scooper321
Well-Known Member
hey Matt,That would concern me more than a little bit. It appears to be more than a little spongy. Peronally I wouldn't feel safe hauling my dinghy on that with the bouncing of waves and water getting inside it adding more weight.
I removed my old platform (a 340 Sundancer) and had it reglassed from underneath and it was a helluva job. I helped remove it and the guy did it over the winter and I think it was still $3000. You may find someone who can reglass it on the boat but it would require a big facility.
I don’t know how hard it was for you to remove the platform from your 340. But I can tell you my installers had a hell of a time removing the platform from my 400. Not only is access ridiculously limited back there, but it is both bolted through the transom and epoxied on dash probably with 5200. Or at least 4200. it took these experience guys well over a full day to get the old platform off. If there was any way to repair this platform on the boat, that would be the way to go. But you were right, that would require a very large tent at least!
I would never try to convince someone to spend what I spent on a hydraulic platform. We just absolutely hated the original one. Too small, too low. Getting the hydraulic platform has truly changed how we use the boat. From hauling and launching the dinghy, to hanging out on the anchor, to just getting on and off the boat, it’s as though we have a new boat. And speaking of that, the decision to get this platform was one we made at the boat show. We went down there to get on and off a bunch of Sabre and Backcove models. They had five different ones there, so we got an excellent sampling. And they are awesome! We weren’t looking to change boats, but we were curious about them, to see if we might want to go that route somewhere down the road. And they are amazing boats. But they are well outside what our price range will ever be. So we decided we probably weren’t ever going to get another boat. I suppose we could win the Powerball at some point, but that’s unlikely. So we ruled out ever getting another boat and decided to put a some money into the one we had, making it perfect for us. And that meant the hydraulic platform. And this was a great decision for us. As I said, it transformed the way we use the boat. But it may not work for everyone else. I did want to share our mindset behind why we made this investment.