Sailboat Swim Platform?
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. |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
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 (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap) |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
On Oct 26, 7:06 pm, "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. Hi, Glenn, and group, I put a platform on our boat in the course of our refit, and if you'd like a link to the pictures agonizingly/excruciatingly documenting that in my gallery, I'll send it along. However, a couple of my design thoughts as I built it we Not at the sea level, as it will take a beating in following seas. Ours is halfway, which in our case is 2' up. The form of the platform follows the hull line so at heel, it's not in the water. There's a ladder which can be lowered from in the water for safety to board if accidentally overboard. We have yet to put in a transom step, but we may, as it's a big step up. We extended and beefed up the standard West Marine platform in order to provide a 30" base. With our reverse, we lost ~8" tucked under. We used both tension and compression in the mount, with brackets at the transom and tubing from the sides with a very substantial SS L for the stern support. If you don't have both, you'll need huge brackets and put the transom under enormous load. You'll want to allow for the seas whacking on it either from above or below. For all that, our stern sags, and the L was apparently inadequate, even at 1/8x1.5. If you do that support design, I'd recommend 1/4" HTH... FWIW, yours is one of the boats we considered; I believe it will take this mod very well. And, you're very right about the wife wanting to go cruising. I can't tell you how many folks we've encountered - including here in Cambridge, where I've got another Morganite giving me a ride to West and other provisioning today - where the dream is stillborn, or, worse, orphaned, where the wife leaves... Good on you, and enjoy every moment, including the refit. L8R Skip Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and) "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah) |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
|
Sailboat Swim Platform?
"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message ps.com... On Oct 26, 7:06 pm, "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. Hi, Glenn, and group, I put a platform on our boat in the course of our refit, and if you'd like a link to the pictures agonizingly/excruciatingly documenting that in my gallery, I'll send it along. However, a couple of my design thoughts as I built it we Not at the sea level, as it will take a beating in following seas. Ours is halfway, which in our case is 2' up. The form of the platform follows the hull line so at heel, it's not in the water. There's a ladder which can be lowered from in the water for safety to board if accidentally overboard. We have yet to put in a transom step, but we may, as it's a big step up. We extended and beefed up the standard West Marine platform in order to provide a 30" base. With our reverse, we lost ~8" tucked under. We used both tension and compression in the mount, with brackets at the transom and tubing from the sides with a very substantial SS L for the stern support. If you don't have both, you'll need huge brackets and put the transom under enormous load. You'll want to allow for the seas whacking on it either from above or below. For all that, our stern sags, and the L was apparently inadequate, even at 1/8x1.5. If you do that support design, I'd recommend 1/4" HTH... FWIW, yours is one of the boats we considered; I believe it will take this mod very well. And, you're very right about the wife wanting to go cruising. I can't tell you how many folks we've encountered - including here in Cambridge, where I've got another Morganite giving me a ride to West and other provisioning today - where the dream is stillborn, or, worse, orphaned, where the wife leaves... Good on you, and enjoy every moment, including the refit. L8R Skip Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and) "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah) Thanks Skip. Appreciated for sure. Glad to hear from someone who's thought through the issues. I would appreciate pictures and other information regarding the construction and installation of a swim platform. You can post links or email to me. My hotmail address is globaltek2000...sorry, just encrypting a little to prevent spam. Yes, it's becoming clearer about the wife & cruising. If all it takes to have a happy wife, eager to go cruising is a few boat comfort additions, I'm in. I'm happy to to live pretty spartan, but sure like having my wife along. We're planning to go for a year and a half this time, maybe longer next...or maybe we'll never go 'home'. :-) Thanks Skip! Glenn. |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
"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 (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap) 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. |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 09:42:36 -0700, Mark Borgerson
wrote: In article , says... 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, A swim platform seems like a handy addition in inland waters. However, if you plan on any long offshore cruises, you should consider the interaction with breaking waves from astern. You might either lose the platform, or have the stern pulled down enough to increase the chances of flooding the cockpit. (Probably not so big an issue with a center-cockpit boat, though.) Mark Borgerson I think that would depend on the area of the platform and whether it was solid. The ones I have seen were made of a stainless frame and teak "slats". I'd doubt that they provided much resistance to a wave. But as I mentioned they also contribute to the overall length and might make the marina charges higher so building a folding one should solve both problems. Bruce-in-Bangkok (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap) |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
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 (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap) 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 (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap) |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
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. The boat I sail on, a Beneteau First 41.5 has a bathing platform hinged into the transom. When closed the "flap" is sealed and flush with the transom, and opens only when required. The "door" is in glassfibre and is shaped and gelcoated exactly as the transom. Obviously this arrangement has been allowed for in the mould, and would be very difficult to build as an add-on, but it does work well and keeps the transom looking smart when not in use. Dennis. |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
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 (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap) 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 (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap) 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 (Note:displayed e-mail address is a spam trap) |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
On 2007-10-27 01:58:38 -0400, Bruce in Bangkok said:
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, I *REALLY* like the idea of a folding platform. We have a transom that'll take darned near anything -- it's 6' wide -- but when we're motoring, the stern wave comes about a foot up. When we're cranking under sail, I'm sure it comes higher, but I'm too busy to look back. Having a swim platform more than a foot off the water just wouldn't work well for us, and we love the idea of being only 28 feet long despite our interior space. I love Skip and Lydia's platform, but it *is* just a bit too high for my purposes. [Hell, I love the boat and am VERY glad Pat hasn't seen it.] -- Jere Lull Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/ Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/ |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:06:51 +0000, 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! Go for it! After cruising with a swim platform for the last 8 summers, I wouldn't be without one. The boat is a 50' center cockpit built in 1983, one of the first to have a swim platform at all. The platform itself is teak, with a sturdy outside ring and 3 supporting "joists" made from "2x3" and "2x4" sized lumber, filled in with slats that are about 1x1. All the major joints are through-bolted. The whole thing is joined to the hull with 2 angle plates made from 3/8" stainless. It's sturdy as can be, still perfect after 24 years of stern ties and minor collisions. The boat weighs about 18 tons. A similar construction should work well on your boat. It's strong where it counts, and would be easier to build than a grid design. It's also easy to maintain. We have the outer ring varnished and the slats left bare, which provides good traction and looks great. I just scrub the slats occasionally to keep them from getting too gray and dingy from the exhaust, which exits underneath. After living with it, I think it's a lot better than the grid or solid designs on most other boats, and it certainly looks better. I don't know about structural safety in large breaking waves, but is that really an issue where you're cruising? I suppose you could mount it on sturdy hinges and make it fold, but I wouldn't count on that if damaging waves are an issue. Matt O. |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
Several years ago we bought an Island Packet 37 to go cruising up and down
the East Coast. The IP 37 has a near vertical transom. We needed a swim platform to get off and on the boat and into our dinghy with groceries, laundry and especially our 40 lb sheltie. I had a swim platform fabricated from 1-1/4" SS tubing, supported by two arms from the outside of the platform up to the back side of the transom. I installed teak slats inside the SS framing. It was built by a rigging shop in Annapolis and wasn't cheap- about $3000 as I recall. But it worked great. David |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
I am coming in late on this thread ...
We had a Tayana 37 and needed a way to get our dogs into the dinghy. What I did was build a platform (2x3) and affixed lines on each corner. The front and rear lines on each side ran to cleats on the toe rail. This way we could adjust the height/angle of the platform to match the dinghy. The dogs had no problem jumping on to the platform then into the dinghy. What we discovered was this platfrom made a great swim platform as well. It could be lowered right to the waterline and made it easy to get in and out of the water. When we were done using it we stowed it in a lazerrete. Jerry |
Sailboat Swim Platform?
"Gerald Atkin" wrote in message ... I am coming in late on this thread ... We had a Tayana 37 and needed a way to get our dogs into the dinghy. What I did was build a platform (2x3) and affixed lines on each corner. The front and rear lines on each side ran to cleats on the toe rail. This way we could adjust the height/angle of the platform to match the dinghy. The dogs had no problem jumping on to the platform then into the dinghy. What we discovered was this platfrom made a great swim platform as well. It could be lowered right to the waterline and made it easy to get in and out of the water. When we were done using it we stowed it in a lazerrete. Jerry Sounds like a very interesting idea. Have any photos? Glenn. s/v Seawing. |
All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:44 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004 - 2014 BoatBanter.com