Davits

MARTEK Dingy Davits was my choice. Local made in St. Pete FL. Solid as a rock. Came with rail spacers/mounts, bottom feet, blocks, stabilizer and hardware. I really shopped around for davits. No used ones to be found. All around the $1K mark. There's really not much to them. Why so expensive?

First step was to mock up the stern layout with the Davits. Don't forget to cover the davit feet with a cloth so it doesn't mark the deck.

I decided to mount the foot to stern rear. This was really the only place that allowed for a horizontal placement on the rail and projected out far enough to hold the dingy. Somewhat in the way of the cleat on both sides. It did free up the other stern deck area.

Found some UV resistance rubber to place under the feet. Sizing up the foot print to secure the backing plate the inside of the hull. Not sure if this is really necessary but it looks nice and Pearson originally used it.

In order to secure the dingy on the davits, it was necessary to install D-Rings on the stern of the Achilles. Not a big deal only a big price tag. The stern had mounting eye holes but they were to high to be useable. So I drilled new holes in the OB motor board in the stern and mounted SS eyes there also.

Wow, just trying to level out the davit arms was a real task. I choose to stern hull mount the feet. I was just not getting the alignment correct with the feet mounted anywhere on the deck. Then I started to measure the stern rail sections and discovered that the welds were different and the overall layout was not symmetrical. So much for Pearson QC in 1979, at least least for stern rails. So, back to the leveling method of trying to get the distance, look, serviceability and drop correct.

So I had to move the OB motor mount, the flag pole, grill and the position the mounting feet so I could get to a blacking plate inside.

You noticed from the pictures above that I tied lines to all the hardware (including tools) I was working with. So far, didn't drop anything in the water.

I really hurt me to drill into the hull. Ah...another set of holes in the hull. Well it's above the water line in any case. Not sure if I will put a blacking plate on or not. Again I used bolts too long. More things to bang your knees on. Long bolts did hold in place till I was able to climb inside and lock them down.

I've always used this method to tighten the nuts inside of the hull. When you're by yourself this works great. Doesn't mean that it's not a tight tuff job. Getting into this area of the stern hatch is a real knee killer. If you have ever been in this area to this degree you know what I am referring to.

Still working the details but for at least today the davits are up. Need to configure the lines, hang the second series of blocks, remove and remount the flag pole, remount the grill, dress the lines, mount the OB somewhere else (maybe on the dingy ??), paint touch up, and redo the Sunbrella© Achilles cover.

I assembled the blocked and used some spare line and hardware to get the correct height to swing the Achilles from the davits. I plan to follow up with short lengths of wiring, SS rings and clips for a more solid sling. Anyway, it worked out that 12" was the length per side (front nose) for a fixed wire length and SS 1-1/4" diameter ring. The rear needed 12" per side also. With the OB mounted, not sure what the length needs to be. Will have to try that. (TBD)

Not bad looking for a 1987 Achilles Dingy.

It looks big doesn't it! Across the stern of the P35 is does look long. I like the way the spacing of the davits worked out. As soon as I mount the cross stabilizer bar it will even out some more.

So I think I can mount the OB on the rail mount just where it was (pad above the seat on the Achilles). The stern anchor and grill can be mounted on the starboard stern rail.

Below is a photograph of the block connections that came with the davits. It was the wrong angle for allowing the line to pull freely and continue back to the clam cleat. As you se below, there was no turn with the block attachment. It worked ok but the block was always turning when pulling the line.

So I ordered the very fashionable "S" shaped hasp as show below. The bock is now aligned up with the correct orientation.

This is the back side of the railing davit attachment. I was forced to secure this at a location that had a bend in the railing. This caused the bolts to be a bit short in the final configuration. So I'm thinking of replacing the bolts that came with these two attachments with longer ones.

I had to make all of the previous adjustment and changes in order to know how to position the Stabilization Bar. So with all that complete, I marked the two davit arms on the hole location and the center pin hole on the Stabilization bar itself.

Bad part is, I have to take it all down to drill the holes through SS. Someone told me that the key to drilling through SS is to have a very sharp bit. Sounds like another trip to Home Depot.

I have been using a cover designed for this model of Achilles for some time now. It's the wrong color of Sunbrella© and I want to sew another one soon, but for now I just needed to modify it to allow for the two lifting points. Yea, I cut two slants in it and will trim them up with webbing. Still covers very well and will work fine to keep that Florida sun off the top and sides.

Originally, I was going to use these to clip the dingy lifting harness but I got to thinking how easy this would be to just unsnap and take down the dingy and swipe it. So I thought I would make it a bit harder to steal and built the sets on the right. I got all the material from Lowes and the guy there crimped it all for me while I waited. Good deal I though.

The OB mounting....I figured that I could use the same mount as before. It had good boat-to-Achilles clearance and the OB lift is overhead. Not quite happy with the rub areas yet but I'm working on it. Initial solution is to use a throw pad on the OB.

I finally worked out the lines, blocks and hardware.

I removed the davits (again) to drill out and mount the cross stabilizer bar. Key to drilling into Stainless Steel....new bits. I don't understand why these could not have been predrilled.

FINISHED!!

Well finished except for: I dropped the 4 screw stainless steel rail mount disk in the drink, couldn't fish it out so I need to buy another one, need to sew a new cover out of NAVY Sunbrella©, make final adjustment of the set screws and tighten all the other screws. This project has been much tougher than I thought. Not sure why, just not easy getting to movable arms to align up I guess. Glad to be done with this project....Oct 2010

Examples of other P35s that have Installed Davits

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