Storm damage - my own stupid fault.

[sahona]

Had a look at the boat yesterday after I'd finished on the house roof. The rib was sitting awkwardly, oh - botties, Sure enough, it had been taking flying lessons while still on the davits, and attempted to take the port davit with it. Good sized puddle in the aft cabin, and a cracked casting. Ho hum, that pushes everything on the urgent list down a couple of spaces. Should have put the thing on the foredeck long before now.

[Nick]

Doesn' t sound too serious though . . . is it a commercial casting, or will you have to get one made?

[sahona]

The droopy davit's in the shed and fixed (as in functional) I've had failures with attempted welds on alloy before, so a new steel bracket has been attached and internal stringers beefed up. This could allow the "big" outboard to be used this season, which could be fun.
I webbled for davits but didn't see any. I'm sure there must be lots of single davits lying around after similar incidents (the Stella McCartney Syndrome) (oops , not PC?)
How long is this snow going to last? My claymore's shriveled~(sp?) to a ski-ing doo.

[claymore]

I always leave the aft end of the dinghy lower than the bow and remember to take the bung out.
Apologies if you are my granny and can already suck eggs.

[sahona]

It wasn't the water sir, it was the wind. I do the same drainage trick if I remember(most times). Gets 'kin heavy if I forget!
for your info. I have added a couple of steel flat box sections to the poopdeck reinforcement and they go forward from the 4 bolts by about 18". That way, I feel I have more of an engineering solution. I don't know if your davits are the same as ours or not, but thought you might like to know it's a possible improvement, and the bedroom ceiling goes back into place chust fine.

[claymore]

I did a similar thing with a couple of hefty ply pads on the underside which fitted into the recessed area under the deckhead so the lining fits back on ok. It's still a big lever and I live in fear of a dinghy full of water levering the davit off and opening up a big hole. It took me a long time to stop an irritating leak up there - just an occasional drip but if you left the boat for a month in the Kilmelford Monsoon season it would amount to quite a bit of watter.
Do you have a separate device for lowering your outboard or do you keep in on the dinghy?

[sahona]

We keep the o/b on the rib. It's a johnson3.5 but we also have a yam5 which was great fun on our wee avon rover 2.5 on the last boat. It will be tried on the rib this spring. I'm adding a couple of HF aerials which will run from the davit sheaves to the masthead and hopefully take some of the weight. I suspect Kath won't allow me to connect anything though.
I'm actually more worried about what happens at sea than when moored - it's the big ones up the back you know....

[sahona]

I see from pics that you have a helmspersons seat (or welly boot). Does that mean the pedestal is bolted to the engine hatch? I can't imagine there's any difference in the deck mouldings of our boats. Doesn't it get in the way when you have to make an emergency bilge-dive? How are the hatches secured?

[claymore]

There are two hatches - they interlock and then the top one has a window bolt type of thingie which goes out into the surrounding moulding. What a grand technical description I'm putting together - perhaps I should go and work for Haynes?
Anyway - It would probably work for you but the bolt is quite important if you are heeled at all because it means that you stay in the one place instead of falling over

[sahona]

I don't for a second wish to infer that chair-shoogle could be in-juiced by anything other than rough weather, however, a thought has struck - we do a lot of eating/entertaining in the wheelhouse and have a table there.
I suspect there wouldn't be room for a fixed helm seat on a pedestal if we wish to continue in this way, so I will carry on inventing a "billyseat" which will fold over the port bench when not in use. I've seen a similar thing in a Princess mobo, just can't remember how it worked-exactly!
Our hatches are gravity-latched and hellish heavy, so if they do get loose there'll be carnage. I am designing locks as we speak, so to speak...
Thanks for your help.

[claymore]

Aha!
We can lift off the seat and replace it with a table-top for the upper deck dining routine - very pleasant up there in the patio, canapes, things on sticks, things in glasses....

[sahona]

And, of course, it's nice to be master of all you survey, if the windies are clean.