Sea Wise Bites (the Dust)

Our Carver 506 motor yacht spends most of its life acting like an office. Every once in a while, however, we do get to take the occasional client out, as we were doing for this rare, 40-mile trip from Marina del Rey to Oxnard, California’s Channel Island Harbor.

It was pretty much of a slog to windward, with quartering 6- to 9-foot seas, and 25 knot winds, gusting higher. But in spite of its towering superstructure, the 506 is not the least bit tender or ungainly such conditions, and we made the trip in a flat 3 hours.

Upon arrival, while making fast to our temporary dock, we noted something out of place. The dinghy, or, as we thought of it in situations like this – the top-of-the-line, 11-foot AB Nautilus rigid inflatable boat with 4-stroke Yamaha outboard and other expensive options too numerous to mention – was missing. The only evidence that there ever had been a dinghy was the Sea Wise davit hoist standing conspicuously alone on a suddenly-capacious swim platform. Click on each of the photos above for a close-up of "before" and "after."

It was clear what had happened; one of those quartering seas, with perfect timing, struck the edge-mounted dinghy, and carried it away.

Now, since the frustrating failure of the Sea Wise system during its first 30-odd hours of service, we had been waiting for the other shoe to drop (see: An Un(sea)Wise Purchase, August 1, 2002, for the rest of the story). On its edge, an 11-foot by 5-foot RIB presents nearly 6 square yards of surface area for a wave to hit. And water, inconveniently, weighs about 1,700 pounds per cubic yard. A two-yard thick wave striking the full face of the dinghy at 45 degrees will deliver a knockout blow of 7 Tons or so. That’s like dropping a 35’ motor yacht right on the davit system!

As an engineer, of course, I knew all of this intellectually; edge-mounting a large dinghy on the aft end of the swim platform of an ocean-going yacht is just plain stupid. And I'm the jerk who selected this system, and bought into all the manufacturer's claims. In retrospect, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. But only low at-sea use over two years – and a breathtaking amount of wishful thinking on my part – kept it together for that period.

Not wanting the Coast Guard to call out Search and Rescue upon hearing of an empty dinghy, we immediately filed a written report. Amazingly, when we returned to the yacht after a dinner ashore, a note from the USCG was taped to the hull telling us the inflatable had been discovered 3 miles off of Point Mugu Naval Air Station, and was being brought in by the Auxiliary. 3 hours later, there it was.

Our assessment of the situation proved to be correct. The latches in both cast stainless steel latch pads were bent open. The transom motor mount bracket – made of 1/2-inch gauge stainless steel, with a 1-inch stainless hinge pin, was twisted like it was made of putty. Many thousands of pounds of force hit this dinghy; it didn’t have a chance.

We jury-rigged the Nautilus into its nearly correct location, and limped back to Marina del Rey the next morning. Upon arrival, we made three quick phone calls: one to the original Sea Wise davits dealer to suggest he never again recommend this system for ocean-going boats; one to the maintenance yard to come over and totally remove the Sea Wise system from the yacht; and a final one to Harry Gibson Fiberglass and Yacht Repair – the local wizard in fiberglass – to, literally, “…erase all signs that that davit system was ever mounted on this yacht.”

I didn’t bother to call and rant once again to Stuart Colby, president of Sea Wise; I didn’t have any energy left. Besides, he would have had to take a hatchet to his Web site, with all its claims of reliability.

For ocean-going yachts, where there might actually be some seas here and there, I give this system a grade of “Z”.

We have a burial at sea scheduled for 150 lbs. of scrap stainless steel; we’ll keep you posted.