Dingy Questions

Is it OK for the dingy to hang over the platform (width wise)?

I've also heard that it's not advisable to put the dingy on the rear of the boat do to irregular weight distribution?

I am looking at a C53 Tiara, 510 SeaRay and Cruiser 50' Cantius. All have hydraulic platforms.

I don’t think you want the dinghy wider then your boat. It can affect your docking and in my opinion is just a bad idea.

Platforms have a specific working load limit which you can find. Each boat is different and more weight can affect the boat.

I agree that it's not a good idea to have a dinghy that's wider than your swim platform.

Also, consider how people are going to be able to get on and off the boat with a dinghy on your swim platform. The larger the dinghy the more difficult that might become.

Thanks to the both of you. I don't want the dingy to be wider then the platform, but it appears that most dingy's are 5'ft wide (at least the ones I prefer). Does having that additional weight in the rear affect maneuverability or performance of the boat? I would think the manufacturers factor that weight in in doing performance reviews, could be wrong.

I thought you were referring to beam width of your boat and having a dinghy linger then the width of your boat. My dinghy hangs off the platform almost half way and it’s no problem. The platforms do have specific weight requirements and yes more weight will affect the performance of your boat. Look at dinghies, davits, and how you will mount it as a package.

kiloil said:

Is it OK for the dingy to hang over the platform (width wise)?

I've also heard that it's not advisable to put the dingy on the rear of the boat do to irregular weight distribution?

I am looking at a C53 Tiara, 510 SeaRay and Cruiser 50' Cantius. All have hydraulic platforms.

Click to expand...

We're also looking at the boats you mention above. We own a 12' Apex A12 with a 30 HP outboard (center console) and it would fit just fine on any of the boats you have listed and probably better than ours fits on our 450DA!

Regardless of what we end up with for our next boat, we're taking our dinghy with us.

kiloil said:

Is it OK for the dingy to hang over the platform (width wise)?

I've also heard that it's not advisable to put the dingy on the rear of the boat do to irregular weight distribution?

I am looking at a C53 Tiara, 510 SeaRay and Cruiser 50' Cantius. All have hydraulic platforms.

Click to expand...

You'd have to get a pretty large dinghy to get wider than the beam of the boats you listed. We have a Walker Bay Generation 360 with 40HP on our 460DA hydraulic platform. It's 11'11" and 6' wide so

kiloil said:

Is it OK for the dingy to hang over the platform (width wise)?

I've also heard that it's not advisable to put the dingy on the rear of the boat do to irregular weight distribution?

I am looking at a C53 Tiara, 510 SeaRay and Cruiser 50' Cantius. All have hydraulic platforms.

Click to expand...

Like others, I don't recommend carrying a dinghy wider than your width at the stern/platform which may be slightly different than your actual beam. We have a 11'11" Walker Bay 360 with 40HP so with engine up it's closer to 12'6". And even though our beam is 14'8" it's only 4-6" less than the stern width on each side. As for being wider than the hydraulic platform, if it's properly chocked that's not an issue. I doubt you'll find a 6' wide platform on any but the newest larger (53'+) boats. A key to understand is the load capacity of the boat transom and the max weight for the hydraulic platform. At about 750 lbs, ours is as big as I will go even though the platform is capable of 850 lbs.