Hurley Davit on a SD340

[BillCT]

I know there's been some discussion regarding Hurley Davits, but has anyone used them on a 340 Dancer? I have a 2005 and have two questions. First, is the swim platform too high to effectively drop and retrieve the dinghy (I have a 10.5 ft. Zodiac Fastroller). Second, given that the transom door on the boat is on the port side and my slip is starboard, is there enough room with the dingy loaded to get from the dock to the transom door? Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[brimanst]

I had a 2002 340DA and put a Hurley Davit system on it when I cruised to the Bahamas last winter. It worked great as advertised. I liked not having to break down the motor and find a place to store the gas tank, as the dink was horizontal. That was the major deciding factor for me, as we were on the 340 for 8 weeks, so any space I could save was definitely needed. I did not install the pad eyes as suggested and just used the normal u-bolts in the transom. That may have been a mistake. I put the dinks motor on the starboard side so I could exit the transom at the pointy end of the dink. The dink does go right up to your transom, so I had to walk on the inboard tube of the dink when I was hooking up lines, cords or fueling up, but it was not that bad. When in the slip, if I did not launch the dinghy, I would loosen the straps enough so that the dink would be at a 45 degree angle, and I would get full use of the swim plat.

The only disadvantage was the swim plat was too small to load the dinghy onto the davit with ease. Sometimes some brut force :smt021 was necessary.

Overall, I recommend this solution because a dinghy that is easy to launch is one that will get used. And it looked a lot better than the flip-up davit systems.

I hope this helps.

briman

 

[Guest]

I installed the Hurley system on my 420DA. The height of the molded platform is similar to the 340. I was concerned about the distance from the water as well. I can launch and retrieve my dingy by myself. It is a 10'8 Zodiac with a 9.8 4 stroke. The total weight of the rig is somewhere around 165 lbs.