Davit to hoist a big, fat dog.

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Keweenaw2018

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Aug 27, 2020
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C Dory Year
2000
C Dory Model
22 Cruiser
Vessel Name
Norppa
My wife and I are planning on living aboard our '22 this summer is Door Co. Wisconsin. Unfortunately, our dog is getting up there in years and has some trouble transitioning from the dock to the boat and even, sometimes from the cockpit floor up onto the bench from where she steps onto the gunnel. When I'm around I just man handle her (she's a 75lb english lab) but my wife can't lift her.

So here's an idea, and feel free to tell me it's a bad one, but we were thinking of installing a swinging davit to haul her up via a harness and swing her over to the dock or vis-a-versa

I've seen some Dory's with crab pot pullers. I don't know anything about them; could they handle 75lbs of wiggly dog?

Has anyone installed a swinging davit in the cockpit of a 22 for any reason?
Did you DIY or buy a kit? Where did they bolt the base/tabernacle for such a thing?
 
We cruised close to 100,000 miles with Labrador retrievers on boats in size from the C Dory 22 to the 62foot Ketch, we sailed to Europe and back. This included 6 trips to Alaska both in our Cal 46 and a C Dory 22 & 25, Toward the end with several of our labs we faced similar issues. We made a dog elevator (but also used a dog sling). The hoist was everything from a spinnaker halyard which lowered the 70# lab to the ground when on the hard, working on the boat, to up 30 feet when moored along side a commercial wharf for big ships. This we just used a double reinforced Sunbrella sling. "Suzie" just walked onto the laid out fabric, and we gathered up the corners, tied them together and left a loop for the spinnaker halyard shackle.

For our English labs we made a 1/2" plywood base for the "elevator"--it was sized by the outline of the lab laying down. We had made sides of Sunbrella, stapled to the bottom of the board. We also screwed a couple of cleats on the bottom, overlapping the sunbrella to be sure it was secure. We criss crossed nylon straps from corner to corner, like in a boasin's chair and they came together, in a 2" diameter SS ring. One side of the sunbrella was left open, with velcro for closure where the dog walked in. The sides of sunbrella kept the dog in place, and were tacked (sewn) to the lifting straps. We had a loose pad, which was the size of the dog's platform for her to lay on. We had a "Ring" which the winch lifting hook fit into. We used that rig on a 42' Symbol aft cabin MY, which had a ladder from the "sundeck" down to the swim platform. We would launch the dinghy, usually across the stern, but could be the side. After the dinghy was secure, the "dog elevator" was brought to the same level as the top of the ladder/sundeck. The dog walked onto the "elevator" platform, and laid down. The crane davit lowered her into the boat. Next dog's turn (we had 2 labs then). Reverse to load back aboard. In that case we had a 1200 lb capacity crane davit to handle our 12' Aluminum skiff. On the C Dory we used a similar arrangement, but substituting the Garhauer davit (the larger of the two available) and had two mounting positions. One was on the side deck and would be used to bring the 9 1/2' Air Floor (68#) inflatable dinghy in and out of the water to the cabin top. The second position would be a corner of the cockpit. That was used to put the outboard on the dinghy, or move a full freezer chest (over 100#) from the ground or dock into the boat on the trailer, or moored at a dock. We also used this same elevator on both a CDory 22 and a CDory 25 from the cockpit floor to a dock or to the ground if we were on the trailer.(Boaterhoming).

This is a sub album on the Thataway photos dealing with the Garhauer Davit

If you have any issues, please send me an e-mail or Private message and I can go over details.
 
I use the same Garhauer hoist mounted at the aft end of the cockpit to lift my dog, Hank aboard. I’ve used it at floating docks and also while the boat is on the trailer in the parking lot at the launch ramp. I hook up to his pfd as it has a handle which is located so it lifts him level. He’s not wild about it but puts up with the indignity. The pfd also has good support under his chest and stomach. Hank is getting old and never was real nimble and my back is also old!
Most of the time at floating docks I use the same doggie ramp as we use with my truck. I get on board Summer and set the ramp from the dock to the gunnel. Then have him come up the ramp and help him jump/ lower him into the cockpit. We can still manage this. Just reverse the process with the ramp set up from the cockpit floor to the gunnel and me on the dock when we return. This works pretty well for now.
 
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