This past winter, Dale found a great deal on a 3-step swim ladder at one of the marine discounter web sites, so I bought one in anticipation of making it a spring project.
Since spring ends, and summer begins next week, I decided to mount the ladder today.
Here is the item I purchased. Notice where the mounting holes are located...
My swim platform was built by the original owner of my boat. It is made of 1" starboard that was shaped to fit the hull, and it rests on the Stainless Marine bracket. A substantial stainless steel frame was fabricated and supports the platform outboard of the bracket.
Because of the shape, and because of the 'wave slots' in the platform, there wasn't a place to mount the ladder off the rear that one of the mounting holes wasn't inside one of the slots.
I had two choices...
Option A meant adding some large stainless fender washers to the one mounting hole in the slot to bridge the gap, while deploying the ladder off the rear.
Option B was to mount the ladder so that it deployed over the port side.
After measuring a dozen times, and looking at all the angles, I decided to go with Option A.
With the slope of the transom, and the relatively narrow width of the platform from the side, I decided that Option B wouldn't be fun for my grandkids to navigate. Also, if coming from the side, I would need to provide a hand-hold on the platform for them to grab onto so they could hoist themselves up.
Option A allows the swimmer to approach from the stern, and use the slots in the swim platform as hand-holds to assist the swimmer aboard.
With the best position determined, I drilled the starboard and bolted the ladder down.
For the mounting hole that was in the 'slot', I used multiple large stainless fender washers to bridge the gap.
Lucky for me, I was able to do the job without dropping any hardware or tools into the water.
I did have a brief moment where I almost took a swim... but I recovered! :shock:
Here is the ladder deployed in the closed position...
... and here is the ladder in the fully deployed position.
Finally, here is the ladder in the stowed position.
As you can see... if someone (like me) were to fall over while fishing alone, this ladder could be easily deployed by a swimmer in the water making re-entry to the boat a simple task.
A pretty easy project. :wink:
Since spring ends, and summer begins next week, I decided to mount the ladder today.
Here is the item I purchased. Notice where the mounting holes are located...
My swim platform was built by the original owner of my boat. It is made of 1" starboard that was shaped to fit the hull, and it rests on the Stainless Marine bracket. A substantial stainless steel frame was fabricated and supports the platform outboard of the bracket.
Because of the shape, and because of the 'wave slots' in the platform, there wasn't a place to mount the ladder off the rear that one of the mounting holes wasn't inside one of the slots.
I had two choices...
Option A meant adding some large stainless fender washers to the one mounting hole in the slot to bridge the gap, while deploying the ladder off the rear.
Option B was to mount the ladder so that it deployed over the port side.
After measuring a dozen times, and looking at all the angles, I decided to go with Option A.
With the slope of the transom, and the relatively narrow width of the platform from the side, I decided that Option B wouldn't be fun for my grandkids to navigate. Also, if coming from the side, I would need to provide a hand-hold on the platform for them to grab onto so they could hoist themselves up.
Option A allows the swimmer to approach from the stern, and use the slots in the swim platform as hand-holds to assist the swimmer aboard.
With the best position determined, I drilled the starboard and bolted the ladder down.
For the mounting hole that was in the 'slot', I used multiple large stainless fender washers to bridge the gap.
Lucky for me, I was able to do the job without dropping any hardware or tools into the water.
I did have a brief moment where I almost took a swim... but I recovered! :shock:
Here is the ladder deployed in the closed position...
... and here is the ladder in the fully deployed position.
Finally, here is the ladder in the stowed position.
As you can see... if someone (like me) were to fall over while fishing alone, this ladder could be easily deployed by a swimmer in the water making re-entry to the boat a simple task.
A pretty easy project. :wink:
