On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:28:38 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:02:54 GMT, "Glenn \(s/v Seawing\)"
wrote:


"Bruce in Bangkok" wrote in message
. ..
On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:06:51 GMT, "Glenn \(s/v Seawing\)"
wrote:

Hi! Looking to pick your brains a little. I am making some major changes
to my boat this year. Some of you think I'm nuts & that alot of these
changes are not necessary. I remind you that my wife is eager to go back
cruising for a year or two at a time and lots of your wives are not. :-).

One of the additions we are looking for is the addition of a swim
platform.
Our boat is a Gulfstar 41' Auxillary (the sailboat hull & not the trawler
hull). This vessel is a centre cockpit. We are looking to build a swim
platform on the stern as well as a fairly substantial boarding ladder from
the platform to deck level. I'd like the platform to be fairly sturdy.

Please post your advise, observations & experience. I need to have some
ideas on design, construction methods & pitfalls I've not yet imagined.

Thanks all!

Glenn.
s/v Seawing.


I see a substantial number of sailing boats with swim platforms and
substantial boarding ladders - usually on boats that have cruised a
lot.

I suppose that if you are using a wind vane steerer the platform would
have to accommodate the vane but other then that I don't see a
problem.

One possible point - many marinas use overall length to calculate the
fees and a folding platform might save a bit of money in that case,


Bruce-in-Bangkok
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Hi Bruce. Thanks for your response. At this point, we don't spend much
time in marinas, but this can be a concern & should be thought about.

We are currently using a wheel pilot...not sure about the future of a wind
vane, should be decide to take on longer passages.

One concern that's been raised is following, or following breaking seas.
Any idea how some of these folks protect themselves from damage in this
regard?

Thanks!

Glenn.
s/v Seawing.

A couple of the swim platforms I have seen installed were by people
who I know have done substantial amounts of cruising and frankly the
question never came up. One of these boats made their entire living
for about 10 years chartering and certainly must have ran into some
bad weather. Another boat had made a couple of trips to Chagos which
is a fairly substantial Indian Ocean trip.

My opinion (for what it isn worth) is that it is probably not
something to be overly worried about.

Given the design of the average 40ish foot cruising boat the transom
is really pretty narrow so a, say, two foot swim platform framed in
stainless with a teak deck would be, what? 2 X 6 feet * 0.5 as a teak
grating is half holes. That is an area of 6 square feet. If you make
it so that it folds up then essentially it is "0" area.

If my wife read this I'd already be a building....


Bruce-in-Bangkok
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Further to the message above. Compare a "modern" sail boat with a
"sugar scoop" stern and a similar size boat with a swim platform.
About the same area exposed to waves....


Bruce-in-Bangkok
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address is a spam trap)