a couple of years.
• Prop tuning - we decided to pull the propeller and have it re-tuned to factory specs. This is something that needs to be done every so often, and we also found a couple of small dings that will be fixed. This thing is a beast...26" in diameter and it weighs a "ton"...not something that any of us would want to try to lift. Here is a pic of our bright shiny tuned prop:

• Dinghy davits - we finally are having our dinghy davits installed. This will allow us to take our dingy with us on our travels, and will make dog management a whole lot easier. In simple terms, this is a set of brackets attached to the transom and swim platform at the stern of the boat. The dinghy will hang from these brackets...we'll have pictures of this in a later installment.
• Fuel Manifold replacement - one of the original manifolds that serves as a junction point for getting fuel from the tank room, through a bulkhead, and into the engine room needed to be replaced. The original factory manifold was prone to leakage, and ours indeed did leak...so this will be replaced, and this nuisance item will be off our list to worry about.
• Anode replacement - there are a number of anodes (commonly called zincs) on our boat. These are necessary chunks of metal that sacrificially corrode so that the important metal parts of our boat don't corrode. As they are sacrificial, they need to be replaced every so often, so now is the time. We will be replacing the main shaft anode, the bow thruster anodes, and adding a new anode to the rudder shaft. The 2 shaft anodes will be magnesium, and the bow thruster anodes will be aluminum. Again...in salt water these would be different...they all would be made from zinc. Here is a picture of the one that is on the main shaft, just in front of the propeller.

          And here is the replacement anode and refurbished prop:

There are a few other minor items that will also get attended to, but these are the major items that will put us in primo shape for the time being. The list never ends, but having these done makes the list a whole lot shorter!

Sandhill Cranes for Thanksgiving?

Don't worry...we ate turkey for Thanksgiving dinner!

In fact, Sandy made a wonderful turkey roulade for Thanksgiving dinner, which we enjoyed on the boat. The weather forecast was OK, and we had decided that we wanted to spend Thanksgiving on the boat...and it worked out great. There is a wildlife and bird refuge about 25 miles upriver where the Hiawassee River flows into the Tennessee. It is a beautiful area to cruise, and we had been there earlier in the year.

However, we had learned that a massive population of Sandhill Cranes migrate through this area during the winter months, and we were excited to see if they had started arriving yet. So, we combined this with our Thanksgiving plan to be on the boat, and headed upriver.

The short version of the story is that we had a wonderful time...we saw thousands of cranes, and at least 6 bald eagles. We spent one night at Blue Water Marina in the Dayton, TN area, which worked out great. And although the weather was a bit cool, and cloudy off and on, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. These birds are magnificent, and their calls are distinctive and exotic. What an absolute treat this was...we'll probably go back up again before too long to do it all again.

Here are a few pics that Sandy snapped, although it was a challenge to catch them in flight!

For anyone interested to learn more about Sandhill Cranes, try here: Sandhill Cranes