Feb. 17, 2008 - dinghy in the davits

Today's challenge was to attach fittings to the dinghy so that it can be easily attacged to the davits.... the davits have a snap shackle on each arm, so I have bolted two large eye bolts to the transom of the dinghy with a rope loop and soft eye at the top... thats the stern dealt with.... the bow looked a little more troublesom... the plan was to use eyelets in the floorboards near the bow.... only, i've reverted back to the Plastimo dinghy, and forgot that the floorboard don't go all the way to the bow!!!!...

So, i've used the eyelets that are glued to the lower side of each hull near the bow, and normally used for the towing line.....  if i'd just tied a bridle to these, it would have led the lines tight over the sides and no doubt have worn through the inflatable sections in no time...

what i've done instead is to fashion a long bar (using of all things an old aluminium roof rack bar), fitted an eyelet either end to which a rope is attached with a snap shackle on it... these clip to the eyelets on the boat... and then a central rope loop to clip to the davits.... this spreads the load out wide and takes the ropes away from the hull.... at least thats the theory... we'll see how well it works!