As another single-handed safety consideration, let me put in a plug for Ron Schryver’s announcement about swim steps and ladder extensions: Final Call for Swim Platforms & Ladder Extensions 2025/2026
Many of the boats already have these upgrades. For those who don’t, I strongly recommend considering one or the other. Unless your fitness and flexibility levels are above average, getting out of the water can be very difficult unless you have enough ladder steps below the water. There needs to be enough steps below the ladder that your knees are well below waist level when your feet are on the lowest step.
There’s an old thread, Stern Ladder Safety , that discusses how to make a simple set-up that provides a dangling line you can pull from the water to release the ladder and bring it down. It was designed by Butch Garren after he fell off his boat at the dock and discovered that it was dangerously difficult to get back on either the boat or the dock.
His design can be replicated with spare parts most of us already have, or less than $10 investment for those who don’t.
– Bob