No Davits? No Worries

If your boat does not have davits, a great way to lift your dinghy out of the water is to hoist it up the side of the boat using a mast head halyard.  All you need is a simple single point lifting harness, an available halyard and an open winch on the mast.  It is a great way to stow the dinghy at night or in choppy anchorages.

We have frequently thought of adding davits to Alembic but keep coming up with reasons to postpone the project.  One reason is the cost.  Davits are expensive.  The other downside is that we would lose valuable space on our stern.  Currently we have a boarding ladder on our stern and plan to add a windvane.  Finally, we have a mizzen boom.  Unlike the nice arch arrangements that many boats install, our davits would need to be below the mizzen boom.

In the absence of davits, we have come up with other clever ways for handling the dinghy.  While at anchor, we like to lift our dinghy out of the water using a mast head halyard.  This has several advantages.  The bottom of the dinghy stays clean and free of growth.  The dinghy is settled in a choppy anchorage; it does not bounce and splash all night long.  And finally, we feel the dinghy is more secure from theft.  It would be very difficult for someone swimming from shore to access the dinghy out of the water.  We have a simple single point lifting harness that we attach to 3 points in the dinghy leading to a lifting ring.  The harness is balanced so that the dinghy hangs with the bow slightly higher than the stern for water to drain.  To lift we simply clip a mast head halyard to the ring and winch it up using a winch on the mast.

While traveling offshore, we like to have the dinghy on the forward deck.  The dinghy is wonderfully secure there in even the largest of seas.  We have measured the time it takes us to remove the motor at the stern and then hoist the dinghy on the bow.  The entire process takes us less than 15 minutes.  Anytime we plan to travel more than 3 or 4 miles, we stow the dinghy on the forward deck to avoid the loss of speed from towing.  Given these techniques for handling the dinghy, it is likely we will postpone the addition of davits indefinitely.