Carver Owners Forum

Looking for an "affordable" deck crane to lift my seadoo out of the water and set it onto my swim platform. The seadoo is 1000lbs (wet). I am aware of the usual suspects - Nautical Structures, Avant ex Global, etc - but these guys are Maga yacht crane suppliers. I am considering using a local machine shop to fabricate something if I can't locate something "off the shelf". The Voyagers had an optional roof crane as does the Marquis. This crane would only need to lift the 1000lbs 24" out of the water and I would manually turn it to set it on chocks.

I have looked into truck mounted material handling cranes that are very interesting and I may go that route.

If anybody has had a crane built locally I would be interested in your experience...

Check Harbor Freight, u may have to modify it for ur application but they r inexpensive. Mike

Does the roof have any different supports when it has the factory installed crane? Just thinking about how the load is distributed.Have you considered the guys who make the davits and such in Ontario ( Atkins and Hoyle), they make everything I believe and maybe could help with your project.I talked to them at the boat show and seemed like very nice people.

Bud37, I wouldn't even consider putting it on the hardtop where the Voyagers have theirs. Mine is going to go adjacent to the curved entry staircase on the swim platform. I actually did email Atkins and Hoyle but to be honest I wasn't impressed with their response. I'll wait and talk to them at the boat show in January.

I've been looking into this also. Carver says don't put more than 600 lbs back there but who really knows...

Have you looked at seaweed marine tend'r rollers instead of a crane? I'm considering that since a crane to lift a waverunner itself is going to be into the 250lb plus range or more if hydraulic and the rollers are 130lbs. You really need a 10-20% reserve; so for 1000lb machine the crane needs to be for 1200-1400lb to be safe and not have an issue with it not being able to lift if some water got in it for example...

I would put five 200lb guys back there and go for a ride before you do it, you may need more tab or more chain in the locker to offset some of the weight. These boats are already under powered to begin with...

I agree though all the marine answers are over priced.

Lyndon670 wrote:Source of the post Bud37, I wouldn't even consider putting it on the hardtop where the Voyagers have theirs. Mine is going to go adjacent to the curved entry staircase on the swim platform. I actually did email Atkins and Hoyle but to be honest I wasn't impressed with their response. I'll wait and talk to them at the boat show in January.

Yikes Lyndon.... lets not be throwing that whole January image around.... Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Hugo wrote:Source of the post....Have you looked at seaweed marine tend'r rollers......

Personally I'm not crazy about that unit. I've seen a lot of failures; adjustable joint welds breaking off, etc. while under way. I'm sure there are folks out there that have had success with them and good things to say but not me!

Interesting, I didn't know that they had problems with them...

I've seen a few failures on boats I've serviced, four of which ended up loosing the tenders while underway. Nothing catastrophic as they were all noticed in time to be recovered but could just as easily have been much worse. One's natural thought would be that they were installed wrong however every one of them was installed by their authorized installers. It seems to me that the design just puts too much stress in some key areas that eventually let go. I suppose if you're always crawling along in very calm seas you'd be okay but that's not very realistic. While every piece of equipment can be expected to have a failure rate, what I've experienced in my little corner is a pretty high rate considering there really aren't that many of them around in my area. Again, I'm sure there are those that are quite happy with their units, this is just my opinion based on my observations.

Carver says don't put more than 600 lbs back there but who really knows...

Where did you find this Hugo as I am interested in the data that proves/disproves it. I can't find it anywhere. I was anchored last weekend and had a Carver 564 anchored just across the bay from me with a new Seadoo 215 on the back platform. That machine is 1200lbs. I had 8 people on my platform this summer of various sizes which would equate to at least 1000lbs going on the low side (probably more like 1300lbs).

The 466, 506 and 564 have the platform which is part of the hull design and is actually designed as a giant trim tab. from 8-11kts the platform actually goes 2" under water acting as a tab. While docked, the bottom of the platform actually touches the water.

I heard of issues with the seaweed lifts haven't actually seen one with a problem. My buddy has a Silverton 453 with one and it is a piece of art. The welds are top notch and the finish quality is spectacular. I just don't like the way it uses so much of the available real estate on the platform.