jeff wrote in :

Joe wrote:
...
So Ben, Jeff's a pretty sharp sailor, I doubt he would fib on your
davit being flawed I hope you contacted him and offered to pay for the
flaw. And now RingMaster is having problems getting parts.


I haven't heard from Mr. Atkins - he would have to contact me through
this forum. Frankly, since the event was about 12 years ago, I don't
expect anything now. At the time I felt a bit forgiving - perhaps
something had happened while I wasn't there (that was the claim of A&H:
if I didn't see it bend, I can't prove it was their fault), perhaps the
dink was too big (but it worked for the following several years with no
trouble, why would it fail in the slip?), perhaps it really did cost
$280 to replace one tube. I only got ****ed later when I expected a bit
of sympathy but was laughed at.

The reason that I replaced my original set of A&H davits was because they
were too small and deforming. Static loading rates mean nothing when
you're in rough seas and pounding away.

My dinghy weighs about 110 lbs. My old set of davits had a rating of 120
lbs per davit. The new set is rated for 300 lbs per davit. You probably
need at least that 5x safety factor. And you definately need to have the
dinghy securely attached to the davits so that it doesn't swing/sway/etc.
It's taken me years to get my bridle system correct.

I think that davit companies do a dis-service to themselves by their load
ratings.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org