Does anyone have a dinghy on an old 300 Weekender swim platform??

[joenofish]

I planing to build and install a set of dinghy davits to carry an inflatable dinghy on the swim platform of our '86 300 Weekender. I plan to go with something along the lines of "Dom's Dinghy Davits" for anyone who is familiar.
I'm hoping to learn if that has been done and what length and weight dinghy(s) have been used. I'm unsure if I will be able to carry the dinghy on the davits with the engine installed. What I am thinking is a 9' with a 3HP air cooled ourboard. I'd like to have a little longer but don't know what problems I'll run into (9' may be too much for our short platform??). I plan to run the 300 in the open Gulf from St. Pete to the Keys this summer so all this needs to be robust. (part of the trip will be inter coastal if the Gulf is choppy, and it usually is...)
My wife and I have this idea that we can putt around the keys on the dinghy while the 300 sits in the marina, we also think we can dive for lobster off this thing, I'm interested to see how difficult it will be to get back into a rubber boat once we are in the water, waist deep may be easy, 10 feet may be a challenge.
Thanks in advance for any input.

Joe and Donna in St. Pete

 

[1956olds]

Mine used to have a dingy on it and the hardware is still intact( standoffs and weaver snaps).I just got my westmarine flier today and they have a 8'6"ru260 on sale for 699.00 that will handle up to 4 hp.Have you ever sat next to a air cooled outboard motor ,they are not quiet,i would go with 2 cycle water cooled myself.

 

[Iprof]

http://www.seabrightmarine.ca/sd290.html

That's the dinghy we have, we tried a 8'6" wife did not like it. This one has huge tubes and rides great, I did have a 2hp on it but now that my 4hp is fixed we will be using it. I ordered Weavers with the standoffs, I am in the process of adding 18" of depth to the platform and I want to be able to use the extra space not have a dinghy using it.

Ken

 

[The Bill Collector]

I had an 8' caribe with an 8 horse Johnson on it..... On my former 1989 300 Weekender.

 

[joenofish]

Thank you all for the replies, it really helped me decide how I want to do this

What I plan to do is buy a 10.5' to 11' inflatable (Zodiac or similar), and use the Weaver davit set up. If I go that rout (larger dinghy than I originally had in mind) I can use my almost brand new 8HP Yamaha outboard (water cooled) that we have on our john boat (just saved a bunch of money!) I like the Weaver set up because we can board the dinghy with it still attached to the swim platform. I'll design and build a simple rotating motor mount so I can leave the motor attached.

Best Regards,

Joe

 

[The Bill Collector]

I would not go larger the 8' loa for a dinghy on your 300 Weekender, especially if you will have the motor attached.... You will quickly learn it gets in the way while docking if it is sticking out close to the edge of your vessel. The dinghy in my picture is an eight footer w/ 8 horse Johnson.

 

[1956olds]

I agree with tbc ,these things dont handle that well in small areas as it is .My dock nieghbor has a 36 carver and him and his wife use a 8'6" with a 4 hp .they are in their upper 60's and fish in the saginaw river with it and just cruise around the marinas.it is light and easy to handle with plenty of room for safty gear and a cooler two rods and tackle.

 

[velooce]

Thank you all for the replies, it really helped me decide how I want to do this

What I plan to do is buy a 10.5' to 11' inflatable (Zodiac or similar), and use the Weaver davit set up. If I go that rout (larger dinghy than I originally had in mind) I can use my almost brand new 8HP Yamaha outboard (water cooled) that we have on our john boat (just saved a bunch of money!) I like the Weaver set up because we can board the dinghy with it still attached to the swim platform. I'll design and build a simple rotating motor mount so I can leave the motor attached.

Best Regards,

Joe

I am not familiar with your year of Weekender and what the beam is at the stern is but there are couple points to consider for what it's worth.
1) As mentioned before docking will be a problem if wider than the stern.
2) The stern end of the dinghy or bottom rear tube will kick up massive amount water into your Weekender if it is any wider than the swim platform.
3) I would highly recommend that run your boat and look at how the water rooster tail at the stern sides project, since most boat are widest at midship these actually narrow the beam even further with the water projection past the swim platform.
4) With this information and depending on your final choice you can mount your dinghy slightly off center with the bow of the dinghy with its curve helps relieve or be above this projection water or close to your gunnel dimension which should greater than the water line dimension by couple of inches, where as your lower rear tube should be inside of the hull projection.

Good luck

 

[joenofish]

Again I appriciate the info.

Our 300 is about 10'6" to the rub rail at the stern. I'll go look at some dinghys a little shorter than I mentioned earlier. The attached pics is what I'm seeing at 23 knots (where I usually cruise). I just bought a Floscan (twinscan, not installed yet) so my cruise speed may change in the future but I did not see anything bad at all speeds. I hope to find a dinghy that can handle the 8 HP Yamaha. I also hope I can leave the 8 HP on the dinghy when it's up.
I mentioned we are gearing up for a run to the Keys in a few months. The EPIRB arrived yesterday, Flowscan will arrive in a day or two, found the Weaver system at a good price, just need the dinghy and we should be in good shape.

Thanks again,

Joe

 

[SCORPIO]

My friend bought my old 82 260 SXL and is going to put a 9'6" dinghy on its <8' swim platform. I'm wondering how its going to ride the first time he gets into a chop with that thing sticking out both sides of the boat? The wake issue I hadn't thought of either. He will be going in soon so we'll see.

 

[88dancer300]

I had a 10 inflatable on the back of mine. Comming home one day I was in a 6 ft sea and I was blowing a big wake.......and the water caught the stern tube, and ripped the raft right off the platform ! It stretched and broke a line, the thing was flying above the water like a low flying kite ! Then when I backed down to retrive it, it went upside down, 3.3 Merc. motor and all, and wedged under the plaform, then the drive wound up the line in the water like a big winch I went to an 8'6" roll up. It sits on the platform fine, and does not protrude beyond the width of the stern. The motor now lives under my helm seat, and most of the time I leave the dinghy deflated and tied on the platform, I just blow it up with a Bravo 110v pump when needed.

 

[worzy1014]

I'm going to bring this old thread back to life. Does anyone have any updates on this? I'm looking at mounting a 10' 2" RIB on the back of my 300. I'm wondering if the swim platform is strong enough to mount a cradle style davit like the hurleys or should I go with the weaver arc davits?

 

[magstang1]

You may want to take a look here:

http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/66975-Davits-for-a-large-dinghy-and-small-boat

 

[hottoddie]

If your Sundancer has the stock swim platform and supports I would do a thorough inspection of the tubular supports as they do corrode and weaken over time. Also the wood coring of the platform may be soft as well. Some repair/upgrading may be in order. Also the Sundancer with the motors in the rear of the boat with outdrives is already stern heavy and may benefit from larger trim tabs the help get and keep the boat on plane.

 

[worzy1014]

If your Sundancer has the stock swim platform and supports I would do a thorough inspection of the tubular supports as they do corrode and weaken over time. Also the wood coring of the platform may be soft as well. Some repair/upgrading may be in order. Also the Sundancer with the motors in the rear of the boat with outdrives is already stern heavy and may benefit from larger trim tabs the help get and keep the boat on plane.

Thanks Hottoddie, those are all legitimate concerns. The tubes are in good shape and the platform is mostly solid, I plan on recoring it this winter to beef it up and maybe extend it. My boat is very stern heavy but, has no problems getting on plane or staying there. I have had a 10' inflatable keel raft tipped up on cradles off of the back of the platform before and It rode very well.