Decadence.
That's how our slip-neighbor described it. And I have to agree. We've never had davits before. Launching the dinghy always meant dragging it out from down below, finding a semi-clear spot on the deck, pumping it up with a foot pump, inserting the floor boards, shifting the whole mess from one spot to another while continuing to add more air. And finally picking it up and sliding it into the water. And putting back away was even worse - mostly because it was wet, usually sandy, and never seemed to roll up as small as it started.
We found a set of St Croix davits used and then had some mounting brackets fabricated to mount on the transom. Of course, that meant drilling holes in the transom. Drilling holes in a boat is just not my favorite thing! Necessary, perhaps. But not very high on the list of good things to do. But drill we did.
Once we mounted the davits, it was delightfully easy to hoist our new rib (first new dinghy we've ever had) up out of the water into it's new home. Decadence, indeed!
Of course, once the dinghy is stowed, we needed a place to stow the motor. So we built a motor mount for the stern pulpit. Not fancy, but very functional. The weight of the motor actually sits on the caprail just off to the side where it won't interfere with the dinghy or the aft mooring cleat.
One last step - to add a motor hoist. We're going with the Garhauer hoist. One's on order and we'll figure out how and where to install it in the next week or so.
