www.iFourWinns.com

Hello all together from Berlin in Germany,

I own a 248 Vista and my family want to have an inflatable like an Bombard Typhoon; have a look here: http://www.bombard.com/en/leisure-family/
Problem is now; how to store it on 248; especially the outboard like an yamaha or mercury with 6Ps ,If somebody of you has an idea, please let me know.

Best wishes from Germany and sorry for my bad english.

uwe

Guten Tag; willkommen; mien deutsch nicht viel taugen kein problem.

I have the same problem with a similar inflatable; I purchased a set of these:
http://plasticinnovations.com/. They are inexpensive and I have not installed them yet but plan to in the next week or so. We have a Vista 248 with the flexteak and I don’t want to drill though it. I have an idea how to mount them to the aft face of the platform. I need to have custom backing plates made. If I am successful I will post photos.

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“Growing Older, But Not Up”
[

2008 Four Winns V248
2004 Stingray 220CS

Hy Beachbob,

thanks for your answer. I`m very interested in your solution of fixing the inflatable. Please show the pictures here in the forum. if possible let me know how much these solution costs.

Thanks Uwe

But one question is left over, how to store the outboard

Given the amount of weight I'm not sure it'd work on the aft edge, even with a backing plate. There would end up being just too much shearing force. Backing plates depend upon being able to spread the load along the angles of force. I don't think there's enough space back inside the platform to allow for properly installing a plate. And even if there were I'm not sure it'd be large enough to handle the vertical loads. That and you'd be putting a lot of force onto the fasteners.

Is your hesitation to drill the deck one of cosmetics, or something else?

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

I ran the numbers and had to make an engineering judgment on the strength of the fiberglass and it looks okay even with the dynamic force caused by the wave action on the boat (again a guess). The dink is only 66lbs so that would be divided between the two C-brackets; if my sketch is accurate the C-bracket would still rest on the flex teak so the entire 33lbs of static load plus the dynamic impact would never rest entirely on the bolts. Since the dink would be free to rotate within the C-Bracket I considered it a roller connection. I need to confirm that my layout is correct before I will attempt to modify the bracket. I actually am more concerned with the pin that they provide as the weak point in my concept but that can be changed out for a SS pin.

However the compression required to properly clamp and then intern distribute the force must be uniform. There is a step in the molding of the platform that concerns me along with the curvature of the aft face of the platform. This could effect the position of the clevis bracket and put and end it to my plan anyway.

I’ll let you know if I the stars align and I go through with it.

_________________
“Growing Older, But Not Up”
[

2008 Four Winns V248
2004 Stingray 220CS

I tried the stainless version of this thing two years ago. Here is the web site for it:

http://www.allinflatables.com/shopping/ ... davit.html

It was a disaster and I still have the holes in my swim platform from[img][/img] it. It is not clear in the literature for these things that for it to work, it requires a snug fit between the tubes of the inflatable and the "rings" or whatever you want to call the brackets. For example, if your inflatable tubes are 15" in diameter and the rings are 16", then instead of the rings pivoting up with the inflatable in them, the inflatable will simply rotate in the hoops and flop right over upside down on to the swim platform without the brackets rotating at all. My inflatable is a West Marine 286. In order to accomodate the outboard, the company also sells a rotating mount that bolts to the transom of the dingy and allows the outboard to stay vertical as the inflatable rotates to the vertical position. Unfortunately, when I tried the ring/hoop brackets the inflatable went past vertical before I could catch it to upside down on the swim platform. I had to do some quick dancing to get the motor back upright (or at least to a safe horizontal position). The motor mount worked great, but I can't say the same for the brackets. The company was nice enough, though, to refund everything I paid.

Since then, we've just tied the dingy down flat to the swim platform. This is possible only because the 378 has a huge swim platform and is probably not an option on a smaller platform. The company above also sells a "pull on" davit system which we may try this year. If so I'll post the results.

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Jerry
2004 378 Vista "Escapade", T-Mercruiser 8.1 SHO
2003 Maxum 3300SE
1987 Wellcraft San Tropez
1991 Chaparral 2550SX
1987 Bayliner 2150
!967 Caravelle 1751

All my research keeps leading me to the industry leader... Weaver davits...

Unless you want to carry an inflatable on and off and inflate it all the time - that's the way to go.

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2008 318 Vista -SOLD, but I am still around!
All Night Long, Seattle WA

I have to admit I am concerned about the ability to pivot the inflatable up; our dink is 15’ dia and the C-bracket will accept up to 18” dia.

due to the material that Achilles’ uses. They use Hypalon and from what I have read does not bond well with other materials even when the proper glue is applied.

As I mentioned before that the rear of the swim platform has a slight curve to it; and as Bill mentioned, and is absolute correct, there has to be a tight clamp between the clevis brackets to the backing plate in order to insure that the forces will be distributed evenly. Being in a saltwater environment I need to use SS hardware and also a SS bracket and not Aluminum the two dissimilar metals would cause electrolysis to take place with saltwater. The SS will not easily bend to match the curve and adds another problem that I have to over come. Nothing is easy.

_________________
“Growing Older, But Not Up”
[

2008 Four Winns V248
2004 Stingray 220CS

Beachbob and Uwe, I've read on other message boards and on the Weaver web site that in order to get Weaver davit pads to stick to an inflatable (PVC or Hypalon), skip the West Marine glues and go to a place that specializes in inflatables. There is one in Annapolis that I hear does a great job in gluing on clamps,etc, but that isn't near you. My West Marine/Zodiac 275 (Hypalon) has 15" tubes also and the C brackets were 18" and as I've described before, it was a disaster. You might want to rig the brackets on a piece of plywood or some kind of frame that would duplicate your swim platform and see if the brackets will work at all before you go to the trouble of messing with your flexteak. The whole exercise may be futile if the dingy won't rotate as it's supposed to.

Another boat down the dock from me built a set of brackets himself that are the best I've seen so far. Granted he has a large swim platform (44 foot Sundancer) but the concept would work on any boat with a lot of real estate aft. It is just two "Y" shaped brackets with the top of the "Y" (the Vee if you will) welded at the same angle as the bottom of the dinghy. The vertical legs of the "Y" fit into two sockets in the swim platform. He just pulls the dinghy up and over in to the brackets and secures it with some lines. The dinghy stays flat the whole time. If you have th space on the platform, it's the way to go. Unfortunately, I can't really take any pictures as I've never seen it without the inflatalbe in it and while we say hi at the marina, we don't cruise together. You also need to have access to a welder and stainless tubing.

The pull-up davits I mentioned earlier are a great way to go, but I didn't realize they had gotten so expensive.

_________________
Jerry
2004 378 Vista "Escapade", T-Mercruiser 8.1 SHO
2003 Maxum 3300SE
1987 Wellcraft San Tropez
1991 Chaparral 2550SX
1987 Bayliner 2150
!967 Caravelle 1751

Weaver davits are what we use, I stuck the pads onto the dinghy myself, it's easy using the correct adhesive.


We only have a small swim platform and there is just enough room to get onboard. The outboard for the dinghy is kept clamped to a Stainless Steel custom made bracket.

_________________
Regards
Beyond the Blue

"If we improve with age I'm now excellent"


Ex 1998 238 Vista 5.0Gi SX DP
Lexus RX300

Looks great! That's the direction I'm headed when I finally bite the bullet....

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2008 318 Vista -SOLD, but I am still around!
All Night Long, Seattle WA

Here’s an update on the davit installation; I took the aforementioned advice and made a simple jig to test the C-brackets ability to raise the dingy. I can’t say it doesn’t work, but it doesn’t work smoothly and takes some playing with to raise it. You have to insure the lines are crossed, as directed, and then loop them through existing D-rings on the dingy. You MUST pull both lines evenly and slowly. It was difficult with a small 15” dia dingy tube on dry land so I can see it will be extremely difficult with a boat in the water and being bounced around. The only damage is the $90 spent on the system with no holes drilled in the swim platform. Thanks for everyone’s comments!

I just wish the Weaver system was cheaper, but you get what you pay for,

See you on the water.

_________________
“Growing Older, But Not Up”
[

2008 Four Winns V248
2004 Stingray 220CS

That came with the boat, from a previous owner, right? I wonder where they had it made.

I'm considering a similar setup for the transom on our 348. There's a step of sorts inside the gunwale. You can see it in this picture:

(pardon the mess, those are supports for the Fisher Canvas winter cover).

I'm thinking of having a bracket mounted in the vertical area above that step. It'd block use of the step but it's mostly useless anyway. The top 'cap' of the gunwales on the 348 is just that. It's not the same sort of integrated construction as the hull on the smaller Vista models. So I don't think the cap would have enough strength to accommodate the bracket being mounted like yours. That it'd then start interfering with the line on the stern cleat. There's really no other place to try and get it to fit on the 348 without having it interfere with something else.

_________________
-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

I was under the impression that ForWinns sold a bar that fits on the swim platform that could be used for a inner tube or bbq.... Saw pics of it on the website in the parts section.

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Mojo
North East River, MD
04 268

I believe that option has to be ordered as part of the boat before it's built. Access to the aft-most edge inside the platform is tight on a 348 with inboards, but it's all but impossible to access on a 358 with stern drives. I could see how it'd have to be built-in during manufacturing.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista