Dive Ladder/ Platform

[BigRed007]

I will be getting a 19ft Cobia CC 20 soon and my wife would like a good ladder or platform on the back. We both are experianced divers. Plan to dive/fish/swim.

Questions:
The small platforms you see with a ladder attached on the transom, does any ony have trouble with the platform or the trasom being damaged when the boat takes off fast and the platform get pushed against the water or is dragged under the water until the boat is underway and on even keel?

What ladder does anyone find the best where there is enough support so the screws don't pull out of the transom when you are getting out of the water?

Thanks in advance for everyons help.

 

[DennisS]

You want to bolt the platform/ladder through the transom with some kind of backing plate, screws aren't a good idea. The bolts need to be coated with a sealant such as 3M 5200 etc, to insure that the bolt holes are waterproof. Most transoms are wood sandwiched between fiberglass, when you put a hole in the fiberglass you want to make sure it's sealed against water getting in and rotting the wood.

I'm currently trying to figure out how I want to make my platform (probably aluminum tube) and mount a good ladder that I picked up, to it.

 

[matt_unique]

I will be getting a 19ft Cobia CC 20 soon and my wife would like a good ladder or platform on the back. We both are experianced divers. Plan to dive/fish/swim.

Questions:
The small platforms you see with a ladder attached on the transom, does any ony have trouble with the platform or the trasom being damaged when the boat takes off fast and the platform get pushed against the water or is dragged under the water until the boat is underway and on even keel?

What ladder does anyone find the best where there is enough support so the screws don't pull out of the transom when you are getting out of the water?

Thanks in advance for everyons help.

A good ladder and swim platform is really handy. Though I think you will find swim platforms very expensive. I have a small swim platform on my boat. They are mounted high enough such that that don't get beat up when you power up.

I recently installed in the following ladder to my swim platform. You can mount this ladder directly to your transom. You would definitely want to add backing plates to help distribute the load. Marine plywood would work but stainless steel plates may be better. I used 18 gauge stainless steel plates to distribute the load across my swim platform. I exit the water on this ladder wearing doubles, etc.

http://www.boatersworld.com/webapp/...oductId=3967306

--Matt

 

[Nemrod]

My Whaler Nantucket 190 has a platform with ladder on the RH stern. It works fine for me and my wife to swim and dive from. We usually don our gear in the boat and then flip out with a back roll over the side. I generally have a trailing line especially with current, in any case, we have equipement tie-off lines/teathers and this allows us to remove our gear in the water. If it is rough we may clamber aboard still geared up. We have not done a bunch of diving yet from this boat as it is new and still in the outfitting stage. One thing I made for another boat and use it on this one is a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet several feet wide and long enough to flip over the gunwale to protect it during gearing up and entry. I have a piece of sand filled PVC pipe sewn into each end and this pulls the carpet tight and keeps it from flapping in the wind etc. When not in use just roll it up. Hope you enjoy your new boat.

 

[frogman_5]

There is a chance of doing some serious damage to your transom when taking off with a ladder down. I have seen some hinged ladder attachment points for dive ladders and would highly recommend looking into these. Here's a link to one site selling various mount/breakaway hinge options. (Not endorsing, just the first site I found.)

http://www.boatownersworld.com/garelick/99188.htm