Hi Brats,
Over the years we have had seemingly interminable discussions here on what inflatable to buy and how to best get it onto the roof without falling overboard or necessitating another hernia operation! I think we now have the answer thanks to my good buddy David on Alma's Only out of the Richmond area.
For the last four years or so David has joined me at our cabin here in Ohio for a week of deer hunting, good food, talk of C-Dory's and solving of the world's problems, at least according to our points of view. One night our discussion was on C-Dory's and David revealed what I consider the absolute best solution to getting an inflatable onto the roof easily and safely. He hasn't been on the site for a while so I will share his clever idea, but claim no credit for it whatsoever.
He removes the anchor rode from the gypsy of his windlass and takes a wrap around it with his RU260's painter. He also added a remote control feature to his windlass, long enough to reach the cockpit. With the dinghy positioned at the stern of the boat and the painter extending over the roof, he begins retrieving it with the remote, lifting the inflatable over the engine. I am not sure if it then rests on the Bimini structure or not. He then uses the windlass to pull the inflatable onto the roof!
I don't know what windlass he uses, but from a picture of his boat in our NC CBGT sub-album I know that the axis of the winch is mounted vertically, not horizontally like on Valkyrie. Don't know if this makes a difference or not.
Anyhow, this is one of those ingenious remedies that our group comes up with time after time that just begs to be copied!
One final note because the retired English teacher in me has to point out on anchor retrieval devices - it's a windlass, not windless and a winch, not wench, which is something completely different, but has had meaningful applications at certain points in my life! Yes, that was WAY before Marcia and I got married!
Hope this gives the handymen here something to do while waiting for better boating weather.
Regards,
Nick
"Valkyrie"
Over the years we have had seemingly interminable discussions here on what inflatable to buy and how to best get it onto the roof without falling overboard or necessitating another hernia operation! I think we now have the answer thanks to my good buddy David on Alma's Only out of the Richmond area.
For the last four years or so David has joined me at our cabin here in Ohio for a week of deer hunting, good food, talk of C-Dory's and solving of the world's problems, at least according to our points of view. One night our discussion was on C-Dory's and David revealed what I consider the absolute best solution to getting an inflatable onto the roof easily and safely. He hasn't been on the site for a while so I will share his clever idea, but claim no credit for it whatsoever.
He removes the anchor rode from the gypsy of his windlass and takes a wrap around it with his RU260's painter. He also added a remote control feature to his windlass, long enough to reach the cockpit. With the dinghy positioned at the stern of the boat and the painter extending over the roof, he begins retrieving it with the remote, lifting the inflatable over the engine. I am not sure if it then rests on the Bimini structure or not. He then uses the windlass to pull the inflatable onto the roof!
I don't know what windlass he uses, but from a picture of his boat in our NC CBGT sub-album I know that the axis of the winch is mounted vertically, not horizontally like on Valkyrie. Don't know if this makes a difference or not.
Anyhow, this is one of those ingenious remedies that our group comes up with time after time that just begs to be copied!
One final note because the retired English teacher in me has to point out on anchor retrieval devices - it's a windlass, not windless and a winch, not wench, which is something completely different, but has had meaningful applications at certain points in my life! Yes, that was WAY before Marcia and I got married!
Hope this gives the handymen here something to do while waiting for better boating weather.
Regards,
Nick
"Valkyrie"