Just bought boat, need IDEAL dive platform/tank holder

[DanLVolker]

Well, if you go tomorrow or Friday, you'll see me.

We will be there Friday and Saturday--Sandra will be all over the Dive Travel section from noon till several hours later on Friday..then to cameras

I will see travel, but also spearguns, freedive gear, and hopefully dive boats with interesting tank and platform configs ( normally there are a few of these, but I am not too optimistic).

Hopefully we will see you.
Regards,
Dan

 

[dpbishop]

Years ago I dove the BVI's on an Irwin 53 that had a neat swim platform. It was hinged at the bottom with a big honkin s.s. hinge in the center, and had two s.s. wires to the outside corners on either side. One was on a small power reel so you could raise or lower it with the push of a button. It sat about 2" off the water when down. It even had a hot water shower hose built into the stern.

 

[Gilldiver]

I am up in the North East and we may head out in some heavier weather then you may, so take my comments with a bit of salt. You should know your waters and what you will go out in better then I.

About the only "system" that I thought worked well was a box where the back panel was removed to access the tanks. This protected the tanks and other equipment. From some of your comments you might be able to use this idea. Instead of a full back panel, only have a 12" lip of sorts which drops down and becomes the seat.

But how you keep the box from looking like a box, I don't know.

How you will secure each tank individualy, will be nice to see.

Finally, be careful how high and aft you set the tanks, a few hundred pounds 2+ feet off the water and aft of the screws and rudder may do a job on your seakeeping abilities. I can see you having a hell of a roll with 5 or more tanks.

 

[Tom Winters]

Jeez, this would be a tough retrofit. The Swim Platform Inc. platforms are nice looking, but they're designed for swimming and playing. They are add-ons and not intrinsically part of the hull. You get a heavy-ish diver on the end with a dive ladder and some even mildly pitching seas, and the momentary load is going to wreak havoc with your installation. One of the premier selling points of extended platforms is for personal watercraft, and there is no mention of sticking one of these back there.
Looking at a Regal 320, you might be able to engineer-in a nice gearing-up station on the reverse slope part of the transom with some Nida-Core or pklywood and epoxy resins. You would not have too much room back there - 4 singles or 2 doubles might be fitable. Extras would have to go in the cockpit. There are other tank mount options besides Roll Control.
I guess you had other considerations for a boat besides diving or you would have skipped the Regal. Good luck rigging that baby up for diving.

 

[DanLVolker]

Jeez, this would be a tough retrofit. The Swim Platform Inc. platforms are nice looking, but they're designed for swimming and playing. They are add-ons and not intrinsically part of the hull. You get a heavy-ish diver on the end with a dive ladder and some even mildly pitching seas, and the momentary load is going to wreak havoc with your installation. One of the premier selling points of extended platforms is for personal watercraft, and there is no mention of sticking one of these back there.
Looking at a Regal 320, you might be able to engineer-in a nice gearing-up station on the reverse slope part of the transom with some Nida-Core or pklywood and epoxy resins. You would not have too much room back there - 4 singles or 2 doubles might be fitable. Extras would have to go in the cockpit. There are other tank mount options besides Roll Control.
I guess you had other considerations for a boat besides diving or you would have skipped the Regal. Good luck rigging that baby up for diving.

We got it so far below the price it was worth ( had it surveyed so I know...) , we could not refuse the deal

So far below in fact, that it would still be a killer deal, if I had to spend 6k on a platform.....So now I am hoping I am right, and there is something that will work well ...
Thanks for the suggestions.
Dan

 

[Tom Winters]

Take a look at hydraulic swim platforms then. They're built for PWC's so even a couple of chunky divers with huge doubles in clanging seas wouldn't snap the mounts.
With the whole platform lowered into the water, you could swim up on without a ladder.
Here's a single Google result from "hydraulic swim platform":
Hydraulic Swim Platforms

 

[DanLVolker]

Take a look at hydraulic swim platforms then. They're built for PWC's so even a couple of chunky divers with huge doubles in clanging seas wouldn't snap the mounts.
With the whole platform lowered into the water, you could swim up on without a ladder.
Here's a single Google result from "hydraulic swim platform":
Hydraulic Swim Platforms

Thanks, I just emailed them for info.
Dan

 

[Tom Winters]

Well, as it turns out, the Regal factory is right up there in Orlando. I'd bounce any big mods like a nuclear-powered swim platform off the staff engineers there before you go playing with the hull geometry. I bet they have some good gouge on the subject.