We bought a 33 (had (and still have!)a 30). We like cruising and we are on a mooring. I am thinking davits with solar on top or an arch to accomplish both. Secure and attractive are important. Any comments? I see most Nonsuch owners seem to have gone with davits…
Hi Bill,
Congratulations on your 33’ purchase. Soave is 33’ and we love her.
Something you probably already know, is that a larger the mainsail brings the potential for more violent gybes. Every couple months someone will post a photo of damage caused by a gybe.
For Soave I keep this in mind when contemplating modifications and try to reduce any chance the mainsheet will hang up when tacking or gybing.
When we purchased Soave she had davits. I removed them and haven’t put them back. They used mounting brackets with wood backing that was leaking. They were located without much consideration to the weight they would bear. At some point, I plan to evaluate all the aft fittings including the pushpit and possibly address any core rot and/or moisture points of entry. Hopefully by this time I’ll have a more complete vision for Soave’s future.
This forum is a great place to collect ideas and to get feedback on options that you are considering.
In the end, the best choice really depends on how you use your boat. At the Rendezvous in Greenport a few weeks ago, we didn’t miss not having a dinghy. I’d say about 50% of boats boats brought a dinghy. It’s easier for us to forgo the davits because we don’t cruise as much as some and marinas are plentiful on LIS. We keep Soave in a slip so solar is less important than boats on a mooring.
Happy to send you pictures of Soave if we have anything you are considering and want to see an example.
Sail on,
Rob…
Thanks Rob,
We had A&H 2000 davits on Bonheur (NS30) and they were good. We are on a mooring and like to cruise so solar would be a major help. As far as davits go, it is less clear: on our last cruise we towed the dinghy for two weeks and ended up using it only once! Anyway, I will keep thinking….
Bill
Another alternative to consider if the primary goal is have a place for panels might be a hard dodger with solar panels on top.
I think some people have also mounted solar panels on horizontal rails added between stanchions amidships. That lets the panels be angled as needed when moored for maximum sun, and rotated vertically back in line with the stanchions so as not to interfere with movement along the side decks.
As for dinghy towing vs. davits vs. inflating and deflating vs. …, it very much depends on how you like to use your boat.
-- Bob
Hi Bill,
We installed 330W of solar and 400W of wind power on our NS30 a few years ago, and both have served us well. Although I agree with the premise that adding anything to the aft end should be scrutinized, we haven’t had any real issues. Our rule is “chicken” gybes only, but when an occasional “normal” gybe does occur, we haven’t snagged anything yet. Maybe just some good luck!
With that said, we installed the panels on our existing davits. These were raised approximately 2 feet, which provides the needed headroom when using the stern ladder and, as an added benefit, keeps the dinghy above the stern light.
To extend them, we cut the vertical davit posts near the base and slid a long, solid stainless steel rod into the two ends to bridge the gap. We slid a piece of tubing—matching the original davit tubing size—over the exposed solid rod, and then sleeved a larger-diameter, heavy gage SS tube over the entire connection, extending both upward and downward over the existing tubing. A digital caliper was essential to ensure all the rods and tubing fit snugly. Because I like to engineer things with redundancy, I also added a Dyneema tether on each side, running from the top of the davit to a new deck fitting.
The panels were then fastened to aluminum Unisrtut channel, attached to the top of the davits.
Chip & Barbara Ott
NS30, Ardent
Westbrook CT
When I bought my N30U it had a dinghy hanging on davits. They had been very well installed with reinforcements behind the transom. Even so, moisture had entered the transom where the davits had been installed. I thought that the constant pressure on the attachment points might be result in it happening again so I took them off. I am at a slip so I don’t need the dinghy to get to and from the boat and I am happy to tow if I need it although towing is a problem in big seas and I doubt it would have survived right side up in a squall that hit us. Also, I find that the mainsheet on the N30 can get hung up and the previous owner advised me never to gybe, probably because of the davits. I wonder if it is possible to carry a small tender on the roof. Has anyone done that?
Hi Bill, here’s another congrats on your 33. I have a 30 U and I’m thinking about moving up to a 33 if I can swing it, but I just wanna add The davits and dinghy on the Stern add a lot of weight back there. I was motoring out to the rendezvous at Greenport from Westbrook, Connecticut, because of unfavorable tides and wind,I noticed that the Stern was sinking really low and the swim platform was actually surfing on the water, one thing I learned during discussions at the rendezvous was that you can also get a three-point harness and lift the bow of your dinghy up out of the water so only the stern of the dinghy is floating and get along fine. This presentation was by Deb Sabo. You might wanna look into that option. I like the idea of an arch as long as it can be mounted in a swept back attitude so as not to interfere with the main sheet. I wish you good luck on selling the 30 and upgrading the 33 to what you needs are.
Brian