Monday, December 10, 2012

Dinghy Davits

Our new davits are a thing a beauty.  Those of you who aren't really boat people might not recognize this fact, but for those of you who are: please, take a moment to appreciate the stainless steel art that is hanging off the back of our boat.  Sigh.  I am so excited how this turned out I cannot even tell you.

I first approached UMT Marine because when it comes to custom stainless steel work, they are the best.  Their expertise, however, comes at a price.  We were beyond ecstatic when they agreed to partner with us to design and create our dinghy davits.  We had considered buying pre-manufactured davits but were concerned about the look and strength of them.  Not to mention, our pushpit (back of the boat) is unique and quirky because of two bucket seats back there.  We love those seats and didn't want to compromise their comfort or functionality with davits that got in the way.  Enter UMT.

The designer and artist, Rafal!
I literally cannot sing this company enough praise.  They went above and beyond for us from the get-go.  Their sales rep, Dominik, was fantastic to work with and was always available to answer our questions or help us out.  The designer, Rafal, well...he is not only a super nice guy but a true artist.  I was a little nervous how these would turn out because they looked positively GINORMOUS in the shop, but Rafal kept assuring me that they'd look great.  I trusted him.  After all, you don't get a reputation for being the best if the proof isn't in the pudding, right?

As I wrote in a previous post, Scott and I wanted to preserve the beautiful, elegant lines of our new boat and we wanted the davits to reflect that.  We also wanted them to be strong.  Really strong.  We've pounded head first into enough heavy squalls and storms to know how powerful mother nature can be and the last thing we want to worry about at sea is if our davits are going to hold up (note: for long passages we lash our dinghy up on the bow, but shorter hops we secure it to the davits). UMT delivered exactly what we wanted.  Custom crafted from 3" stainless steel tubing, our davits are strong enough to hold approximately ten of our new dinghy and they continue the lines of our boat seamlessly.  I could not stop looking at them as they were being installed, they are things of beauty!
HUGE thank you to the team at UMT for going above and beyond the call of duty for us (they needed to buy and construct a raft for the installation because our slip doesn't allow enough room for backing in!) we are SO pleased with our new davits and can't wait to use them!

8 comments:

Troy and Deana Jones said...

They looks great! We have awesome davits too and they really are priceless.

Dan O. said...

I'm curious, will the overhang of the davits add to how much it costs to moor the boat in marinas?

Windtraveler said...

Our davits were part of our instrument arch on our last boat and we were never charged extra for those. They don't hang that far off to really make a big difference, so I doubt it but we shall see! Good question.

Catherine H said...

The strength of design and size of tubing is often under-estimated, but when we read 3" tube, they should be strong enough. It is when you are caught out with dinghy, outboard, fuel can, junk hanging off the davits in unexpected choppy seas that they will come into their own and be tested.

The Incredible Hull said...

Really nice solution. I went through several iterations on my W42 but if I had not found my present arch I would be shamelessly stealing your design. Cruising sailboats need dingy davits/arch. Hoisting a dinghy on deck, every night, without one is a PITA. If you don't hoist a dinghy it will eventually disappear. I was never charged extra in a marina on my last boat because of the arch. If they are being that picky its time to find a new marina.

Gerry

http://theincrediblehull.blogspot.com/search/label/arch

Ken n Cheryl said...

Very nice! We know how excited we'll be when we finally get ours ... so we can relate! We've worked on a design for custom davits (seems most Catalina 30s don't have them ... kinda stressful coming up with something), but gotta wait till the house sells before we get them. Soon I hope!

Unknown said...

Also we (Femstrutture ) produce elegant dinghy davits but in carbon fiber and which are foldable (see:http://www.femstrutture.com/products/FEM-Davits/Gru-Transom/Dinghy-Davits.html )

But I have to say that on your yacht this solution in stainless steel matches very well.

Compliments
Ibrahim

custom boat davits said...

Quality indeed saves us a lot of money so companies that offer such products are worth checking out. My husband and I often dream about owning a boat

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