Easy Lift Outboard Hoist / Outboard Davit - Development History 3

Product Story 3

We had hired an outboard motor for the fortnight, imagining trips to shore and lunchtime explorations of shallow inlets. There were the usual slips and grazes and occasional blasphemy as it was being deployed and then hauled back on deck, with trips to the local chandler for webbing so we could use the boom to help with the lowering and lifting. 

Sadly however, cries from my son in particular to use the outboard soon fell on deaf ears.  I justified my reticence by telling myself that my back and blood pressure came first.

Come midwinter and with no other projects on the go, I began to think about the outboard problem again. When I was growing up, in the 50’s and 60’s if we needed anything in our house my father usually made it. So I grew up with the idea that the first port of call was the work bench and the last resort was the high street.

Til next time www.outboarddavit.co.uk

Easy-Lift Logo 1

Designers cost as we all know an arm and a leg, true they provide a different level of creativity but since everything else about the Easy-Lift is home grown it would break the habit of a life time not to try to come up with some ideas myself.

It was while looking for bunting to decorate a boat jumble this summer that signal Flags popped into my mind as a possibility.We aren't the first to do it but hey !

Next problem where do you find a flag font ??

Well the answer is that if you want it in black and white you can with some effort find a sort of ready made solution BUT if you want it in colours ( why would you want anything else ? ) you have to do it yourself, letter by letter, and colour component by colour component. . . . . Long live excel

Cheers from                                 Easy - Lift  !                     

www.outboarddavit.co.uk

  

Easy-Lift Promotional Activites

The Easy-Lift was always intended to be a simple neat portable solution to the problem. Other more expensive solutions exist but usually they require some kind of permanent fixing and are often somewhat cumbersome, projecting high above the guardrails providing perfect opportunities for all your ropes to become entangled.

As such it has been generally well received however spreading the message is quite tricky and equally important relatively expensive.

We have been fortunate in receiving free editorial from Practical Boat Owner and Sailing Today and are expecting further coverage in the run up to Christmas in another of the main UK sailing publications. So please look out for us on the shelves in a couple of weeks !

More information as it come.

www.outboarddavit.co.uk

Easy-Lift Outboard Davit / Hoist Development Part 2

Episode 2

To be honest, my fascination with boats has not always been shared by all my family, at least not when based in the UK. But conjure up blue sea, sunshine and sun cream and I am like the pied piper of Hamlyn, everyone wants to come. 

So a couple of years ago we found ourselves enjoying a flotilla holiday in the Ionian. We all had our jobs, my daughter’s was to lie on the bow, stirring herself occasionally to operate the electric anchor, my son’s role was to help at the helm (quite successful ) and to remember to leave his ipod behind when he jumped into the sea (not so successful ). My wife’s was to remain calm at all times no matter how unreasonable or impossible my barked instructions became. Mine it seemed was the rest. 

( A shortened edited version of the Easy-Lift history appeared in the August edition of Sailing Today, so my apologies for if some parts of this seem familiar. This blog fills in the bits they left out ! )

Full information at www.outboarddavit.co.uk 

Shipping Information

With interest coming in from 3 out of 4 of the corners of the globe we have been looking for ways of making shipping costs to for example the US and Canada and Australia a little more reasonable when compared with the cost of the Easy Lift Outboard Davit / Hoist itself.

We have virtually halved those costs with shipping to North America at around £18 ( $28 ) and to Australia £24 ( $Aus 36 ) with a maximum of 7 day delivery times. 

Full delivery options can be found on our 'Prices' page at www.outboarddavit.co.uk

Easy-Lift Outboard Davit / Hoist Product Development History

Episode 1

It has taken a couple of years for the Easy-Lift Outboard Davit / Hoist to reach its current form so for anyone who is interested in exactly how that happened, this is the story of  

It may take a while to complete but here we go.

It was a flotilla holiday in Greece largely spent manhandling a heavy out board motor on and off the inflatable, at the seemingly constant request of my children that did it. What I needed, and presumably other yachties who are not professional weight lifters also would find useful, was a simple, solution to the problem. 

What irked me most was the fact that I had opted to pay £160 for this monster of an outboard for the two weeks and got very little use out of it, such was the hassle involved. I tried investing at various Greek chandlers to create a Micky Mouse harness to use with the boom, which helped a bit, but the main problem of manhandling a 25kg+ weight with a bent back was still there   

Originally I took this shot in the hope of shaming the flotilla company who shall remain nameless ( since they are all guilty ) into refunding the £160  . . . . . . I suspect you can imagine how successful that was !

Preferably I needed a system which I could operate single handed as that's how I often seemed to be when there were more important things to be done by the rest of the crew, like sunbathing. 

What form exactly the solution could take was what I returned to off and on for several months. I have spent the last 7 years restoring a 47 footer with a vast and often ( to start with at least ) leaking teak deck and the last thing I wanted to do was put any more holes in it so number one priority was portability.

So, til next time from www.outboarddavit.co.uk Cheers !

New Easy Lift Outboard Davit / Hoist

The recently released Easy Lift Outboard Hoist / Davit has already featured in Practical Boat Owner, Sailing Today, with more reviews coming shortly.

Since its launch in May 2012, sales have exceeded expectations with the product saving peoples' backs in the UK, Ireland, Greece, Sweden, the USA and Australia.

Find out more, full details can be found by going to www.outboarddavit.co.uk

The Easy Lift Outboard Hoist / Davit is a fully portable device which requires no permanent fixings, so there will be no more holes to disfigure your decks

A second version of the davit / hoist has just been released providing a longer reach for larger boats or boats with a higher freeboard.

Full details of the Easy Lift Outboard Hoist / Davit are available at www.outboarddavit.co.uk   including full technical specification, pricing and photos.

And remember, it's cheaper than a chiropractor !