Dinghy ladder

[osd9]

This past weekend I was put it in very bad spot when my dink got away from the big boat and I had to dive in to retrieve it. Pulling my old fat arse up into the dink would have surely won my wife $10K on AFV had she had the camcorder handy....good thing she didn't.

Anyway, I am going to make a rope ladder just in case this happens again. Nothing extravagent, but it needs to be serviceable, usable and deployable without tipping or damaging the dink.

I have a 270 Airdeck pictured here...

My thoughts are that I really only need one step in the water to get myself up enough to fall in to the dink. I was thinking of tieing off the ladder from the seat and then deploying it over the bow.

Anyone use a boarding ladder on their dink or have any other ideas????? Would those glued on eyes on the bow be sturdy enough?

 

[gerryb]

I think one way to go would be a 1" line, with a loop on the end, 3'-4' long. Flip the line over the box of the dinghy, put your foot into the loop and use it as leverage to get back into the dinghy. Not something you'll want to do often, but in a pinch like you described would make it much easier to get on. And you wouldn't have to lose all the space that a ladder would require. (Not sure where to attached the line - maybe the bow eye?

 

[Henry Boyd]

You can try this as it will work when you don't have an additional line with you (e.g. you fall out of the d_mn thing).

Make sure your bow line / painter is long enough to reach to the rear handle with enough slack to allow you to tie the running end to the handle. You can then stand on the slack to get back into the boat.

The method is not limited to dinghies, and can be used to retrieve a MOB when the sea state is too active to make using a swim platform and ladder safe. In that case the MOB gets up on the line on the side of the boat and then can flop onto the swim platform with a lower risk of getting hit in the head by it.

 

[Alex F]

Dom,

One time i've got rope ladder from WM for ~$30. I was planning to use it when getting bow to the beach (in case if someone doesn't want to get wet). It was ok and better than nothing. The issue was that ones you step on it it pulls you too close to the boat kind of under the bow. So, this part I didn't like and returned it. But for dinghy i think it would work fine and it takes almost no room. It fits in small plastic bag.

Now on the other hand, this i assume needs to be in "always ready position" so, first thing comes to mind is just to make a single loop on your existing bow line. I'm guessing you'd need only one just to give you a quick lift. So, something like that is worth trying and if it works, you don't need anything extra to carry or make.

Alex.

 

[barryg]

You might want to go to Defender's website defender.com. They are one of the largest inflatable dealers and have a lot of accessories for them.

 

[First Born]

Dom,

I am not a big boat guy and will admit I have no first hand experience with this. That said just thinking about your situation to me (I kept waiting for someone to say it and no one has) it would seem that instead of placing a rope ladder in the dinghy that would allow you to climb back in that; it would be easier to attach a safety line (something like a tube rope) from the dingy to the back of your boat somehow. If the dinghy were to come loose, you would just stop the boat, kill the motor, walk to swim platform, pull the dingy back in. I know I am missing something, what am I missing.

Wesley

 

[osd9]

Wes....We were at anchor with the big boat. It was my own dumbassnes (Gary, is that a word...did I spell it 'write'....? :grin actions that allowed me to untie the dink from the big boat's cleat and the dink floated away. I had only two choices.....get my fat arse in the boat and drive it back to the big boat or grab the painter and swim it back to the big boat.

 

[First Born]

Wes....We were at anchor with the big boat. It was my own dumbassnes (Gary, is that a word...did I spell it 'write'....? :grin actions that allowed me to untie the dink from the big boat's cleat and the dink floated away. I had only two choices.....get my fat arse in the boat and drive it back to the big boat or grab the painter and swim it back to the big boat.

Oh, in that case just don't untie the dink from the big boat's cleat again :huh:, no I am just joking. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

 

[osd9]

I should have cleared that up in my first post. The admiral and I were anchored in a cove. I had her floatie tube and the dink tied off of stern cleats. The tube was drying up in sun inside the dink and when I went to untie the tube, I also had to untie the dink....again, my dumbassness got the best of me and the dink went a floatin'.


I only posted the pic above to show what the dink looks like. When I have the dink on my Dom's Dinghy Davits, that baby is rock solid.....dumbassedness aside....

 

[glass slipper]

Dom, St. Croix @ Davit .com has a nice folding ladder that clips on to a transom D ring. I have a roll on system from them and the Q.C is great. Check it out. This ladder may be helpful if this becomes a habit .