Kato Marine Davits for the IP 370

Here is a good new/bad news story.

I recently bought a pair of Kato Marine Island Davits for my IP 370. The 370 has a swim platform that extends 2 1/2 ft beyond the transom, making it impossible to lift a dinghy straight up using davits attached to the stern caprail. The service rep at Kato Marine said that there are "50 or 60" 370s with Kato Davits, so there should be no problem. But there was.

The dinghy is an Achilles 310-AL, which weighs 120 lbs, and the motor is a new Suzuki 15 hp, also 120 lbs. I was told that the davits are rated for 300 lbs. Even with a 6:1 block, it was a tremendous struggle to get the dinghy up because it kept catching under the aft edge of the swim platform. It made a mess of the dinghy because exhaust soot was smeared all over my new little boat! Looking at it from the side, it was clear that there was no way that the davits extended far enough to lift the boat without rubbing against the aft edge of the swim platform. To add insult to injury, there was a structural failure of one of the davits. The davits have a ball joint where they attach to the plates that are bolted to the boat. The ball pulled out of the stainless steel tube on one davit. Kato exchanged the davit promptly, and suggested other strategies for making the davits work. I spent a lot of time working on this but eventually concluded that there was no way the davits would be satisfactory. So far all this is bad, right? But the good news was that Kato insisted from the get-go that I would have to be happy with their product, and once it was clear to me that the davits wouldn't work, they took them back, shipping a box to me and paying for the return shipping.

Lessons learned:

1. The success of davit instillation depends not only on the davits and the IP model, but also on the size of the dinghy. The Kato Island Davits may work on the 370 with smaller tenders (though I'm skeptical), but I bought a large inflatable with the intention of doing extended cruising. The size of the tubes and the weight of boat/motor must be taken into account when assessing the geometry of the davits. An arch is a much better solution for the 370 if the dink is large and heavy.

2. Kato Marine provided excellent service at every step of the purchase process. They stood by their product and accepted the eventual product return with no hassles. I would recommend Kato as a reliable company to do business with.

Steve,

We have Kato Davits on our 370 and have been quite happy with them. Our dingy is smaller than yours, a 270 inflatable and with a smaller engine. We however do not carry the motor mounted on the dingy up on the davits while underway as a matter of practice.

The issues you discuss with the dingy hanging/catching on the sugar scoop swim platform are real when raising it, but for us not a big deal. Hayden's thoughts about raising the bow first is our first step and then one of us steps down onto the swim platform and pushes off the dingy stern with a foot while pulling in the dingy stern line and it pops free. I can appreciate with a larger dingy and added engine weight this could be a bigger problem. One surprise in your discussion is the "exhaust soot" smearing on the dingy. We have over 2200 hours on our engine and still have little soot (IP mustache) on the stern.

Our experience working with Kato has also been good. I decided to add a solar panel over the davits later on, and Kato has a solution for that that Norm Pierce designed some years ago. Very solid installation.

Harry

We have the same David's on our 350, but in comparison lift a hard dink without the motor. I also have the ss reinforcing straps (critical requirement, imho) that distribute the load to the cockpit structure.

I drop the folded ladder, sit facing aft on the helm seat with my feet on a rung, and hang a typical 2' x2' (?) boat cushion at the bottom of the ladder to protect the dink. I then lift both ends simultaneously, and use my feet to help the dinghy slide up the cushion until it reaches the point of hanging vertical and free.

Did I mention those ss reinforcing straps! We also have the aforementioned solar panel set up, and are very happy with the whole affair.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

The rep from Kato suggested that I try some variations of all the suggestions offered. I think my problem is that the dink has too much mass to be manhandled gracefully. I tried lifting the bow first, and the stern just got really stuck. I tried pushing the dink off with my feet, and although it was possible to raise it to the top of the davits, it wasn't possible to keep it off the back edge of the swim platform, which created a sooty mess. I do have the stainless steel straps, so at least the railing was stable. But for almost $3000, I think I should be able to raise and lower the dinghy easily and confidently. An arch that extends past the swim platform appears to be the best solution.

Again, the problem is the size and weight of the motor+dinghy. I'm sure a small inflatable would make everything simpler. I posted my experience so that other folks would be aware of potential problems when worked out how to manage their tender.

We have IP 370 #21. In June, Norm Pierce with Pierce Yacht Company installed Kato davits for us. Initially I struggled with hoisting the dinghy over the swim platform edge. We have a new AB 9'6" RIB with a 15 hp Yamaha OB. The solution we worked out is what Hayden suggested. We lead the bow end hoisting line to the cabintop winch. Valerie works that. I am on the top step of the swim platform and work the aft end hoisting line by hand. She raises the bow to 45 degrees or so. I nudge the side of the dinghy out with my foot and it pops over the swim platform edge. I raise the aft end and Valerie raises the bow. We have the SS bars so it slides over those at it comes up. It all goes without difficulty.
FYI. Two weeks ago Norm installed two Kyocera solar panels on the new davits. He used Kato pivoting solar panel supports. They work great.

Rick & Valerie Stewart
s/v Moon Eye IP 370 #21
Boothbay Harbor, Maine

We have Kato Marine Island davits on our 370 and they have been faultless for nearly 10 years. We use them with an AB 3.2m RIB and a pretty heavy 9.8HP 4-stroke outboard. Yes the sugar scoop requires a bit of finessing but the solution was another excellent Kato product, their outboard crane. We lift the outboard off the dink and store it on an OB bracket next to the crane, then lift the dink up on the davits. Apart from needing a little nudge with a foot to get the RIB to clear the exhaust flap it's all pretty easy. We have occasionally hoisted the RIB and O/B up together, say just for overnight at anchor, and it's harder work but still do-able. Never had any concerns about the strength of the whole system. Using the crane though avoids having the weight of both the RIB and the O/B swinging off the davits in heavier weather. The Kato stuff (along with their radar pole) is some of the best bits of kit we ever bought for our boat.

Neil & Molly Richards
IP370 Saguday
Dartmouth, UK