PDQ OWNERS FORUM

I came across this photo of Sno Dog with its dinghy hoisted as high as possible on the davits. The benefit of this is: a) minimal dinghy movement underway; and the two berth port windows can be fully opened. My dinghy is currently NOT setup to be hoisted this high... and I'd like to see how it's done. The Sno Dog photo is not high enough quality to see how it is rigged. Can anyone provide a good quality, close-up photo of their dinghy hoisted really high like this photo so I can see how it is rigged?

Mac,

For the aft end, I cut a square-tube bar and added aircraft cable near each end to carabiners that attach to the lifting rings on the transom. That keeps the cables clear of the engine and allows the lower end of the lifting tackle to get as low in the dinghy as possible. On the forward end, I have a simple rope bridle to a ring that keeps the lifting tackle low, too. The photo does not show the chafing gear I usually place to keep the lifting carabiner from damaging the tube fabric.

Note, also, the use of nylon webbing with ratchet straps to eliminate sway. Unless I am in protected waters, I also rig a line near midships to keep the dink from any rocking. Hope that helps.

Very helpful, Duane. Is your bow chafing gear simply wrapped around the lift carabiner and hoist tackle? My current bow hoist line is at least twice as long as yours. Besides being too long to hoist the bow as high as you can, it has created a "wear" spot on the inside pontoon fabric. (I am now in the process of adding a patch to protect that entire area.) My aft hoist cables and hoist ring should allow me to hoist the stern as high as you do. I can shorten the bow hoist line to what you have.

I'm impressed that you can carry what appears to be a fairly large dinghy.. it looks larger than the horizontal space between the two hulls at water level. Is it at all tricky to raise and lower given its length? Or do you just jockey it when raising and lowering?

Glad to help, Mac.

I just wedge a thick rag between the dinghy fabric and the lifting gear. We have traveled close to 17,000 nm with the dink/engine hoisted and no problems. Some of that was in really snotty conditions. As you know, the key is to eliminate any motion of the dink relative to the davits.

The dink is 9 ft, 2 in. (or close to that) and the engine sticks out past the aft tubes ends. It is a tight fit and it can get wedged between the hulls. I make sure the aft end is fully in the water and that the bow is pushed rearward as it nears the hull. Since the PDQ hulls taper, there is just the one real pinch point if you would try to lower the dink level.

When raising, I hoist the bow first until it is just above the pinch point and then hoist the stern, and then alternate as needed until secure. I believe most of our boats list to port, so I set up to hoist the (heavy) engine side of the dink on starboard.

If I were in the market for a new dink, I would likely consider a much lighter one without the floor and perhaps a tad shorter.

hi mac,

below is a pic of our dinghy setup. i apologize for it being upside down but i couldn't figure out what's wrong.

it's a west marine 10'4" rib. the davits are st croix. the stern is an 8:1 and the bow is 3:1. i added pad eyes in the bow floor with a bridle. i keep stern lower at the dock to help drainage. when underway it goes up an extra 8". there is a strap which goes around stern tube and hold the tube in the davit's "arm pit". we've crossed the gulfstream in pretty rough conditions and it never moved"

Hi John, thanks for the picture. I'd not seen one of the St. Croix davits before... quite different from the 2006 davits we have. It sounds like they do a good job of securing the ding to the boat. And, you've got the largest dinghy I've ever seen on 34' PDQ. I'm impressed that you can handle with weight without a mechanized hoist.

The challenge we have, as you guys know, is that we run our PDQ in a bare boat "charter" business during the April-Oct charter season here. That means I have to have everything worked out carefully so it is simple, effective AND hopefully "foolproof". The latter is tough sometimes. In our "Owners Notes" guide, for example, I show big pictures of the dinghy with the 2 crisscross lines labeled and color coded with detailed steps for lowering and raising it (so it is totally secured to the boat). I even added 2 more cleats a couple of years ago (just below the berth windows) to help secure the ding. And, I put the manufacturer's warning about the danger of dynamic loading in our "Notes" in big, bold RED font. So, far the dinghy has been the least of our worries with charter "guests".

Anyway, while I've got the ding out in a shop getting that patch put on, it occurred to me that I should try shortening the bow hoist line to get the whole thing up higher. I think that will not only makes the berth windows more usable, but also reduce the potential for dynamic motion. That's killing two birds with one stone.

mac,

over our 15 years of cruising, diane and i have agreed that "if it ain't simple it won't work/get used". the engine end is the issue. even at 8:1 is just ok...and we've bought into it. i've thought about taking one of my old sheet winches and welding a mount to davit. given we're mid-70s we'll probably live with this.....for people on vacation i'm not sure what the right answer would be. what i can say is that we've used this dinghy/engine for 6+ seasons and love it. it'll plane with 3 but not 4(at least big ones).

We run a 9’8” AB rib with a 15hp merc with electric start. We hoist it “high” manually using three wheel pulleys on both davits. We try to avoid lateral movement by strapping bow and stern to Davit posts. Seems to work.

Raising and lowering dinghy pretty easy although we first raise bow and then kick out dinghy stern to clear starboard hull. I can do it single handed, but easier with two.

I’ll try to send pics later as it is dark now!

I appreciate the conversation. I'll share one thing that made a surprising difference... flipping the dinghy around. A couple of years ago, I changed the dinghy so the bow points to starboard. Hoisting the dinghy is substantially easier that way compared to having the outboard weight on the starboard side. It really surprised me when I tried it. And, our outboard is a Honda 2.3 HP air cooled motor... much lighter than the outboards most of you guys use. (It's a standard in our fleet of charter boats. Not much power, but it's so much lighter and easy to use.)

Interesting, but I can’t think of any reason why swapping the bow around on the dinghy makes any difference in ease of recovery. Maybe it’s a left handed right handed thing (I’m left handed). I am assuming most people put outboard starboard to better balance weight given our boats tend to be port side heavy with generator and kitchen already on that side.

We run a bigger motor because the dinghy is like a car in the Bahamas and there’s lots of distance exploring to be done from anchorage. Have lived with a 4hp dinghy and wouldn’t go back.

Try swapping it. I was surprised at the difference it made. Again, my boat is in a charter business most of the year. It is important to make things easy, clear and "foolproof".

While on this subject, I remain disappointed that PDQ did not angle the aft-most/top most portion of the latest davits closer towards the centerline.

As stated earlier, there is only so much space between the hulls, so you are not likely to try to hoist a dinghy over 9.5 feet. A typical dinghy of that size will not have lifting points anywhere near the spacing of the davits, so you wind up with your hoisting tackle angled. This does give better lateral support, but is contrary to PDQ's instructions on the matter and makes for chafe and other difficulties.

Spot on, Duane! I just had a patch added to the inside bow area where our forward hoist line rubs. Our ding is 9 years old and the pontoon fabric is on its last legs... they still hold air well, but they have a lot of the tiny mold "spots that apparently grow underneath the outer most layer of the fabric over time... they cannot be cleaned out.

the st croix davits pivot so you can put lift points where needed

i had upgraded my dinghy while trying to find a more powerful motor on my 9ft west marine and ended up with too good a deal by getting a fiberglass bottom with a 9.8 2stroke. the dinghy was a 10 footer which initially was a issue but with some measurements i costumed 2 strong eye hooks properly spaced for lifting in the floor of the fiberglass bottom which worked out very good spacing wise lifting bow first over the starboard side and then the aft end with out problem. The power to weight ratio with the 9.8 is awesome with the light 2stroke and very dependable as well. planning is very easy and cruises about 20mph.