"Hoges in WA" wrote in news:gIPEj.1102$n8.468
@news-server.bigpond.net.au:

Hoges in WA



Buy a European boat made to board from being backed up to a quay.

The Amel, for instance, has a nicely engineerred ladder that becomes a
boarding ramp if laid out horizontally, but becomes a step ladder if set
down vertically. It has mahogany (of course) panels that fit in it.

It stores along the rail at sea, starboard side aft. A pin acts as a pivot
and you just pivot it over the stern for stern-to docking or you can drop
it over the stern and the bottom two steps go into the water for swim
boarding or diving.

The really funny one was a friend's Hatteras 56 FBMY. It had a boarding
platform, but that was 30' below the stern of the outdoor aft salon deck
and there was no way to get down to it unless you could step onto it off a
dock alongside. I never found any kind of ladder it may have originally
come with..... It was a great diving platform, though, off the beach. He
had a rope ladder to reboard from in the water over the side like a
ship....

He nearly had a heart attack when I filled the tanks at $1.10/gallon way
back then. He'd be dead if I filled it on his credit card, now!....(c;
As soon as I got all its systems up and running, spending weekends in its
bilge with 32VDC power, engines, 2 gensets, 5 Air conditioners, various
water pumps (2), air compressors (1), hydraulic stabilizers, etc......HE
SOLD IT for $592K...........dammit. I just got where I could take a break
and lay back to enjoy it! They were way tired of hauling everything down
the dock trying to liveaboard it. I would be, too.

On Mar 21, 9:18*am, Larry wrote:
"Hoges in WA" wrote in news:gIPEj.1102$n8.468
@news-server.bigpond.net.au:

Hoges in WA



Hey Hoges,

Are the guy with the red Freya????

Bob

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Hoges in WA" wrote in news:gIPEj.1102$n8.468
@news-server.bigpond.net.au:

Hoges in WA



Buy a European boat made to board from being backed up to a quay.

The Amel, for instance, has a nicely engineerred ladder that becomes a
boarding ramp if laid out horizontally, but becomes a step ladder if set
down vertically. It has mahogany (of course) panels that fit in it.

It stores along the rail at sea, starboard side aft. A pin acts as a
pivot
and you just pivot it over the stern for stern-to docking or you can drop
it over the stern and the bottom two steps go into the water for swim
boarding or diving.


Larry - I am fairly sure I couldn't afford an Amel. I read the ads that
the Potter chap has in Cruising World and dream but reality is different to
that.
I've been looking at Tayanas for a while now, hence my original question.
I'll try to find out some detail on the ramp for the Amel - anything that
has more than one use has things going for it.
Hoges in WA

snipped

"Hoges in WA" wrote in
news
I'll try to find out some detail on the ramp for the Amel - anything
that has more than one use has things going for it.
Hoges in WA


http://www.amel.fr/en/pages-amel/sha...tos-plans.htm#

The photo on the left shows the ladder stowed on its peg against the Amel's
hard rail aft. The photo on the right shows it swung overboard so you can
board the dink. It must be a really old photo. French women never wear
that much bikini any more....(c;

While you're there, you might as well watch the Amel 54 movies....(c;

We can all dream.....(c;

Larry wrote:

"Hoges in WA" wrote in
news
I'll try to find out some detail on the ramp for the Amel - anything
that has more than one use has things going for it.
Hoges in WA


http://www.amel.fr/en/pages-amel/sha...tos-plans.htm#

The photo on the left shows the ladder stowed on its peg against the Amel's
hard rail aft. The photo on the right shows it swung overboard so you can
board the dink. It must be a really old photo. French women never wear
that much bikini any more....(c;

While you're there, you might as well watch the Amel 54 movies....(c;

This ladder looks very much like the one I have on our boat. Some of
the CSYs had the side ladder that stows up along the lifelines, and
some (ours) have them at the stern. This isn't our boat, but our
ladder is similar

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/1094...our-Nassau.jpg

We have ours half deployed while we are underway or when we are
traveling. There's a line on it so that if you leave it half down,
you can reach the line from the water and pull the ladder the rest of
the way down. This is useful if you fall off the boat or dock because
otherwise, the dinghy on the davits is in the way for deploying the
ladder. This one shows it folded up

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/7399...tona_Beach.jpg

These are with it deployed
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/7475...rtle_Beach.jpg
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/1576...ille_Beach.jpg

The one boat that I'm sure has a side ladder, I just don't have a
photo of that side of the boat. I do have this picture of a side
ladder

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/3938...er-Footman.jpg

But I'm not sure if this was a standard ladder because they also have
a swim platform rigged like this

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/3938...er-Footman.jpg

grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id1.html

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
Larry wrote:

snipped
\
But I'm not sure if this was a standard ladder because they also have
a swim platform rigged like this

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/3938...er-Footman.jpg

They sure have a big last step from that platform to the deck!

Thanks for the tips. My wife is becoming more reassured. She crushed her
ring finger (and rings) on the swinging ladder of the boat I mentioned
before in Exmouth last year.
Hoges in WA

grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id1.html

"Hoges in WA" wrote:


"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .
Larry wrote:

snipped
\
But I'm not sure if this was a standard ladder because they also have
a swim platform rigged like this

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/3938...er-Footman.jpg

They sure have a big last step from that platform to the deck!

I'm not sure whether the ladder folds down into the water from the
platform, or up onto the stern or whether they move their ladder from
along the lifelines to the stern/ I took the picture in 2000, and I
didn't even remember seeing that stern platform. We used the ladder
stowed along the sidelines to get onto the boat from the dinghy.

Thanks for the tips. My wife is becoming more reassured. She crushed her
ring finger (and rings) on the swinging ladder of the boat I mentioned
before in Exmouth last year.
Hoges in WA

I've had a number of issues with boarding, and Bob has spent a lot of
time looking for alternate solutions which did not work for me before
he finally gave in to just using our swim ladder.

Purchased ladders that hook to the side of the boat are too high out
of the water for me to be able to get my foot up out of the water to
the lowest rung, or if I can, then my foot is about neck level and (in
common with a lot of women), I can't chin myself or pull myself up far
enough to put my foot on the lowest rung in a more doable
configuration. Using those ladders to get into the dinghy is more
possible, but they tend to slide at the bottom because they are just
hooked over the edge at the top.

At first he thought that the dinghy had to be in the water in order to
use the swim ladder, but when I backed off the dock one November while
folding the sails for winter storage, he found that wasn't true. He
COULD push the dinghy out of the way so that he could deploy ladder.
That may also be part of the reason why he leaves it half down.

Just as an aside - even getting off the boat at a dock may be a
problem. The PO docked stern to, and used the swim ladder as a ramp.
But with the dinghy davits that we added, that wasn't a viable option.

Since we head into the slip, a short finger pier (like at Elizabeth
City) means that I have to climb off over the bow lifelines. At high
tide, a low fixed finger pier means a very long step down. I once
sliced my thigh open on a nail in the piling that I was holding onto
while I stepped down.

Floating docks are similarly a problem for me because they are at the
waterline, and we have a fairly high freeboard. So we carry a step
stool.

grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id1.html

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
snip...
Floating docks are similarly a problem for me because they are at the
waterline, and we have a fairly high freeboard. So we carry a step
stool.

grandma Rosalie



Our skipper had a Rubbermaid 2 step type stool nailed to his slip.
We had to be careful hopping off the Mirage 33 if the helmsman came into the
slip a bit fast. There's not a lot of surface area to land on. ;-)

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
snipped
Just as an aside - even getting off the boat at a dock may be a
problem. The PO docked stern to, and used the swim ladder as a ramp.
But with the dinghy davits that we added, that wasn't a viable option.

Since we head into the slip, a short finger pier (like at Elizabeth
City) means that I have to climb off over the bow lifelines. At high
tide, a low fixed finger pier means a very long step down. I once
sliced my thigh open on a nail in the piling that I was holding onto
while I stepped down.

Floating docks are similarly a problem for me because they are at the
waterline, and we have a fairly high freeboard. So we carry a step
stool.


We have the same problem of high freeboard and a low dock and it was a
problem for my wife,who is not so tall, to get down when we docked.
Then I saw an item called a 'fenderstep' which is a short fat fender with a
rope at each end so it hangs horizontally and has a nonslip top surface to
stand on.
Now, if she wants to, she can even be standing on it already as we come in
and then it is only a short step down.
We have two so we are ready on both sides if we are coming into a strange
marina and do not know in avance which side we will be docking onto. We use
them solely as steps but they are good fenders too if you want to use them
another way. She used to be wary of docking in case she hurt herself, but
not any more.
It is made by Danfender. Just put 'fenderstep' into Google.

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Hoges in WA" wrote in
news
I'll try to find out some detail on the ramp for the Amel - anything
that has more than one use has things going for it.
Hoges in WA


http://www.amel.fr/en/pages-amel/sha...tos-plans.htm#

The photo on the left shows the ladder stowed on its peg against the
Amel's
hard rail aft. The photo on the right shows it swung overboard so you can
board the dink. It must be a really old photo. French women never wear
that much bikini any more....(c;

While you're there, you might as well watch the Amel 54 movies....(c;

We can all dream.....(c;

I made myself sit through the whole video looking for reasons why I wouldn't
want one.
Couldn't find one.
Hoges in WA